Connected home enthusiasts were eagerly awaiting it, and the 2025.8 did not disappoint! It’s hard to hide my enthusiasm: if some thought that August vacations would mean a break, they were gravely mistaken. Home Assistant took advantage of the summer ambiance to deliver an update that is anything but lazy! Yes, we are indeed talking about an update that puts artificial intelligence in the spotlight and accelerates (again!) the onboarding and customization of the smart home, even while lounging by the pool.
An omnipresent AI… but only if you want it!
“Summer of AI” is not just a marketing slogan, it’s a real leap into intelligent automation. Home Assistant imposes nothing: if AI doesn’t excite you, it will remain discreet, as long as you don’t activate specific modules. However, for the curious or power users, the range is wide: camera image analysis, automatic writing of automation descriptions, name suggestions, or why not, an in-depth house diagnostics thanks to AI. Are some going to have a field day tinkering all summer? (As for me, I will probably use it to poke new ideas…).
Exploring AI Tasks and intelligent suggestions
The flagship feature of this update is undoubtedly the arrival of “AI Tasks.” Behind this name lies a small revolution in integrating AI into daily home automation. We can now delegate tasks to an artificial intelligence and receive a structured result to use in our automations. An example given by the developers? An AI sensor that analyzes the video stream of the chicken coop every five minutes, counts the hens, geese, and ducks present, and automatically feeds a virtual sensor. Handy for knowing at a glance if everyone has returned to the barn before nightfall! Others may ask the AI to check for packages on the doorstep or estimate, via a scan of an electricity bill placed in a shared folder, how much the house has consumed this month. Home automation no longer just executes commands: it thinks, analyzes, adapts. Our colleague HowMation has started to list some very interesting ideas in his video, which I invite you to check out.
If, like me, you sometimes run out of inspiration to name your scripts or associate them with the right categories, the new “Suggest with AI” feature has been designed for you: with a click, the AI suggests names, descriptions, and suitable labels, taking into account those already existing in your instance. However, be cautious, the information is sent to the configured LLM model, so for the most privacy-concerned, opt for a local model or maintain control over what you share.
Audio streaming for Voice Assistant: no more awkward silences
Let those who have cursed the long waits for voice responses take comfort: Home Assistant is correcting course with text-to-speech streaming, now also compatible with the cloud. The result? Answers start being read aloud during their generation, and no longer just at the very end. It’s smooth, it’s natural, and the dialogues with your house become much more enjoyable.
As we can see here, the difference is striking:
Control groups, individually and collectively
The eternal debate between global and individual takes a step forward. From now on, opening a group of lights or devices in Home Assistant offers the possibility to control, at a glance, each member, without leaving the group window. You can turn off the children’s room, dim the living room, all from the same panel. No more tedious manipulations; this ergonomics will please those who like to keep everything under control without navigating through fifteen menus.
New integrations and cascading improvements
The team didn’t hold back and offers several new integrations to further strengthen our installations. OpenRouter arrives, providing access to over 400 different AI language models, allowing for comparison, testing, and selection of the most efficient for your needs. Smart home enthusiasts will appreciate the direct support of Ubiquiti UISP airOS, Uptime Kuma (perfect for monitoring the status of your sites or services), and even Volvo vehicles to check location, battery, and vehicle information. And for those who install home automation for clients, the move of dozens of integrations to “platinum,” “silver,” or “bronze” status based on their maturity will reassure about the overall reliability of the platform.
Ergonomics and customized personalization
A few comfort touches also make their appearance: display of photos or icons on room dashboards, better manual management of the order of elements in groups, or even the possibility to restrict automations to certain days of the week (finally!). This will save even more time and improve clarity.
Breaking changes: beware of old habits…
No update without its share of little jolts. Several integrations see their behavior adjusted, particularly regarding media player states (which now change from “standby” to “off” for clarity). The same goes for battery management on robotic vacuums, now reported via dedicated sensors. The most hardcore automation writers may need to spend some time tidying up their scripts and scenarios, but, between us, the effort is certainly worth it.
This summer will be connected… or it won’t be!
You’ll understand, this August update for Home Assistant is a major hit. AI becomes both accessible and powerful, ergonomics continue to improve, and the ecosystem expands with even more hardware compatibility. Vacations will mean experimentation, optimization, and unapologetic geek moments :p Feel free to share your automation ideas with AI in the comments! As for me, I already have plenty of ideas in mind!
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