Sonos built one of the most coveted home sound systems. Now it's opening that platform up to AI in a unique way.
On Tuesday, Sonos introduced two new flagship products, the Sonos Beam Ultra and Sonos Ace Ultra, as well as the latest version of its audio operating system, Sonos 27, which is infused with AI experiences. However, Sonos is differentiating itself from most companies by taking an open approach that makes using AI to manage its device ecosystem more useful and compelling.
With the launch of Sonos 27mcp, users can connect any external AI assistant or agent, including ChatGPT or Claude, to their system to perform tasks such as playing music or controlling what they are listening to. The biggest benefit here is that users can control their smart home audio right from the conversations they are already having with their favorite assistant, on their phone or computer.
This is a unique approach compared to competitors who often lock users into their AI systems and spend significant resources trying to build the best AI. However, the AI labs have already built highly capable models, and users have often already picked their favorite. While it may keep users from relying on the Sonos 27voice, the new assistant built for music and mood curation creates a more seamless experience with the products, and that's Sonos's ultimate goal.
"We actually want customers to control Sonos; we want customers to have great experiences in their home, and we see the future of control being really much more open in access," Andrew Sutherland, senior director of software product management at Sonos, told The Deep View.
Sonos also previewed where it plans to go next with AI: Sonos Custom Agents. This experience will allow users to create their own agents, each with its own model, including third-party models if the user chooses, and to name them individually.
"Think about the power of having a single speaker, where you can have access up to like 10 different agents if they have different tasks across your home or they have different purposes, and through Sonos, you can set up bringing your LLM of choice or your model of choice, and then you can access each one of those with different types of personas and voice," added Sutherland.
Sonos 27 will become available through a software update to all Sonos S2 products, with some features only available on certain products. The next-generation flagship products, the Beam Ultra and Sonos Ace Ultra, are available for pre-order starting today.
Our Deeper View #
One of the original and most popular uses of voice assistants over the past decade was for controlling your smart home, with Amazon's Alexa being the leading example. However, those assistants have become antiquated compared to today's LLMs, despite efforts to catch up. As a result, Sono's approach feels like a winning play. It's finding ways to incorporate leading AI models into its products so that users can manage their devices with one of the latest voice assistants without having to context-switch to an inferior or outdated assistant.