Celebrating 8 Years of Innovation at Josh.ai! 🎉

Josh
5 min readApr 4, 2023

--

Josh.ai Timeline

Josh.ai, the CI channel’s AI and natural control interface of choice, celebrates its eighth birthday this month. As the company reflects on another year of rapid growth and evolving smart home experiences, it also serves as a moment to look back on what has been a remarkable journey so far.

2015

Josh.ai was founded by Alex Capecelatro and Tim Gill in 2015, following their own home renovation challenges. Their vision was to build an innovative and elegantly designed home AI that eliminated the antiquated hurdles that had hindered smart home adoption to date. Leveraging Alex’s expertise in user experience design and Tim’s in software engineering, the company was formed to develop the future of home intelligence. From the start, the mission at Josh.ai has always been to enable every member of the home with a simple, private, and magical experience.

Josh Team 2015

2016

The first iteration of Josh.ai was launched at CEDIA 2016 as a software only experience loaded onto a Mac Mini server. Clients could choose how to speak with Josh.ai, whether through mobile devices or far-field microphones, such as an Amazon Echo, for natural voice control. Touting its industry first capability of “Complex Commands” — clients could make multiple requests at once to create a scene on the fly, like:

“Play Jazz music, open the shades, and close the garage.”

Josh Systems start shipping to clients on a Mac Mini with an iPad

2017

Josh Company Retreat 2017

Josh.ai took a momentous step in 2017 with the debut of its first hardware product, Josh Micro, at CEDIA Expo. The launch of Josh Micro transformed smart home control, providing users with effortless location-aware voice interactions in any connected environment. Utilizing a series of sensors, far-field microphones, and touch capacitive surfaces, Josh Micro set the stage for a beautiful and contextual experience in the home. Empowering clients to give Josh commands, like:

“Ok Josh, turn on Netflix, dim the lights, and draw the shades.”

Josh Micro

2018

In addition to shipping Josh Micro, Josh.ai built upon its strong momentum with the launch of Josh app 3.0 while forging strong strategic partnerships. The industry’s enthusiasm was illustrated by Josh.ai’s dealer base more than doubling, with the company touting over 200 certified installers by the end of the year.

The Josh Team at CEDIA 2018

2019

Josh.ai’s first live CEDIA demo

Josh.ai’s rapid growth continued throughout 2019 thanks to the rollout of fresh features and enhancements to its platform. Noteworthy integrations were on display at Josh.ai’s first live demo experience at CEDIA Expo, including Lutron’s Ketra lighting. The excitement propelled the company to doubling its installer network once again to over 400 certified dealers.

Josh.ai 2019 year in review!

2020

The Josh.ai team achieved a few major milestones in 2020 despite the pandemic. To start the year, the company secured its largest round of funding to date to invest in continued research and development. Months later, the company shook up the industry once again with its unveiling of Josh Nano and Josh Core during its first ever Keynote presentation. By introducing two products that require hard-wired connections and rack based components, Josh.ai doubled down on its commitment to the CI channel.

Josh Nano (Left) & Josh Core (Right)

2021

In 2021, the company launched its collaboration with Lutron to introduce the Josh.ai Ready Wallplate, which combines Lutron Keypads with Josh Nano architectural microphones. The Josh.ai Ready Wallplate delivers the ability to control a variety of home technology with voice, while maintaining tactile control for the most used scenes, accessible at the touch of a button through keypads. For example, clients can push a pre-programmed “Relax” button on their keypad and also access the nearly 16.7 million colors from Ketra, simply by saying what they want.

Lutron’s Josh.ai Ready Wallplate

Josh.ai also made its television debut on September 20, 2021 on the pilot episode of Smart Home Nation. Originally aired on FYI, host Tanya Memme toured Josh.ai CEO Alex Capecelatro’s Beverly Hills home to showcase what is truly capable with AI in the home.

2022

Josh Company Retreat 2022

Last year, Josh.ai’s footprint grew even larger by exceeding 1,300 certified dealers across the United States and Canada. In addition, the company introduced its revolutionary Geneva OS at CEDIA 2022. The cutting-edge platform has revolutionized the way clients interact with their environment, shifting away from conventional programming towards an interface that anticipates the needs of homeowners.

Josh.ai also introduced its first hand-held remote experience with AVA. Clients seeking an all encompassing smart home solution are now empowered with a robust hand-held complement for their Josh.ai systems.

The Josh Remote experience

2023

Josh.ai has already debuted an exciting development this year with its groundbreaking OpenAI integration. As the first voice assistant to leverage ChatGPT’s generative capabilities, Josh.ai is offering its clients an unparalleled AI experience that surpasses the capabilities of any existing smart home system.

JoshGPT in action!

The Josh.ai team would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who has supported us over the last eight years. Your unwavering support has been instrumental in our success, and our story is a testament to the CI community. This is just the beginning and as Josh.ai moves forward, we are committed to delivering an unmatched home intelligence experience. Thank you once again for being part of our journey!

Josh.ai is an artificial intelligence agent for your home. If you’re interested in learning more, visit us at https://josh.ai.

Like us on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram & Twitter.

--

--

Responses (1)