Editor’s Note: This article is the first in a CE Pro series examining the forces that shaped the custom-integration channel in 2025. Throughout December, CE Pro will share perspectives from respected industry voices to help integrators close out the year with a clearer view of where the market is heading.
As the smart home and residential technology sectors look back on 2025, it’s clear the industry experienced both meaningful growth and significant change. To help make sense of the trends, challenges and opportunities that defined the past year, CE Pro spoke with Kyle Steele of Global Wave Integration. His reflections offer context on how shifting technologies, evolving customer expectations and changing business conditions are influencing today’s residential integrators.
CE Pro: How did homeowner expectations or project demands shift in 2025?
Kyle Steele: In 2025, homeowners weren’t just asking for smart homes and started expecting intelligent, wellness-driven living environments. Clients now want outcomes in terms of better sleep, less stress, seamless living with technology, not more devices. At the luxury level, projects expanded into whole-estate ecosystems that unify wellness, energy, entertainment, security, and aging-in-place. AI raised the bar further by making learning and anticipating the new baseline.
CE Pro: Which categories surprised you in terms of growth or slowdown this year?
Steele: The biggest surprise was how quickly clean power and energy resilience became top priorities. Clients now expect perfect uptime. Traditional ‘checkbox’ automation slowed as homeowners jumped straight to AI-driven, wellness-focused systems. And the fastest-growing category wasn’t entertainment, it was wellness tech, from circadian lighting to air and water quality. Homeowners are investing in how a home makes them feel, not just how it performs.
What major product launches or acquisitions had the biggest impact in 2025?
Steele: 2025 was a watershed year for AI-driven platforms and next-gen infrastructure. Josh.ai’s new AI X OS made true context-aware automation mainstream, pushing the industry to treat AI as part of system design, not a party trick. Power took a leap with Apex’s control grade UPS platform, reframing power as a core subsystem for lighting stability. AVPro’s expansion in AV-over-IP kept residential cinemas on par with commercial performance, while madVR Labs continued setting the reference bar with AI-based upscaling and advanced HDMI features. Collectively, these launches reset expectations for what a modern integrated home should deliver.
How did AI adoption or workflow automation evolve across the channel?
Steele: 2025 was the year AI became a front-line operational tool. AI took over design docs, proposals, communications, and diagnostics, tasks that once took hours now take minutes. Predictive service became the norm, flagging issues before clients noticed them. And as homes grew smarter, AI-driven configuration replaced heavy programming, dramatically improving workflow, timelines, and the user experience.
What trend or technology failed to gain traction despite early interest?
Steele: Standalone gadgets and isolated wellness devices fizzled, they couldn’t deliver value without real integration. VR and AR generated buzz but never became part of daily living; homeowners preferred immersive lighting, audio, and environmental design over wearing a headset. Ultimately, anything that operated alone instead of within a unified ecosystem failed to stick.
How did collaboration with builders, designers, or architects change this year?
Steele: In 2025, collaboration moved to the concept phase, not the finish line. Architects and designers now expect integrators to help shape the experience of a home with circadian lighting, acoustics, clean power, and aging-in-place from day one. Shared AI tools aligned everyone on the same model, reducing friction and revisions. The result is a more intentional, cohesive home instead of a retrofitted one
What lessons from 2025 should the industry carry into 2026?
Steele: The big lesson is that clients don’t want more tech, they want better outcomes and experiences. Clean power and AI are now foundations, not upsells. And the most successful projects came from early, holistic planning with architects and designers. In 2026, the leaders will be those who design for wellness, reliability, and simplicity while using AI to elevate every step of the client experience.
Stay tuned with CE Pro as we gather year-end insights and reflections from the brightest minds in the industry. If you’d like to be featured, contact our editorial team.
