Forget Alexa — UGreen wants you to use its new local AI assistant to control your smart home

Following the launch of its new smart home ecosystem, UGreen has introduced a local AI assistant called Uliya, aimed at providing users with more control over their smart home devices and personal data. The system is anchored by a central hub called the UGreen HomeAgent, available in three versions: HA100, HA100 Pro, and MasterAgent MA100. These versions vary in processor capabilities, memory, and storage, ranging from $899 to $19,999, with the highest-priced MA100 model offering the most advanced AI features.

The HomeAgent acts as a traditional NAS drive, providing storage for security camera footage, photos, and videos from users' phones. It can analyze this data to identify people, vehicles, pets, and packages, as well as detect unusual activity and summarize events. Users can interact with the AI through the company's smart speaker, "Uliya," which costs $99 or $69 when preordered. The speaker resembles the Amazon Echo Show 5 in size and functionality.

The company's three security cameras—two outdoor and one indoor—capture video locally on the HomeAgent hub, offering features such as pan/tilt functionality, night vision, and object recognition. Additionally, UGreen has developed a digital photo frame, the UGreen Gallery, featuring a 13.3-inch eInk display and a 512GB microSD card slot for expanded photo storage.

By processing data locally, UGreen's smart home system ensures user privacy by keeping personal information offline and avoiding the risk of cloud-based AI compromising users' data.