Now you can tell the Hue app how you want your smart lights to work

Signify has announced a major upgrade for its Philips Hue smart lighting ecosystem, introducing a new artificial intelligence helper designed to simplify the creation of intricate home automation setups.

Unveiled at the IFA technology trade show, the upcoming "Custom AI Behaviors" option allows users to input conversational text commands to program complicated routines that were previously difficult to configure within the mobile application's standard user interface. This feature translates plain English requests into actual device commands, bypassing the traditional limitations of menu-heavy setups. Additionally, the update enables select physical Hue controllers, such as the Tap Dial Switch, to directly manage Sonos speaker systems for adjusting volume, pausing tracks, and skipping playlists.

The technology behind this update leverages open-weight large language models from the GLM family to translate natural instructions into a proprietary programming language interpreted by Hue's cloud systems. The actual execution of these automated actions, however, runs locally on the company's latest Bridge Pro hardware to ensure responsiveness and reliability. By utilizing open-weight AI rather than proprietary third-party models, the developers aim to maintain consistent performance without worrying about unexpected backend modifications. While the new AI automation tools and Sonos integration are slated for a beta launch and public rollout later this autumn, the company also teased a future cloud-based backup and restoration feature scheduled for early next year.