The Intelligent Home: A Systematic Review of Technological Pillars, Emerging Paradigms, and Future Directions

Home automation is undergoing a paradigm shift from connected IoT environments with rule based control to intelligent homes exhibiting ambient intelligence and proactive adaptation. Artificial intelligence, privacy-preserving sensing, and converging connectivity standards are the primary forces driving this transition. This systematic literature review synthesizes the technological foundations, architectural developments, emerging paradigms, and socio-technical challenges characterizing the next generation of smart homes, evaluated against the original Ambient Intelligence (AmI) vision. Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, searches were conducted across four databases—IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, Scopus, and Web of Science—covering studies published between January 2020 and June 2025. From 3450 records, 113 studies were selected through a two-reviewer screening procedure with inter-rater reliability assessments. Quality was assessed using a modified JBI Critical Appraisal Checklist, and findings were synthesized through thematic analysis. Three converging technological pillars were identified: multi-modal privacy-preserving sensing including mmWave radar; a hierarchical cloud-edge TinyML intelligence engine; and unified connectivity through the Matter/Thread standard. Emerging paradigms include LLM-based cognitive orchestration, hyper-personalization, Digital Twin simulation, and grid-interactive prosumer energy management. Realizing that the intelligent home vision requires addressing the privacy–security–trust trilemma, algorithmic bias, system reliability, and human–agent collaboration, a research roadmap encompassing explainable AI, privacy-by-design, lifelong learning, and standardized ethical auditing is proposed.