What You Have to Know Now » BedTimes Journal

How’s this for an indication of the occasions? What as soon as belonged in sci-fi movies is now writing them. In 2026, the world’s first AI-animated feature-length movie will premiere on the Cannes Movie Competition. It’s an ideal instance of how synthetic intelligence is reshaping whole industries from filmmaking to bedding. The September 2024 problem of BedTimes explored AI within the bedding business and its potential functions. Because the publication of that article, one thing huge has occurred. 

For the primary time since 2015, Google’s world search engine market share dropped beneath 90% as a consequence of competitors from platforms like ChatGPT. That’s enormous information contemplating Google’s world domination for the reason that early 2000s. Though the Mountain View, California-based know-how firm isn’t changing into out of date anytime quickly, the shift demonstrates how individuals are incorporating AI into their every day lives. 

Preserve studying to find out how AI has developed over the previous yr and the way consultants see the longer term — no less than for now. 

From Search Engine to Motion-Taker: AI Brokers in Retail

Since OpenAI’s public launch of AI chatbot ChatGPT on Nov. 30, 2022, the software program has gone by a number of updates. The San Francisco-based firm’s Agent Mode, launched on July 17, is ushering in a brand new period of capabilities, signaling how AI will change from a search engine to an agent. 

A current article on Microsoft Supply, a web-based publication by the Seattle-based know-how firm, explains the idea. “Consider brokers because the apps of the AI period,” says Charles Lamanna, company vice chairman of enterprise and business at Copilot. “Simply as we use totally different apps for varied duties, brokers will start to remodel each enterprise course of, revolutionizing the best way we work and handle our organizations.” 

Retail advisor and author Bob Phibbs concurs. “AI is transferring from search engine to action-taker,” he says. In his e-newsletter, Phibbs, also called The Retail Physician, not too long ago wrote about his expertise with a pilot from Google Labs that he used to seek for a reservation at a Mexican restaurant. Google referred to as the restaurant on his behalf, inquired about availability and bought again in contact with him. It could be puzzling to consider what discovering a spot to eat has to do with the bedding business, however Phibbs stated it’s an indication that “buyer expectations are shifting quick. Shoppers will come to count on prompt solutions and seamless interactions. If your online business isn’t maintaining, they’ll transfer on to at least one that’s.” And that received’t be true solely of bedding retailers, but additionally for suppliers and producers. 

Earlier this yr, cloud-based buyer relationship administration software program firm Salesforce, headquartered in San Francisco, launched its sixth annual Related Buyers Report, sharing insights into the state of retail. The report revealed 76% of shops plan to extend their funding in AI inside the subsequent yr and 75% of shops acknowledged that AI brokers will likely be important to stay aggressive. Extra telling, 39% of all consumers already use AI for product discovery. Even 63% of Gen Z consumers are comfy with AI brokers making purchases on their behalf, which may embody purchases like mattresses and different bedding equipment. 

One firm investing closely in AI is Bursa, Turkey-based mattress and foam equipment producer Elektroteks. The corporate’s upcoming AI Agent will assist handle predictive upkeep, service schedules and batch manufacturing. In line with Dhruvin Patel, world gross sales supervisor at Elektroteks, the agent is geared toward enhancing effectivity and decreasing downtime. 

Darkish Factories and Autonomous Manufacturing

Within the September problem of BedTimes, we coated the present panorama of automation equipment and the way producers are integrating AI for higher pace and effectivity. 

One innovation is darkish factories, named for the concept some manufacturing services may function absolutely autonomously without having for human intervention. In line with the web site TexSpace In the present day, a darkish manufacturing facility “is a manufacturing web site the place machines deal with each process — meeting, inspection and logistics — eliminating the necessity for human presence. With out staff, there’s no want for lighting, heating or breaks, decreasing power prices and boosting effectivity.” 

Elektroteks can be piloting AI-driven darkish factories, designed to function with minimal human intervention. “Our aim is steady innovation — enhancing pace, flexibility and integration based mostly on buyer wants and market calls for,” Patel says. “With AI on the middle, future techniques will likely be smarter, extra predictive and much more sustainable.”

What is smart for one producer, nonetheless, may not make sense for one more. The bedding business — very like the individuals it serves — is just not one measurement matches all.

Is This Actual Life — or Only a Fantasy?

Whereas many marvel on the pace at which synthetic intelligence can present info, watch out for AI hallucinations. In line with Google, “AI hallucinations are incorrect or deceptive outcomes that AI fashions generate.” The errors may be attributable to knowledge biases or lack of know-how. For extra advanced duties, it’s a finest observe to double-check the data AI supplies to stop any errors.

How AI-Powered Robots Are Altering the Manufacturing facility Ground

Making darkish factories attainable requires machines to run autonomously and in addition a brand new sort of employee — robots. In line with the Worldwide Federation of Robotics, China put in 290,367 robots in 2022, a quantity that outpaces the US and Japan mixed and a determine that accounts for 52% of the world’s whole. 

Robots, although, are nonetheless costly. However a September article in The New York Occasions, “Rented Robots Get the Worst Jobs and Assist Factories Preserve the People” by Farah Stockman, coated the rising recognition of robots-for-rent companies. Some firms are renting robots to do labor-intensive duties comparable to wrapping pallets in plastic and lifting bins. Fairly than laying staff off, workers are getting promoted or reassigned to raised jobs inside factories, resulting in greater employee retention. 

A March 2025 NPR article highlighted the work of scholar Moo Jin Kim at Stanford College, who’s engaged on robots that run on AI, with a teachable neural community in order that it learns because it performs duties — repetitive or in any other case — and turns into extra environment friendly over time.

Digital Twins: Simulating Merchandise and Processes

One other sort of know-how that turns into extra environment friendly over time? Digital twins. In line with Google’s AI-integrated search, “a digital twin is a dynamic, digital illustration of a bodily object, course of or system, constantly up to date with real-time knowledge from its real-world counterpart.” Though the primary digital twin was created by NASA within the Nineteen Sixties for the Apollo missions, the time period has surged in recognition over the previous few years. Digital twins — paired with AI — have a wide range of functions. For instance, a social media influencer may create a digital duplicate of themselves to create movies, model offers and content material so they might unlock their time for different duties. So, what does that imply for bedding producers? 

The world’s first AI-integrated mattress was launched in March 2018 by Paris-based, AI-powered product firm Heka-AI. The mattress routinely sensed and tailored to customers’ wants. Since then, an array of AI-integrated sleep merchandise has been launched, however now, the idea of digital twins is bringing it to a brand new stage.

San Francisco-based firm Eight Sleep needs to make use of AI to “repair” sleep. The corporate plans to create a digital twin of its customers to run countless eventualities earlier than mattress each evening and examine the info in opposition to its 1 billion hours of biometric knowledge. This can pair with its product, which adjusts temperature, elevation and built-in soundscapes, in pursuit of giving its customers “the proper evening’s sleep each evening.”

Key Dates

An outline of current improvements in AI.

Sustainable Innovation with AI and Digital Twins

Digital twins are additionally helpful on the manufacturing facet. In August, a Renewable Carbon Information article acknowledged that digital twins “permit researchers and firms to simulate eventualities, optimize useful resource use and predict put on or failure. In observe, this extends product lifespans, permits smarter recycling and establishes suggestions loops between manufacturing and use.” 

Digital twins may assist create extra sturdy and sustainable merchandise, whereas additionally decreasing the necessity for bodily prototypes, trimming much more waste. Taking it a step additional, AI will help create extra inexperienced merchandise on a molecular stage. Citrine Informatics, an organization that makes a speciality of generative AI for supplies and chemical growth, simulates and checks supplies earlier than making a bodily prototype, shortening analysis occasions and resulting in quicker growth. Whereas the Redwood Metropolis, California-based firm doesn’t create bedding merchandise, any such AI may have a profound impression within the bedding business to assist create extra biodegradable merchandise, greener foams and recyclable textiles.

Ludwigshafen, Germany-based BASF, the most important chemical firm on the planet, has additionally been utilizing machine studying to assist it innovate and pace up analysis.

The Way forward for Sleep: Hyper-Customized AI Ecosystems

Above are the rising potential makes use of of AI within the bedding business. However what about future prospects? ChatGPT has a couple of concepts. For one, hyper-personalized sleep ecosystems. Bedding techniques may additionally generate adaptive environments with noise and smells to assist sleepers fall and keep asleep. Take into consideration sheets, pillows and mattresses that sync collectively to create a super atmosphere, comparable to adjusting the pillow top when somebody rolls over or cooling the mattress throughout deep sleep. ChatGPT stated that beds built-in with AI may change into early diagnostic techniques by detecting biomarker modifications like respiratory irregularities or temperature fluctuations to establish sleep apnea or different circumstances. Trying even additional into the longer term, ChatGPT speculates on neuro-responsive bedding, with EEG-enabled pillows that might learn mind exercise and regulate circumstances to ease individuals into deeper sleep.

Navigating the Downsides: Information, Bias, and Recycling Challenges

AI functions within the bedding business make it look like sleep is headed for a utopian future. And whereas new know-how has its upsides, it’s vital to pay attention to potential downsides, too. For instance, AI-integrated mattresses and toppers have built-in sensors or chips that will make mattresses tougher to recycle on the finish of their helpful life.

Additionally, with regards to sleep knowledge, it’s vital to keep away from bias. It’s key to coach AI techniques on a wide range of people who find themselves various in ages, gender and people with and with out sleep problems to have a extra correct trove of data. Sleep is extremely private and distinctive to each particular person. 

From extra cost-efficient manufacturing to aiding shoppers to find the proper sleep product, AI can — and can — change the bedding business. Though improvements are thrilling, it’s vital to keep in mind that sleep is extremely private and, in a technique or one other, will all the time require a human contact.