ADT acquires Origin Wireless for $170 million to bring Wi-Fi motion sensing to home security

ADT Acquires AI Company for Sensing People and Activity in Your Home

Expertise Smart home | Smart security | Home tech | Energy savings | A/V ADT on Tuesday announced an interesting new acquisition for anyone looking to the future of home security -- and it's no surprise AI is a part of the story. In a $170 million deal, ADT has purchased Origin AI, which specializes in people detection in spaces like the inside of your home, something the security company is calling AI-sensing technology. ADT has not disclosed specific plans for AI technology, but this comes at a time when concerns about corporate surveillance by companies like Ring and Flock have reached a fever pitch. "ADT has been testing and evaluating Origin's technology pre-acquisition," ADT Chief Business Officer Omar Kahn told me. "In 2026, the focus is on integrating the technology into ADT's platform, with commercialization expected to begin in 2027." Presence sensing doesn't sound like the chatty, summary-creating large language models we consider AI these days, nor the person and car recognition features companies like Flock use. It's a system that analyzes home Wi-Fi frequencies for disruptions. The AI is trained in pattern recognition to identify which disruptions indicate that humans are at home (ignoring pets) and what they may be doing. The technology has cropped up in many spots over the past couple of years. I've seen it before with aging-in-place technology and Philips Hue's newest smart bulbs, but most recently with Aqara's sensor at CES 2026, which can detect when multiple people are congregating, standing, sitting or lying down. It's not clear how ADT will use Origin's presence sensing in its home security systems, though the company did mention smart automation, personalization and reducing false alarms. In one example, it could automatically adjust an ADT-supported thermostat when multiple people are detected moving around a house. But that also raises privacy questions. Presence sensing, like Origin's tech, has certain privacy benefits. It doesn't use cameras to film anyone or save video recordings of people, and it doesn't create identity profiles based on someone's face or other data. It can't tell who is in a house, only where they are and how/when they are moving around (or not moving). That allows for capabilities such as notifying a nursing home that a resident hasn't gotten out of bed when they usually do, without invasive investigation. But the technology also raises privacy concerns: A company could know when people in their own home are in bed, watching TV, or sitting to eat dinner, even if it can't identify them by name. ADT calls features like these home awareness, but also mentions municipal compliance and coordination with first responders. That could mean giving firefighters information on how many people are in a burning building. But there are concerns. Recent news reports indicate that some local law enforcement agencies have shared information with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement for use in home and apartment raids, raising the possibility that the technology could be applied in similar contexts. The technology's implications may ultimately hinge on how ADT chooses to implement and regulate it. Until those details are clearer, its promise and its risks remain closely intertwined.

ADT just bought the company that invented Wi-Fi motion sensing

ADT plans to integrate Original Wireless' technology into its smart home and security systems to add more context when security alarms are triggered, and potentially reduce false alarms. By leveraging existing technologies like Wi-Fi, future ADT systems may also require fewer sensors around a home, streamlining installation. "This acquisition represents a major step forward in our vision to deliver a safer, smarter home that understands context, recognizes risk, and provides peace of mind, all while protecting customer privacy," says Omar Khan, ADT's executive vice president and chief business officer. "By integrating AI sensing into the home, we plan to add a new intelligence layer, elevating traditional security and smart home capabilities by allowing ADT to verify human presence, classify and analyze motion, and add context to alarm events and other conditions within the home."

ADT Buys Startup That Uses AI to Show What Triggers Motion Sensors

Security company ADT Inc. has bought AI startup Origin Wireless Inc. for $170 million in a deal that will allow it to upgrade its popular home security products with new artificial intelligence features. Origin's technology can distinguish between human and non-human motion, analyzing whether activity comes from, say, a person, dog or mechanical object such as a robotic vacuum. This is more sophisticated than ADT's existing motion sensors, which can detect the presence of a moving creature or object but not classify it. Origin uses Wi-Fi signals from ordinary devices like laptops and smart light bulbs to make its determinations, meaning that cameras or additional sensors aren't needed. "Consumers have notification fatigue right now," Omar Khan, ADT's executive vice president and chief business officer, said in an interview announcing the deal. "We get so many notifications from cameras or sensors going off that it becomes this whole thing of 'Are we actually paying attention to what actually needs to be paid attention to?' This technology starts to remove more and more of the noise." Boca Raton, Florida-based ADT plans to make the features available to its more than 6 million customers through software updates, starting in 2027, it said on Tuesday. Get the Tech Newsletter bundle. Get the Tech Newsletter bundle. Get the Tech Newsletter bundle. Bloomberg's subscriber-only tech newsletters, and full access to all the articles they feature. Bloomberg's subscriber-only tech newsletters, and full access to all the articles they feature. Bloomberg's subscriber-only tech newsletters, and full access to all the articles they feature. Bloomberg may send me offers and promotions. Plus Signed UpPlus Sign UpPlus Sign Up By submitting my information, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. Home security and AI already make for a sometimes controversial combination. Amazon.com Inc.-owned Ring was met with pushback earlier this month after it aired a Super Bowl ad touting its Search Party tool, which lets camera owners volunteer their doorbell cams to help locate missing dogs. Some people on social media questioned the potential for surveilling humans. Soon after, the company terminated its planned partnership with police surveillance company Flock. Khan said Origin's technology provides home security and monitoring without sacrificing privacy, adding that it does not use video and is pretrained on anonymized data. Today, it uses a mix of local and cloud processing to make sense of motion it detects, and the information it sends to the cloud does not contain identifying details about the user. Over the next two years or so, the company plans to make all of the AI processing local, Khan said. The technology can provide more context to security events for home owners as well as monitoring centers and first responders, Khan added. It also aims to cut down on false alarms. ADT is eyeing future uses beyond looking out for home intrusions. This may include fall detection aimed at elderly consumers -- without the need for a wearable device like a pendant or bracelet. The company is also considering something called micro-motion detection, which can be used, for example, to confirm a person receiving care is at home napping. And it is developing breath monitoring to track changes in health patterns over time.