Josh.ai voice control
that stays in the house

What does Josh.ai do?

It lets you run the house in plain sentences, with the speech processed on a device in the house and nothing recorded. Say "Good morning" and Josh raises the shades, warms the kitchen lights to 60 percent and starts the coffee if the maker is integrated. Say "Turn off every light except the hallway" and it handles the exception without a routine built in advance. Say "A little warmer" and it nudges the thermostat in the room you are standing in. Say "Movie" and it dims the theater, drops the screen and sets the receiver.

Josh understands room names, relative changes and multi-step commands, and every scene already programmed in your Control4 system is instantly a voice command. Josh is the voice layer on the residential systems we install, and we have been a Josh.ai dealer since 2023.

How is Josh different from Alexa or Google?

Processing happens on the Josh Micro in the house, no voice recordings are retained, and the language engine understands full sentences instead of keywords. Consumer assistants send every command to remote servers, where it can be retained and reviewed. Josh was built for professionally installed homes, so its vocabulary is lighting, shades, climate, audio, video and security rather than shopping lists.

The Control4 integration is native and two-way: Josh sends commands and reads device status back, and it keeps working on the local network. Alexa and Google reach Control4 through a third-party driver and need the internet. You can keep a consumer speaker for timers and music; Josh runs the house. Whether a voice assistant counts as AI, and what does, is on AI in the home.

Josh on Control4 or Josh on its own?

Josh on top of Control4 for most homes, Josh alone where there is no automation platform. In the common deployment, Control4 handles automation logic, drivers and scenes, and Josh sits above it as the voice interface, so every keypad button gains a spoken name. That is the route in every Control4 home we build.

Josh can also connect directly to compatible lighting, thermostats, locks and AV without Control4 as middleware. That suits a home with a Lutron lighting system and a few streaming amplifiers that wants private voice control without a full automation project. Our blog post on single-app control by Josh and Control4 shows the two together.

What does the hardware look like?

A Josh Micro in each primary living area, the Josh app on your phone, and a network that can carry it. The Micro is small, sits on a counter or mounts in a wall plate, and does its own recognition, so there is no separate server. Most homes use one per kitchen, great room, primary suite and office. The app runs on iOS and Android for control away from the Micro. Josh depends on the home network the way every other system does, so we check the Wi-Fi during the walk-through; the design rules are on Wi-Fi and networking.

What drives the cost?

Room count and whether Control4 is already in the house. As of September 2026, Josh hardware and licensing runs $800 to $1,500 per room depending on configuration, and a whole-home deployment adds $6,000 to $12,000 to a project. That covers the Josh devices, one software plan for the whole system rather than per room, programming of every scene and custom phrase, and the walkthrough where we test them.

In a Control4 home the scenes exist already, so Josh is a small share of the total; the ranges for the rest are on smart home installation cost. The instant quote gives a figure in minutes.

How does the installation go?

Discovery, mapping, install, then a walkthrough where you talk to the house. Discovery is a conversation about how your household refers to rooms and what you would say to them. That matters because "the den" and "the office" need to be the same room to Josh. We map Josh to Control4 or directly to devices, place the Micros, and program every scene, shortcut and custom phrase. Then we test each one with you in the room, adjusting on the spot.

You get a 90-day workmanship warranty, support at published rates, and the optional CURATOR plan, where phrase and scene changes are handled remotely. Voice sits alongside smart lighting, shades, home theater and audio and Ajax security, which arms by voice with a PIN and stays on its own monitoring path.

Where do we install Josh.ai?

South King County and Pierce County, from 415 Railroad Ave S in Kent. That includes Kent, Renton, Tukwila, Federal Way, Auburn, Covington and Maple Valley, Tacoma, Puyallup, Sumner, Bonney Lake, Tehaleh, University Place and Gig Harbor. Olympic Peninsula by appointment. Josh.ai dealer since 2023; Control4 Authorized Dealer, listed on Control4's integrator map; WA electrical contractor license RIVASGL799DR1; 5.0 from 49 Google reviews. The category page is smart home automation, and the alarm side is on the security hub.