[kalleboo]

In many Asian households, rice is a part of breakfast, lunch and dinner. Boiling rice and washing the pot for every meal is a lot of work. Instead with a rice cooker, you set it the evening before with a timer. Rice is automatically ready in the morning for breakfast, you take out the breakfast portion and close the cooker again. It now goes into warm mode and keeps the remaining rice fresh and warm for the remaining meals of the day where you can just take out a portion here or there.

If you're eating a more western diet with rice only a handful of times a week, it's probably overkill as a single-tasker.