Not talking a Nest thermostat or Ecobee. We keep the house at 70F all the time (in Florida) so don't care for the constant heat / cool during random hours of the day.
Thinking along the lines of those Smart breaker panels I've seen that can notify you of high usage and etc...
I know these have more advanced electronics that a traditional split system, but I'm not sure if they can be networked or accessed in an intuitive way.
Too bad there isn't a common standards based protocol (e.g. something like MODBUS) for interfacing across climate control devices ... instead of either the std. 6 conductor 24v thermostat wire or a proprietary interface as I don't think this supports features such as variable speed fans on the air handlers.
If you don't want clutter inside your breaker panel, you can install just the relevant clamps (1 heat pump clamp, 1 air handler clamp)
As far as smart heat pumps/air handlers go; I've wanted that too. It's not too technically challenging, depending what functionality you want. But I have a lot of stuff on my list of cool projects I want to do.