A new decade for IoT : Apps lead, AI meets IoT, Talent critical

The last decade of Internet of Things (IoT) showed a lot of promise. It was applied in almost every vertical imaginable, from consumer to the most complex industrial and enterprise sector. One can argue, it did not scale as fast as anticipated. There have been promising technologies that have risen too high too quickly only to fall flat at the same pace. In case of IoT, we should be glad that we have taken our time to understand the importance, prove the viability with Proof of Concepts (PoC) and be inherently convinced on the need and the value it brings. As the saying goes, slow and steady wins the race. 

As this technology enters a new decade, here are a few areas where I think the industry will need to change it’s gear on. 

Applications should lead while Platforms Enable

The last decade has seen platforms and infrastructures leading the IoT discussion. The next decade should be led by applications and outcomes instead. All of the last decade went in making sure that there is technology to connect and monitor the smallest and most remote thing. The ability to put IoT data into action with intelligence and deriving outcomes that are measurable should be the theme for the next decade. 

In most larger enterprises, the current applications are either tailor-made or highly customized to meet their needs. They have thousands of people in the workforce who are accustomed to using the applications for the longest time. Ability to fit IoT data into those applications and making meaningful impact in outcomes would be critical. Application vendors for industry specific verticals have to step up their game, understand IoT data and consider IoT as another source of information for applications to make meaningful impact. They have to look at IoT as a strategic partner for their next phase of differentiation. 

Smaller and medium enterprises are more open to rip and replace with vendor changes. They are sometimes even open to educating their workforce on a new application/interface. But what they typically prefer is a single vendor who can provide end to end solutions. These enterprises will rely more on vertically integrated and full stack turnkey solutions. An offering that is tightly integrated from the end device/thing to the client/application and everything in-between from edge to cloud, offered as a service with one neck to choke, will be the need of the hour. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) meets IoT

If applications led IoT could bring significant improvements in results, then the deadly combo of AI (including Machine Learning - ML) and IoT would bring exponential improvement in outcomes.  

I am not a big fan of tech buzzwords, so let us peel this with an example. Most public sector departments (example water utility, transportation etc) have well documented Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) which lays out step-by-step instructions compiled to help workers carry out routine operations.  A department that has truly embraced IoT could use device data to trigger SOP’s automatically - a good example would be a water leak on a street causing a ticketing system to open a ticket for a technician to address the matter. Now, if AI as a discipline meets IoT - imagine this: The system could use ML to identify the type of leak, assess weather conditions, geographical location of the leak, possibly ping the IoT device for more information on rate of leak, ambient conditions, traffic light status, traffic conditions and soon infers that a possible accident could happen and immediately reduces the speed of a self driving car/truck approaching the impacted area. And all of this in a matter of seconds without any manual intervention. That’s the power of AI & IoT and the next big trend that will evolve. 

Hiring right talent will be key

Finally, as with any new paradigm, investment in personnel is key. IoT is not a single component. It is an industry that spans from the smallest of thing that needs to be enabled, to infrastructure that enables the computing, connectivity, networking, to platform that ingest, transforms, understands data, to applications that can utilize the well formed data for meaningful use. 

As much as the technology vendor landscape makes an investment in hiring the right talent, key to success for larger enterprises would be hiring IoT talent who understand IoT & it’s vendor landscape. They should be able to stitch together an IoT solution end to end while making sure they understand the outcome the business expects and feeding the outcome to the applications the businesses employees understand best.

As they say, we will learn with every passing day and course correct ourselves to meet the needs of the industry and customers. I look forward to the impact the IoT industry can create to solve tier 1 problems. Cheers to 2020 and the next decade of IoT !!