AI and IoT: Taking Data Insight to Action
Recent Gartner estimations lead us to believe that up to 20 billion connected things will be in use by 2020. Data is the oil of our century — but should we be concerned with an “oil spill hazard?” Will artificial intelligence curb this threatening phenomenon, or rather, will it reveal the full potential of IoT data value?
If my calculations are correct, when artificial intelligence hits the Internet of Things… you’re gonna see some serious sh*t.” — Doc E. Brown (or something like that)
The question is no longer whether companies should embrace big data analytics technologies. The answer is that they definitely should. Whatever the source we trust, we all know that the amount of data we are dealing with is growing very fast. See, for example, what happens online in 60 seconds. That’s why IDC has stated that “over the next three to four years, digital transformation efforts will no longer be ‘projects,’ ‘initiatives,’ or ‘special business units’ for most enterprises.” Frank Gens, IDC SVP explains that these digital transformation efforts will actually become the core of their business. Remember former Jeff Immelt GE CEO quotes, “If you woke up as an industrial company today, you will wake up as a software and analytics company tomorrow.” The more data we generate, the more opportunities companies have to analyze and take advantage of it.
We are evolving in a technological era that experiences constant change, driven by rapid advances in research and developments, where industry standards and rules are getting more and more complex, customer demands are more sophisticated, and product lifecycles are dramatically shrinking. The top 10 big data and analytics predictions for 2017 include analytics becoming decentralized and moving to the cloud, as well as more sophisticated platforms emerging. The research states that “artificial intelligence investments will triple as firms begin tapping into complex systems, advanced analytics, and machine learning technology.”
Forrester Technology predictions anticipate that the next technology revolution may serve to create extremely different digital experiences and offer an opportunity to bring reality into predictive analytics and, more importantly, to support technologies that will drive new levels of speed and efficiency.
Among the few future-proof technologies that have the capacity to help enterprises to be able to gain the maximum potential from this revolutions, Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence appear out way ahead of this game.
So far, the most popular IoT application is the smartphone. There are approximately 3 billion smartphones being used in the whole world today and it should double that by 2020. As time passes, technologies and markets are growing and maturing in such a way that automotive systems, smart meters, security cameras, smart sensors, smart buildings, and whatever-smart-devices are becoming an integral part of our daily life.
The first connected thing was set up even before the invention of the World Wide Web. Read here about the story of the famous Internet Coke Machine created in 1982 by Carnegie Mellon University students.
Additionally, the Nest Learning Thermostat is one of the most trendy smart home devices. It learns what temperature you and your family like and adjust the temperature. You can edit schedules, thanks to an app, and you can also receive alerts. Smart lighting systems are also easily finding their way into our homes. The Philips Hue lighting system, for example, claims that not only it provides you with a fun app to manage your lights but also helps you reduce costs and save energy.
The list is long, and I could go on with smart cameras, motion detectors, pet feeders, toothbrushes, key locators, connected fridges, smarts door locks, shared bikes… and in a few paragraphs, we will talk about Industrial IoTs.
But first…
