Navigating the Future Benefits of AI on IoT
From Reddit to Twitter, the entire cyberspace is raving over the internet of things. Indeed, IoT affects every aspect of our lives. We see it in healthcare, banking, travel, shopping and a whole lot more. But how well is IoT understood by the uninitiated? If you’re wondering what IoT is, it is an acronym for the internet of things. In loose terms, it is the transformation of everyday things into internet devices. IoT is fitted with data capturing sensors, cinched to a platform with data integration capabilities that displays meaningful information in real-time to make life easier for users.
Example of an IoT
Your refrigerator becomes an IoT when it tells you the items it contains and when they will expire. But how does it manage to do this? Sensors embedded in the fridge scan the shape and color of the items inside and feed them into an external database of food and food management information over the internet. You receive the information of the condition of your fridge on your smart device, inspiring you to take appropriate action.
Who is IoT for?
This is a pertinent question people from various walks of life ask. For a manufacturer, the Internet of Things helps identify the important components for the fabrication of an item. If he has a storefront or a chain of stores around town, he can gain insights on the most frequented outlets by customers by viewing sales data for the month with available items to ensure that items are quick-flowing. For the retailer, IoT paints a picture of consumer habits and how you can source or tweak products to best fit your customers’ specifications.
For the healthcare practitioner, connected equipment helps monitor outpatient conditions using data available on their device’s dashboard or wearable, notifying them when something is wrong. The information may contain recommendations that compel them to swing into action. Urban planners can have sensors built into lamp posts or street corners to notify them of commute delays or possible accidents. They can also deploy smart trash cans that can inform them that it’s full and it’s time to evacuate for waste collection optimization.
As an individual, an embedded clock can help forecast the traffic of a public transport scene, foretell the incidence of harsh weather, and even remind you of things you might be forgetting as you prepare for work in the morning.
IoT automates all the routine, time-consuming activiries in all these tasks, removing the guesswork out of making decisions. In other words, IoT makes decision-making faster, translating to time and fund savings. Even whne such suave technology does come with privacy security risks, conyemporrary engineering feats have addressed most of these risks. Reguatory leadership has also ensured that Internet of Things companies are careful with the technology they develop.
Artificial Intelligence in IoT
IoT devices “talk” to one another to produce recommendations for humans to take action. But AI brings the Big Data of past decisions on a particular case to IoT, enabling it to make decisions with little or no human involvement. AI unleashes the true potential of IoT by giving it the ability to demonstrate human-esque capabilires, such as learning, reckoning, organization and creativity. With AI an embedded device perceives its surroundings and solves problems based on the absorbed data independently. Simply put, AI allows your machine to comprehend the scenario and the risks therein and moves to fix them.
A typical example of an IoT-AI interplay is a self-driven car that can determine the condition of the road, the weather, pederstrian behavior, and control speed to take you safely home.
The Future of IoT
IoT connectins are growing and the future bodes exciting promises. According to IoT watchers, the number of global IoT connections rose by 18% in 2022 to 14.3 billion active IoT end-nodes. They forcast that about 29 billion IoT connections are to be made by 2027. Combined with AI, IoT learns from its own actions and experiences for future problem-solving. Several organizations are keying into this and making AI-infused IoT a part of their products and operations.
For example, the fusion of IoT and AI has enhanced the operational efficiency of Google through the cooling of its data centers, thereby reducing energy costs. Carmaker Rolls Royce uses AI to perform engine maintenance to boost its service offering. The scalability of operations that these benefits allow means that more dollars are saved – and earned through reduced downtimes. Market Research giants Deloitte have recorded a 20% – 50% drop in maintenance planning. At the same time, uptime and equipment availability recorded a 10% – 20% increase.
Issues to keep in mind with the IoT-AI merge
The sheer volume of data handled by smart devices increases puts them at risk of data security breaches. Cyber attackers are on rampage harvesting customers’ personal and financial information. IoT development companies also have to deal with ethical concerns over the handling of user data. Some companies are known to sell customer data to third-party companies who may stalk the users into opting into products or services that may be harmful. Compatibility issues make it difficult for one device to link up with another device developed by another company. Some programs do not come with full-service capabilities and standards required for their use case, leading to lack of confidence from prospective users.
Other challenges include a dearth in the number of skilled personnel to interpret analytics and troubleshoot problems, on-cloud compromization by harmful viruses, regulatory unclarity and legal risks. The issues outlined can be overcome by developing a lucid execution plan, employee education, fixing compatibility roadblocks and promoting strong data governance.
IoT services like no other
The tremendous takeoff of IoT has got everyone in the tech world excited about how its union with AI plays out in the future. As a seasoned IoT development company, Softeq is always in the background, pioneering the modern workability of IoT, ensuring that its products comply with regional and global standards while integrating seamlessly with other IoT forms.