Technology continues to progress at a rapid pace, bringing new innovations into the lives of both online consumers and businesses alike. One such innovation is becoming the main focus in the digital world. Although not a fairly new concept, the Internet of Things (IoT) has gained much fame and interest over the past few years, both friendly and otherwise. There were many concerns about the security of connected devices, especially after the DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) incident involving IoT devices back in 2016.
However, experts suggest that although older models were flawed, the issues were addressed with the new IoT devices that are now available on the market. Today, consumers see the potential benefits of IoT devices, while businesses see an opportunity to improve their efforts and serve their customers more efficiently. The interest has grown enough that it’s estimated that there’ll be over 20.4 billion IoT devices by 2020. Let’s have a look at what IoT can bring in the future.
Correlating with artificial intelligence
There’s been a lot of buzz following artificial intelligence (AI) and IoT recently. The fact of the matter is that the digital world is heading towards more and more connectivity. That means that the data volumes will increase vastly. Microsoft predicts that data volumes will increase 50 times by 2020 with four billion people online. For businesses who wish to leverage big data gathered for connected devices, such as IoT, this volume increase may be too much to handle.
That’s why it’s quite likely that AI technologies will find their way into IoT devices. With the aid of AI, businesses will be able to utilize data gathered from IoT devices more efficiently. AI will analyze real-time information gathering and data analytics more effectively and help businesses make more strategic decisions, as well as improve their business operations.
Emphasis on the security issues
As mentioned before, there was a lot of concern going about the security of IoT devices – or lack of it – back in 2016. A malware called Mirai was designed to target various IoT devices including baby monitors to turn them into botnets and execute one of the largest DDoS attacks in the world. This event prompted both manufacturers and distributors to focus on improving the security of such devices and hopefully prevent any future cyber attacks.
What’s more, an eleven-year-old boy and his teddy bear proved that IoT devices can easily be hacked, which shook the audience at the World Forum cybersecurity conference in The Hague back in 2017. Such incidents forced businesses to focus more on improving security. It’s safe to say, that the main emphasis will be on improving the cybersecurity of IoT devices, in order to protect consumers and provide them with a seamless experience.
Increase in collaboration between companies
The potential of IoT devices has encouraged many companies to think outside the box. Ideas, such as collaborating businesses that will elevate customer experience to a whole new level, are becoming increasingly popular. The emergence of co-economy is promising to reshape business models as we know them. Looking into the future, many businesses will start to cooperate and establish partnerships to develop projects that will include new approaches to consumer-centric solutions.
All of this will be based on IoT technologies. With the combined efforts and resources, as well as with the right IoT technology in place, companies will be able to deliver more personalized and customized offers to their customers. Moreover, this new approach has the potential to immensely improve customer experience and satisfaction in the future.
IoT to become an integral part of everyday lives
There’s a lot of rumors flying about the usage of IoT devices and their implementation in various aspects of our everyday lives. It goes as far as IoT devices being used to create a more intelligent environment. Back in 2017, Nokia announced its plans for developing a smart city framework. The concept of a smart city is to be built on the IoT technologies.
The purpose of this project is to leverage big data that can be found everywhere these days. In addition, it will break the information from the silos, in order to provide more personalization and convenience to people. The emphasis is on the collaboration between the government, academia and businesses to create new environments based on smart devices, IoT and data economy. This will help people interact with the cities in a more efficient way.
IoT devices will have a major influence on the digital world and technological trends – even more so than they have today. When it comes to reshaping business models and changing customer experience, IoT devices have the leading role in driving the change into the future.
