We’re always trying to stay on top of the latest in IoT. This is what we see coming down the pipe (pun intended):
by Isabell Berry
MarketsAndMarkets projects the global IoT market will more than double from 2021 to 2026, growing from just over $300 billion to over $650 billion. I see many reasons for this including the widespread acceptance in the market, no longer is it just early adopters. This technology is now generally accepted as necessary and beneficial and the devices and sensors are now often very reliable and, when partnered with AI to manage the huge amounts of data, is very practical. Here are my top 6 predictions for 2023:
Saving Money: As lending rates continue to increase globally, organizations will be forced to find ways to save. With limited capital investment, IoT sensors are an obvious choice. Sensors help to save money through load balancing, performance analytics and failure alerts. Plus they save money in labour costs as they can replace manual inspections and assist with maintenance scheduling.
Sustainability: Companies will continue to look at environmental initiatives, feeling marketplace pressure to green up. We see the massive energy savings and CO2 emission reductions that they experience by installing Pulse monitors on their steam traps. If you multiply that by the utilization of other IoT sensors, you see how organizations can make huge inroads into their sustainability mandates. And we see more and more consumers and businesses making vendor choices based on environmental policies so the benefits are exponential.
Safety: IoT sensors will be integral to maintenance modeling resulting in increased safety in inaccessible areas. Not only do IoT sensors increase safety by alleviating the need for manual inspections in dangerous or inaccessible areas, but real time exception reporting and maintenance modeling to ensure timely interventions will help to reduce emergency situations and accidents.
Security: IoT solution security will be stronger, with a focus on ease of deployment without increasing risk. Limiting the need for human intervention means fewer opportunities for unwanted access to IoT systems. Add to that the increased focus on encryption and certificate based authentication, and utilization of separate LoRaWAN networks, and we will see almost impenetrable systems in place (I say almost because well you know, nothing is impenetrable, just ask the Mission Impossible team).
Supply chains: Supply chains will continue to add connected devices, allowing them to react quickly to upstream and downstream changes. The story of 2022 will have to be the supply chain, we all saw how vulnerable it is and how maddening it can be to be reliant on it connecting seamlessly. The key to success in 2023 will be in being able to quickly notice and react to changes (breaks).
Predictive Analytics: AI (Artificial Intelligence), ML (Machine learning) and big data will be partying with IoT to increase efficiency and productivity. Now that we have a handle on collecting and interpreting absolutely massive amounts of data, the next step is to use that to be proactive and predictive and preferably do that in a non-human format. This predictive analytics will help to be more efficient, more productive and more accurate in determining output as well as scheduling human and non-human resources and so much more.
2023 is a new year and an exciting time. The IoT is a new frontier and hopefully we will know how to balance being connected with being able to disconnect and trust that technology can help us to focus on what's most important.