As we zoom into the New Year, more and more predictions are being presented when it comes to what may be IoT and the IIoT’s biggest year ever.
We caught up with Taqee Khaled, director of strategy at Nerdery, a digital business consultancy, and asked him to share his thoughts on where the energy will form in 2019.
“In 2019, IoT will make its biggest mark on the manufacturing, healthcare, public sector and automotive industries, as business leaders continue to see the added value of connected devices on their bottom line,” Khaled said.
He broke it down as follows:
In manufacturing, the trends that emerged in recent years, like delivery drones and 3D printing, will continue to accelerate in the coming year. It won’t be long before most manufacturers use IIoT to move their whole facilities online, fully connecting their factories, warehouses and distribution centers. We will also see increased integration of IoT with technologies like AI and blockchain. For example, AI-driven systems can identify patterns in production data to lower energy consumption and improve efficiency, while sensor data added to blockchain ecosystems can increase the accuracy in tracking and producing.
In healthcare, IoT will impact both payers and providers. For healthcare payers, IoT will enhance reimbursement rate adjustments by enabling smarter population risk management. For instance, long-term care facilities can negotiate better rates if their sensor data supports mitigated fall risk or the likelihood of infection. IoT will also benefit payers by allowing insurers to better recognize the members who are proactively taking steps to improve their personal health by analyzing data from wearable fitness devices.
As for healthcare providers, IoT will enhance the quality of their services, and in turn, will cut costs. Replaceable medical instruments with embedded technology is a good example of this. These allow providers to monitor cardiac readouts, body chemistry and sleep patterns in real-time, providing more accurate information, which can mitigate the chance of infection.
In the public sector, IoT will become more complex and relevant than we’ve seen in the past. Rather than IoT enablement stopping at smart grids for water and electricity, smart cities will use AI to actively manage alternative energy sources in their grid systems. IoT enablement will also deepen within the layers of cities, and we will start to see smart neighborhoods becoming commonplace. As local governments adopt information-connected tools, residents will be fully connected to data relevant to their daily routine, like local traffic, school buses, outages, walkability, weather and trash collection.
In automotive, IoT enablement will progress past the basic function of the display panel in 2019. Not only will users be able to monitor their engine, oil and gas tank from their dashboard, but they will also be able to track this data through their mobile devices. With access to real-time data about their vehicles, drivers can better manage their maintenance. In the coming year, we can also expect to manage traffic conditions and accidents better through the use of smart grids. IoT proliferation among cars will use these grids to communicate road conditions.
Worldwide spending on the Internet of Things (IoT) is forecast to reach $745 billion in 2019, an increase of 15.4% over the $646 billion spent in 2018, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC (News - Alert)) Worldwide Semiannual Internet of Things Spending Guide. IDC expects worldwide IoT spending will maintain a double-digit annual growth rate throughout the 2017-2022 forecast period and surpass the $1 trillion mark in 2022.