For the last couple of years two tech trends have been disrupting modern businesses: Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI). Both have a variety of ways they can be used to transform any industry, but some companies actually combine the two to achieve maximum results. So what is IoT for AI? It is essential to clarify the difference between AI and IoT, so here is a short definition for both:
IoT is an interconnected system of physical devices that have sensors, software, and network connectivity incorporated into them. Artificial Intelligence is a self-taught algorithm that can process data, identify patterns, and make data-based predictions. Basically, artificial intelligence (AI) can be applied on the software side of things to ensure the machine's capacity to understand logic and learn new things. Therefore, using the data it has access to, a computer can learn using a subset of AI called machine learning.
Both being great technologies, IoT and AI can be integrated together. They are able to create intelligent systems that can collect and analyze vast amounts of data in real-time. Additionally they can enable firms to make better decisions and improve operational efficiency.
The intersection of IoT and AI or AIoT (Artificial Intelligence of Things) has the potential to transform many industries and create opportunities for organizations. However, even though there are benefits of this intersection, there may also be some tricky subjects related to ethics or security. For this reason, this article will help you understand the opportunities and challenges of IoT and AI, as well as some examples of successful integration.
Opportunities of IoT and AI
The opportunities for IoT and AI are numerous and diverse. More and more companies globally resort to leveraging these two technologies either by hiring engineers in-house or by using external machine learning development and IoT development services. Businesses and groups can gain insights by combining both of them together resulting to achieve the following:
Improved decision-making and automation
When AI and IoT come together they become a force that will give the current environment human-like awareness and decision-making. In the end, this leads to faster and more improved processes.
Personalization and customization
Personalization and modification can be taken to new levels with the help of AI and IoT solutions. For instance, a smart home security system may use AI to identify potential security threats and automatically alter settings to increase security. With the help of IoT app development, smart doorbells and other connected devices of a user will provide data for AI to evaluate.
Predictive maintenance
IoT sensors can track machinery and equipment in real-time, and AI can use that data to forecast when repair is required. This can assist in avoiding downtime and lowering maintenance expenses.
Increased efficiency and productivity
AI can analyze this data in real-time to find partners and improve processes. IoT sensors can gather enormous amounts of data from numerous sources. As a result, companies will gain expense savings.
New business models and revenue streams
The intersection of IoT and AI can create new business models and revenue streams for companies that embrace these technologies. Some of this models are:
Product-as-a-Service
Predictive Maintenance Services
Data Monetization
Outcome-based Contracts
Smart City Solutions
Smart Cities
AI can analyze real-time data from IoT sensors to improve city operations by tracking things like energy consumption, traffic flow, and other metrics. Additionally, it can lead to less transportation congestion and greater energy efficiency.
Challenges of IoT and AI
AI and IoT together are two quickly developing technologies that are being used more frequently across a variety of sectors. Yet, their limits have not been explored properly, especially with AI. Both technologies are still pretty new and can pose certain issues when it comes to:
Data privacy and security
The devices combining IoT and AI collect sensitive and important information from users and clients, so data protection is a must. In addition to cloud security, physical device security and other measures, the data should be properly encrypted and provided strictly following a role-based access system. So, given the number of reported incidents where the violation of IoT device data protection occurred, data privacy and security in IoT and AI can become a challenge.
Integration and Interoperability
IoT devices generate a large amount of data, which AI algorithms primarily analyze to generate insightful conclusions and forecasts. To achieve integration and interoperability, engineers make use of standard methods and interfaces. While AI makes use of frameworks like TensorFlow and others, IoT frequently employs standards like MQTT or HTTP.
Ethical considerations
AI-powered software has the capacity to make choices that significantly affect the lives of individuals. This can lead to some ethical questions because there's a chance that the evaluations will be unfair or faulty. Therefore, it is crucial to ensure that moral factors are taken into account when creating AI systems.
Skilled workforce and talent shortage
The lack of talent and abilities is another issue with the IoT and AI combination. There are many contributing factors, but increasing the workforce should be the main goal because tech businesses require the right IoT and AI expertise. Therefore, rather than worrying that IoT or AI might displace human workers, the emphasis should be on adapting to these technologies since they still call for a higher level of experience in various fields.
Regulatory and legal issues
IoT and AI may result in some regulatory or legal issues that could have an impact on both the business and the customer. Both of these fantastic technological advances may result in important problems. Said problems range from the reasons for them to liability and fault as well as possession of property rights and other licensing issues.
Reliability
Critical systems like those in the industrial, transportation, and healthcare industries frequently use IoT devices. For this reason, it is crucial that these products be reliable and all the insights and predictions they generate should be highly accurate.
Examples of Successful Integration of IoT and AI
AI for IoT can enhance the advantages of IoT by giving the current environment human-like awareness and decision making powers. That being said, the following are some AI and IoT examples of successful products and services that can soon become our new routine.
Smart Home Automation
The fusion of IoT devices and AI-powered assistants like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Google Nest, altered how we interact with our homes. Devices allow home users to control lights, thermostats, security systems and other devices using voice commands.
Smart Cars
Like smart homes, smart vehicles are equipped with an automation system. Tesla's self-driving cars, which harness the power of AI and IoT integration, are a wonderful illustration of this. These types of vehicles can identify pedestrian activity, as well as the state of the road, the ideal speed, weather and more.
Smart Cities
Infrastructure and maintenance expenses are significantly reduced when AI is used in Smart city management. AI helps locate the best answers using less resources. Some examples of smart cities that have IoT and AI projects can be found in Singapore, Barcelona, Dubai, New York, etc.
Security Devices
In today's electronic age, security is more important than ever. One of the most well-known AI applications in IoT security equipment is the integration of IoT and AI in smart homes, including smart locks and access controls with built-in facial behavior recognition. Network protection, fraud detection, and other instances of this integration are available.
Future of IoT and AI
Let's think of future AI and IoT future projects. By learning from prior actions, AI currently enables networks and devices to continuously improve performance and decision-making abilities, identify security threats and suspicious behavior patterns, be more cost-efficient and eco-friendly, etc. In our opinion, the future of IoT and AI is all about:
Greater automation and autonomy in various industries
Automation that is driven by AI can aid in streamlining numerous procedures in sectors like manufacturing, logistics, including IoT and AI in healthcare. It is, however, important to mention that it can also positively affect the manufacturing and transportation industries. As mentioned previously, smart self-driving cars are the future that includes IoT sensors and AI algorithms to think and act like the human brain would.
Improved healthcare
The combination IoT and AI in healthcare will contribute to the development of more advanced intelligent services for health monitoring and medical automation in a variety of settings. This will make it possible to significantly reduce the cost of doctor visits and raise the caliber of patient treatment generally.
More efficient and sustainable cities
IoT and AI in smart cities is also a futuristic project that may become our everyday reality. Traffic flow, energy consumption, and waste management can all be optimized using modern tech.
Improved Security:
A higher level of security is to be implemented thanks to AI-powered security systems. They have been and will continue to detect and stop online threats and breaches in IoT networks. The machines are becoming smarter in incident monitoring, and identification of suspicious patterns, and given the overall trend for data protection and privacy, even more work will be done on that front.
Conclusion
In short, as a result of the convergence of IoT and AI, numerous sectors have already been transformed or are undergoing a positive transformation and automation, such as smart home, automotive, smart cities, etc. Organizations can gain useful insights and increase productivity, cut costs and more by utilizing IoT devices to gather data and AI algorithms to analyze that data.
It is possible to anticipate even more creative uses as these technologies develop and become more widely available, which will result in more opportunities and advantages for both people and organizations. Yet, it is crucial to be aware of the possible difficulties and ethical issues that might arise, like data security worries and more.
