Many manufacturers are applying sophisticated analytics and AI to their IoT data to monitor operations in real time, improve efficiencies, and make intelligent decisions.
This week, April 9, 2024, is World IoT Day signifying IoT’s growing importance in the scheme of things. The group behind IoT Day is the IoT Council.
To put why the Internet of Things is worthy of such great attention, consider that IoT adoption is booming in consumer, commercial, and industrial markets.
The best place to start is with some noteworthy IoT stats. Many studies estimate the number of IoT devices currently deployed. One highly cited source, Transforma Insights, says that there are approximately 17 billion connected IoT devices in 2024. And that number is expected to at least double by 2030. Those numbers include all connected Internet of Things devices, such as those found in industrial and consumer products.
Transforma Insights notes that there are nearly a dozen industry verticals that currently have more than 100 million connected IoT devices. Those industries include electricity, gas, water supply, retail, government, and more. And within those industrial segments, a past market research study found that the manufacturing segment captured the largest share of IoT devices with about 30% of the total industrial IoT market.
Furthermore, the global industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) market size was valued at $394.0 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.2% from 2024 to 2030, according to Grand View Research.
Driving the growth in this market is the need for real-time access to information about manufacturing processes and operations. Specifically, there is a growing need to improve operational efficiency, increase output rates and quality, and more.
The Grand View Research further notes that several factors will fuel the double digital growth rate over the next half dozen years. Perhaps most important are the technological advancements in wireless network technologies and the strong penetration of Wi-Fi connectivity for machine sensors in factories.
See also: Spending on Large-Scale IoT Deployments Tripled Over the Past Year
Analysis and AI Play a Key Role in IoT Use
The IoT Council, the group behind IoT Day, is a type of think tank and community with more than 400 members that offers resources to help accelerate IoT projects.
The group notes that the theme of this year’s IoT Day is AI/IoT for Good. It notes that AI, along with machine and deep learning, now gives organizations the ability to “make correlations between data sets that have never been made before.” And these technologies allow decision making based on accurate and insightful data. The council looks for AI/IoT for good applications to help in areas like sustainability, energy and water management, making more efficient use of resources, reducing waste, and more.
With respect to industrial applications, many manufacturers are applying sophisticated analytics and AI to the increased volumes of the Internet of Things data available throughout their operations. Such efforts aim to bring prescriptive and predictive analytical insights into operations to monitor operations in real time, improve efficiencies, and allow manufacturers to make intelligent decisions as part of routine operations.
