Internet of Things or IoT has been a buzzword for many years, with IoT adoption growing rapidly in recent years. According to Futurum, 13.8% of surveyed organizations adopted IoT in their organizations, 54% had somewhat started this endeavor and 32% had not yet taken any steps with this technology. IHS survey estimates that there will be 20 billion connected devices globally this year. And Business Insider predicts business spending on IoT solutions will hit $6 trillion by 2021. Vodafone found that 66% of responding executives believed no digital transformation is possible without the Internet of Things.

Forrester Research has predicted that IoT will become “the backbone” of customer value in the retail industry as IoT helps to connect with customers, grow brands, and improve the customer journey in deeply personal ways. But industries like healthcare and logistics are not far behind. They use IoT to connect with patients via wearable devices, and track their health on a constant basis even when they are at home.

So, let’s look at the top IoT trends for 2018. 

Smart Home

According to Annke, IoT devices for houses will become popular in 2018 as they become highly intuitive and innovative, extending to not just home automation comfort but also home security and the safety of families. Another big driver of the IoT smart home adoption is the need for energy saving. Smart thermostats and smart lighting help conserve energy and keep the bills down, which will be another big reason more and more people switch to IoT powered devices in 2018.

Smart Healthcare

One of the most important applications of IoT is in the field of healthcare, and 2018 will see healthcare truly embrace the prowess of IoT. According to data from Frost and Sullivan, the internet of medical things could be expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 26.2% and reach $72 billion by 2021. Devices like sensors, wearable devices, medical equipment, health monitors, etc. are set to be connected with IoT.

IoT Security

“IoT will move from being seen as a massive security risk in the enterprise, to a critical part of an enterprise’s security posture,” – says Scott Manson, cybersecurity lead for the Middle East and Africa at Cisco.

There’s virtually nothing more important than data security, and 2018 will see serious leaps forward in the field of IoT privacy and protection, for example bad data, lack of understanding and knowledge, lack of time and money, etc.

AI

AI remains king. And at the Mobile World Congress 2018, it was one of the hottest topics.

AI is one of the pivotal drivers of the IoT’s success, and companies everywhere, regardless of their size, are starting to realize the potential AI has to reshape their business. Many experts are expecting 2018 to be the greatest year for AI.

Machine learning (ML) and AI represent a tremendous opportunity for IoT. Being able to predict when devices need to be repaired, self-optimizing production, and demand response are only a few well-known and popular application examples. Using human intelligence to manage and adapt solutions based on huge swathes of data will not be practical, feasible and scalable. Therefore AI and ML will be a requirement for IoT advancement. Many IoT startups are using AI and ML to monitor results and analyse data. Examples include Uptake, Sight machine, Maana, Augury, Falconry, Alluvium, Tachyus, Sentrian, Glassbeam, and Moov.

Big Data

The investment spent on analytics will be higher as companies find new ways to make sense of the vast amounts of smart device-generated data. Collecting data is good, but the end goal is to gain actionable insights from that data and that will require new data infrastructure.

“Companies need to implement technology that can handle the constant stream of data in addition to looking at more effective ways to analyze the data, such as machine learning and deep learning in order to get actionable insight,” – says Neil Barton, CTO of data infrastructure automation specialist WhereScape.

Blockchain

In 2018, blockchain will play a major role by enhancing security, making transactions more seamless and creating efficiencies in the supply chain. Blockchain can help build trust between the people and parties that transact together. For example, Watson IoT blockchain enables devices to participate in blockchain transactions as a trusted party. While Person X may not know device Y and doesn’t have trust, the indelible record of transactions and data from devices stored on the blockchain provide proof for businesses and people to trust and cooperate.

IoT and blockchain enable participants to reduce costs by removing the “middle man” from the process. It also helps to accelerate transactions as it enables more transactions overall. And organizations reduce the time needed for completing legal commitments through smart contracts. Blockchain provides a trustworthy environment.

Smart Cities

Smart city projects gain momentum, especially the ones related to IoT. IoT helps to meet the needs and demands of their citizens. The smart city industry is projected to be a $400 billion market by 2020, with 600 cities worldwide. Right now, leading companies such as Cisco and IBM are working with universities and civic planning authorities and startups to develop IoT, data-driven systems for transport, waste management, law enforcement, and energy use to make them more efficient and improve the lives of citizens as well as increase efficiency of the government.

There are plenty of companies and cities that are implementing new IoT technologies to make cities smarter. For example, Bigbelly is a smart waste and recycling system that provides a solar-powered compacting waste bin that allows for up to five times the amount of waste as in a traditional bin. What is more, it alerts the appropriate city department when it needs to be emptied. Another good example is ParkWhiz, a company that helps anyone find a parking spot in a city from a mobile app. It lists down available public and private parking and info with the pricing, allowing people to instantly reserve a spot with a credit card.

Digital Twin

A key tool to improve operations with digital data is the Digital Twin. Digital Twins are a huge next step in the world of IoT. In basic words, the digital twin is a virtual copy of the real-world thing. Digital Twin visualizes the hidden insights and dependencies of usability, traceability and quality. Also, Digital Twin accelerates product development at reduced costs. Digital Twin allows product developers to create, test, build, monitor, maintain products in a virtual environment.

Conclusion

As Rich Rogers, senior vice president of IoT Product and Engineering at Hitachi Vantara said:

“2018 will be the year that IoT technologies rapidly accelerate the transformation of industrial factories into software-defined factories. In smart cities, when everything is connected to the IoT grid, autonomous vehicles will eliminate car crashes caused by human error to save one million lives annually. In the intelligent enterprise, the IoT will connect the global supply chain from end-to-end, enabling pervasive visibility, proactive replenishment, and predictive maintenance. With the IoT, data-driven decision making will become standard in all industries and in our daily lives.”

Here, we covered some of the IoT trends that will dominate the IoT ecosystem this year. The future ahead is definitely a promising one and certainly worth looking forward to.

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