5 IoT Trends You Can’t Afford To Ignore in 2020

Did you know that nearly 4.8 billion enterprise & automotive IoT endpoints were utilized in 2019?

Don’t drop your jaw yet. Another astonishing fact is that this number will touch 5.8 billion in 2020, with segments like Utility, Security, and Government being the top users of IoT endpoints.

IoT Endpoint Market by Segment, 2019-2020, Worldwide (Installed Base, Billions of Units)

Source: Gartner

As the popularity of Internet of Things (IoT) continues to rise across various industries, it’s important for us to have knowledge about some of the popular IoT trends which will remain in the center of focus this year.

So, let’s have a look at the top IoT trends for 2020.

IoT Trends 2020 and Beyond

     1) AI-powered IoT solutions will gather attention

     2) Blockchain-based IoT projects will draw investments

     3) The demand for edge computing will rise

     4) 5G will transform the IoT landscape

     5) Voice-enabled IoT devices will become mainstream

1) AI-powered IoT solutions will gather attention

An AI-powered IoT solution refers to the idea of integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities into IoT devices to form an intelligent and connected system.

Here, IoT represents the sensory organs and AI acts as the brain of the system – the solution collects data, analyses it, and makes smart decisions in real-time (without human intervention).

With the integration of AI in IoT, a network of connected devices turns into an intelligent machine where it not only knows how to learn and react (in real-time) but also knows how to improvise.

Here’s how an AI-powered IoT solution will help shape the future of the corporate world:

• Intelligent Decision Making

IoT and data remain intrinsically linked together. According to IDC, the growth in connected IoT devices is expected to generate 79.4 zettabytes (ZB) of data in 2025.

An AI-based IoT solution can help enterprises to intelligently manage this overwhelming data to fetch valuable insights that can be used to make smart decisions.

• Customer Delight

Data captured from IoT devices provide organizations various opportunities to connect with their customers and that too in new ways.

Combining this data with the capabilities of AI can do wonders – deeper customer intelligence can be achieved and an agile, targeted and effective customer experience strategy can be created. With an AI-based IoT solution, organizations can promote learning and personalization at the same time. They can treat every customer individually, considering habits, patterns, and preference.

• Increased Operational Efficiency

The fusion of AI and IoT can help organizations increase the efficiency of their operations through smart automation.

The Hershey Company is a great example for implementing the concept of AI-based IoT solution to optimize their operations. For them, efficient weight management is one of the most crucial tasks. With the blend of IoT and AI, they save around $500,000 for 14,000 gallon batch of Twizzlers for every 1% improvement in weight precision. Furthermore, they  can reduce weight variability in production to minimize the utilization of 240 process adjustments a day.

2) Blockchain-based IoT projects will draw investments

According to Aftrex Market Research, the Blockchain Internet of Things (BIOT) market is estimated to reach $254.31 billion by 2026. This is because of the number of important benefits that the IoT–blockchain integration brings.

• Improved Security

One of the key challenges of the IoT world is security, and organizations are busy exploring the use of blockchain to secure it. In fact, blockchain holds great potential for securing connected devices and systems. 

Integration of blockchain with IoT devices makes the system decentralized, which means there is no single authority to approve any transaction – each and every device will have a copy of the ever growing chain of data.

Whenever someone wishes to access the device and perform a transaction, then all the members of the network must validate it. Once the validation is carried out, the performed transaction is stored on a block and is sent to all the nodes of the network. This entire process makes the system more secure i.e. it is almost impossible for the unauthorized sources to breach into the security.

• Accelerated Data Exchange

Blockchain can be utilized to instruct a system on what to do, and the steps to execute the instruction.

Technically, a smart contract can be created to execute credible transactions without third parties – a smart contract is a computer algorithm that can be automatically executed when predetermined terms & conditions are met.

Hence, with a blockchain-powered IoT solution, the information exchanges are automated and don’t need third parties to execute it. This accelerates the data exchanges.

• Increased Trust

The use of distributed, decentralized, and encrypted platform to store and share IoT data means that data can be trusted by all parties involved in the system.

Only authorized parties can read data and add it. Furthermore, once data is stored, it cannot be changed or modified in any way. This makes the collected data absolutely accurate and precise.

• Reduced Cost

With the convergence of blockchain and IoT, data can be transmitted on a peer-to-peer basis without the need of any centralized control, thus lowering business expenses.

3) The demand for edge computing will rise

With the increase in adoption of IoT across organizations and industries, the edge computing market is expected to grow rapidly. According to ResearchAndMarkets.com, the Global Edge Computing Market is projected to grow from $2.8 billion in 2019 to $9.0 billion by 2024. 

Edge computing refers to computing that is done at or near the source of the data,  i.e. at the edge of the network. Here, data is processed by the device itself or by a local computer or server, rather than being transmitted to a data center.

Importance of edge computing

Let’s take an example of an IoT-based video camera that sends live recording from a remote location. While a single device producing data can transmit it across a network quite easily, problems occur when the number of devices transmitting data simultaneously grows. Instead of just one video camera transmitting live recording, multiply that by hundreds or thousands of cameras. Here, the quality suffers due to latency and the costs in bandwidth go high. 

Edge computing solves this problem by becoming a local source of processing and storage – an edge gateway can process data from an edge device and transmit only the relevant data back through the cloud, thereby reducing bandwidth needs. In the case of real-time application needs, it can send data back to the edge device. 

Hence, by integrating edge computing with IoT processes, organizations can achieve an improved network communication and cooperative coordination with the cloud connected to the system. Moreover, it helps organizations to reduce workloads by facilitating lost-cost, low-power, and high-speed networks.

4) 5G will transform the IoT landscape

In order to implement technological innovations such as AI and edge computing, strong connectivity is a must. This is where 5G comes into play! 

The fifth-generation of cellular mobile communications or 5G will play a key role in increasing the network coverage and addressing connectivity issues in the coming years. In a way, this will improve the performance and reliability of IoT connected devices. 

While 5G is set for commercial availability sometime around 2020, organizations are already working to develop new global standards and pre 5G products to benefit industries everywhere. 

Here’s how 5G will have an impact on the future of IoT: 

• Increased number of connected devices

With 5G, the world will witness increased number of devices connected to the IoT network. Furthermore, all connected devices will seamlessly exchange information with each other in real time. 

• Greater network reliability

Having a reliable and stable network is extremely important for any IoT project. Compared to the current 4G network, 5G will operate more reliably creating more stable connections. 

• Lower latency

Latency is the time that elapses since we make a request from our device until the action occurs. In 5G the latency will be ten times less than in 4G (i.e. 5G will be 10 times faster), so actions will be performed quickly.

5) Voice-enabled IoT devices will become mainstream

Voice controlled devices or voice sensors offer an experience that many users enjoy. In fact, digital voice assistants are a preferred choice for many. 

This trend will continue to grow big time in the coming years. Voice recognition functionality will get smarter and better, and its integration with IoT devices will bring along a revolutionary approach to business. 

Till now, we have witnessed voice assistance in small devices like phones, wearables and speakers. In the coming years, we will witness the integration of voice recognition into bigger and obscure devices such as home appliances, medical devices, and even manufacturing machines.  

Bottom line

The above emerging trends in IoT seem enough to prove the fact that IoT technology will make our lives easier, secure, and more comfortable than now. Furthermore, it will reshape the future of organizations by opening up newer avenues to take advantage of.

As a leading IoT development company, we keep our fingers on the pulse of the market, hunting out new trends and technologies that we can pass on to our clients. If you have an IoT idea in mind, we can help you transform it to reality.