What Does the Convergence of AI and IoT Mean?

November 13, 2020

What Does the Convergence of AI and IoT Mean?

If you sit down and make a list of promising technologies, the two names that would most likely top it are Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things.

If you sit down and make a list of promising technologies, the two names that would most likely top it are Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things. Although both the technologies are powerful individually, AI as a source of intelligence, and IoT being the only technology making inter-device connections possible - their convergence becomes a catalyst of smart connections.

Connections that help make businesses and industries efficient.

While still at a nascent stage, here are the different use cases of AI and IoT amalgamation that we can see getting mainstream in the time to come.

The Top 4 AIoT Use Cases

1. Healthcare Wearables

Usage of wearable devices for constant monitoring and tracking of user habits and preferences has led to a plethora of impactful use cases in the healthcare industry. While on one hand, IoT helps establish a link between multiple device types, AI, on the other hand, converts the combined data into insights that can play a vital role in making users healthier.

2. Drone Monitoring & Delivery

Drones when deployed for monitoring large areas can help monitor traffic in real-time and make adjustments to the flow of the traffic. AI can be incorporated here to analyze data and then make decisions on how to alleviate the traffic congestions by making adjustments to the speed limits and traffic lights’ timing - all without human involvement.

Similar to this, drones can also be used for delivering products to consumers. When we talk about combining AI and IoT for business specifically in terms of drone delivery or delivery robots, the industries we foresee using them most are the eCommerce and food delivery sectors. This also means that the domain is ripe for innovation and newer use cases.

3. Fleet Management

The combination of AI and IoT is used for fleet management to monitor the fleet’s vehicles, lower the fuel costs, and track the maintenance of the vehicles. This series of use cases are drawn by mixing GPS and other sensors and an AI system.

An advancement of this can be seen in autonomous vehicles which make use of sonars, radars, cameras, and GPS for gathering data on driving conditions and then use AI for making decisions based on the data IoT has gathered.

4. Smart Homes

Houses that respond to your commands are no longer a fragment of fiction. They are the best-found examples of how AI and IoT can be combined. With the promise of leveraging electronic devices, lightning, and appliances, the AIoT-driven smart home sector is bound to reach a $246 billion valuation at a CAGR of over 25% between 2020 and 2025.

Up until this point, we have looked at the application of AI and IoT on the industrial front. Let us now move some steps closer to everyday business use cases of AIoT.

Here’s a peek into them:

?      Take smart business decisions with the help of customers’ multi-device data

?      Enhanced supply chain efficiency

?      Strengthening security measures

?      Elimination of system downtime

Working Examples of AIoT

DHL: The global logistics brand combines the innovation of IoT with AI through the mode of Smart Trucking. It is an agile model that enables the creation of a smart transport system that lowers fatigue among drivers and enables them to spend less amount of time on the road.

The brand vouches for the capabilities of AIoT by noting that the technology combination has lowered its transit time by 50% while increasing the real-time tracking accuracy to over 90%.

London City Airport: It is the first airport in the world to ever use IoT, AI, and cross-tech networking for monitoring passengers’ travel details and providing them informed data. They enable the cabin crews to track passengers’ whereabouts, monitor boarding traffic, update gate location, and baggage details, location, etc. all at the back of an optimal AI and IoT merger.

Conclusion

The convergence of AI and IoT comes with the promise of multiple industry and business level use cases. Businesses across a range of sectors like manufacturing, restaurants, healthcare on-demand, etc. have started realizing the potential of the technologies in making them efficient and competition-proof.

Can you think of any other industry that could use AIoT for becoming efficient? Share with us in the comments.

About the Author

Holding a Bachelor’s degree in Technology and 2 years of work experience in a mobile app development company, Jason is focused on making technology digestible to all. Being someone who stays updated with the latest tech trends, he’s always armed to write and spread the knowledge. When not found writing, you will find him answering on Quora while sipping coffee.