January 20, 2022
Emerging IoT applications across personalization, smart buildings, and healthcare — and the security challenges ahead.
New trends continually emerge in the Internet of Things sector, representing cutting-edge technology development.
The IoT functions as a means of connecting people, machines, processes, data and the physical world through the internet. Beyond simply networking connected physical devices, IoT will become increasingly significant through 2022 and beyond, transforming how companies and consumers interact and reshaping both business and daily life. Organizations leverage IoT alongside big data, cloud computing and predictive models to adjust and optimize operations in real-time.
Connected devices and big data analytics form essential components of modern digital business strategy. IoT will generate substantial near-term impact by improving business efficiencies and enhancing customer experiences. The following sections detail current IoT trends and future developments.
Superlative Customer Experience
As digital transformation accelerates, sustaining customer loyalty becomes critical. The IoT enables personalized, intuitive and dynamic consumer experiences. Smart devices already transform product and service delivery, with increasing influence anticipated in customer experience.
The customer journey begins with awareness, where smart devices facilitate customer interaction. Companies collect information through these devices to deliver helpful content. Customers then progress to engagement, discovering relevant products or services before making purchases.
Gartner forecasts indicated 25 billion IoT devices will be in use by the end of 2021, up from 7.4 billion in 2017. This growth stems from consumer demand for higher service levels and value, with companies differentiating themselves and improving satisfaction across industries from entertainment to banking.
Banking and other industries are already transforming their communications by developing services that recognize individual habits, wants and needs.
Hong Kong's Pacific Place, a mixed-use development featuring shopping, offices and hotels, partnered with Tekcent to deploy a customer reward management system personalizing offers according to individual preferences. Shoppers register via the Pacific Place Mobile App or Member Portal, receiving tailored rewards based on analyzed data. Effective loyalty systems deliver appropriate content to the right user at the right moment. Customers see personalized gifts and rewards matching their profiles rather than random suggestions, designed to increase retention and repeat purchases. As IoT proliferates and data integration increases, such personalized services will expand significantly.
Smarter Buildings
Converged intelligent buildings represent areas where connected solutions demonstrate real progress. IoT enables buildings to detect and resolve problems autonomously. Examples range from connected thermostats adjusting energy consumption to whole-building networks alerting maintenance crews with necessary information for repairs. The 51-floor Duke Energy Center in Charlotte, North Carolina exemplifies smart building implementation, recycling approximately 10 million gallons of harvested water annually while employing internal daylight harvesting blinds that track solar angle to distribute light deeper into the structure.
Healthcare
IoT will assume greater prominence in healthcare throughout 2022. Wearable technology and medical wearables will generate data for analysis supporting enhanced patient outcomes. Healthcare startups develop products like smart scrubs and toiletries enabling healthcare professionals to monitor heart rate and body temperature. Remote patient monitoring represents the most widely implemented IoT healthcare application, with expansion anticipated as sophisticated algorithms analyze data and recommend treatments. Rapidly developing areas include ingestible sensors collecting internal body information, robot-assisted surgery and connected contact lenses and inhalers. Virtual wards providing remote patient care in home settings have undergone trials in Australia and the UK.
Future IoT Trends
Expanding digital technology presence creates integrated experience opportunities alongside significant security challenges. The IoT ecosystem confronts unprecedented cybersecurity challenges. Vulnerability numbers continuously increase, spanning system-wide exploitations and individual device vulnerabilities. As device ecosystems grow more complex, protecting devices and their data becomes increasingly difficult. Cyber-attacks and social engineering remain more likely succeeding than targeted threats due to information volume and variety in IoT systems. However, substantial effort toward robust and secure IoT systems is anticipated.
Low-power connectivity represents another critical development, as IoT device proliferation strains networks. While 5G offers connectivity, its expensive and power-intensive hardware limits universal application. Researchers have created novel networks reducing IoT device connection power consumption and costs.
Finally, IoT enhances physical object efficiency and productivity through data collection, analysis and knowledge sharing. New products and services will emerge collecting product or service data, feeding insights into future iterations.
Final Thoughts
Successfully navigating digital transformation requires organizations to develop comprehensive strategies integrating IT and operations. As devices join organizational ecosystems, so does their collected data, necessitating clear understanding of optimal utilization. Organizations must build new capabilities positioning IoT as fundamental digital transformation components.