The power of combining AI and IoT

I recently attended the “7th Annual Cyber Security Summit” which was held on 24th September 2019 at Colombo Cinnamon Grand Hotel which shed useful insights into ‘prevention is better than investigation’ by a host of international and local experts. The sessions were focused on ‘Digital Intelligence for Making: The World a Safer Place’, ‘IoT Security for Financial Services’, ‘Digital Forensic Investigation Dynamics’ and ‘Tuning-up Security in Plural Social Networks’. What piqued my curiosity was the IoT security segment. It was stated that IoT requires another level of thinking about the compromise between security and convenience. One of the keynote speakers mentioned that the IoT industry is now focusing on affiliating with Artificial Intelligence. After delving into this appealing talking point, here are some of my insights regarding the combination of AI and IoT.

Combining AI and IoT is like making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Even though it is not the healthiest thing in the world to eat, it is damn delicious ? AI + IoT is just like that. A lot of new opportunities and markets have begun to appear with the convergence of AI and IoT. Let’s take a look at how both these technologies will change our future.

What is AI?

The Encyclopedia Britannica[1] states,

Artificial Intelligence (AI), the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings.

AI refers to computational tools that can substitute for human intelligence in the performance of certain tasks. AI makes it possible for machines to learn from experience, adjust to new inputs and perform human-like tasks. AI lives everywhere now from researches labs to your living room. AI has taken jobs from humans already and will continue to do so as it becomes more widely-adopted and effective.

Every industry has a high demand for AI capabilities. AI is being used in:

Health care — To provide personalized medicine and X-ray readings, Personal health care assistants
Retail — To provide virtual shopping capabilities that offer personalized recommendations and discuss purchase options with the consumer
Manufacturing — To analyze factory data as it streams from connected equipment to forecast expected load and demand using recurrent networks
Banking — To identify which transactions are likely to be fraudulent, adopt fast and accurate credit scoring and automate manually intense data management tasks [2]

AI can think logically without emotions, making rational decisions with less or no mistakes. It needs no sleep, rest, take breaks or get entertained as AI does not get bored or tired.

What is IoT?

As claimed by Oracle [3],

The Internet of Things (IoT) describes the network of physical objects — “things” — that are embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies for the purpose of connecting and exchanging data with other devices and systems over the internet. These devices range from ordinary household objects to sophisticated industrial tools.

IoT enables devices/objects to observe, identify and understand a situation or the surroundings without being dependent on human help. From everyday objects such as kitchen appliances, cars, thermostats, baby monitors — to the internet via embedded devices everything is connected.

Same as the AI technology, IoT is also vastly used in many organizations.

Manufacturing — By using production-line monitoring to enable proactive maintenance on equipment when sensors detect an impending failure
Automotive — Sensors can detect impending equipment failure in vehicles already on the road and can alert the driver with details and recommendations
Retail — To manage inventory, improve customer experience, optimize the supply chain, and reduce operational costs
Healthcare — To track IoT asset-monitoring applications

On the grounds that you have a slight idea of what AI and IoT are, Let’s take a look at these burning AI and IoT statistics.

Every second, 127 new IoT devices connect to the internet. (Source: McKinsey Global Institute)
The international IoT market is estimated to be worth $1.7T in 2019. (Source: CBI Insights)
AI can boost business output by up to 40%. (Source: Accenture)
41% of consumers deem AI will improve their lives in some way. (Source: Strategy Analytics)
80% of all enterprise IoT projects will include an AI component by 2020. (Source: Gartner report)

IoT devices have the possibility to generate a vast amount of data that can be then used with AI. All there’s left to do is to build an accurate machine learning model by using those data. Since IoT platforms provide an interface to gather the data from various devices, they can easily be deployed into AI/ML systems. The value of AI in this context is its ability to quickly mangle insights from data. Its ability to automatically identify patterns and detect anomalies in the data that smart sensors and devices generate — information such as temperature, pressure, humidity, air quality, vibration, and sound can be really helpful.

Advantages of AI-powered IoT

Avoiding unplanned downtime — Using analytics to predict equipment failure ahead of time to schedule orderly maintenance procedures otherwise known as Predictive Maintenance can help mitigate the damaging economics of unplanned downtime.
Increasing operational efficiency — The AI models can predict operating conditions and identify parameters to be adjusted on the fly to maintain ideal outcomes which will help improve operational efficiency.
Enabling improved products and services — Natural Language Processing to speak with machines, AI-controlled drones, and robots, Fleet management are some of the ways that AI will help improve the existing products.
Enhancing risk management — Together with IoT and AI, several applications are helping organizations understand and predict a variety of risks as well as automate rapid response [4].

AI is a natural complement to IoT deployments, enabling better offerings and operations to give a competitive edge in business performance. Azure IoT, Google Cloud IoT, and AWS IoT are some of the major, well-known platforms that offer AI+IoT industrial solutions.

Life-changing AI-enabled IoT applications

For example, a mobile device plays a major role in the IoT machinery. Many IoT devices send and receive data remotely. AI comes into play by designing an AI-specific chip that will give AI power to mobile devices. As for the construction industry, sensors and drones can capture all parts of the construction process, from design to delivery. AI can then be applied to them and create 3D maps, extract blueprints, and simulate construction plans. Here are some examples in which the business world changes with the introduction of IoT and AI.

Security and access devices — For unlocking doors and uses of equipment AI could be used to determine regular access patterns of different employees or roles and tiers of employees — providing insight for future office layouts, and potentially detecting suspicious activity.
Emotional analysis — A solution has been made in China to scan a classroom once per 30 seconds and the algorithm can determine students’ emotions (happy, sad, bored, etc.), as well as the behavior of students (reading, writing, raising a hand, etc. ). Here, the data is gathered by the cameras and the image recognition step is performed at the local servers [5].
Home automation to create Smart Homes — In smart home concepts, various devices& systems, including freeze, AC, oven, water supply, electric supply, and security systems equipped with sensors in a home act like smart devices and connected with IoT applications. Here, AI acts as data gathering, analysis, and decision-making systems to act automatically.
Smart Cities — Just like the smart home concept, the smart city works at a large scale with the combination of IoT and AI technologies. both technologies aid in water management, waste management, drainage system, transportation system, parking system, electric grids, road and rail management, safety & security aspects of the entire city, etc.
Healthcare industry — Healthcare generates a vast amount of useful data and IoT along with wearables adds a big volume. AI provides deep insights into the data and also offers assistance in HR management, real-time responses, inventory management, allied pharmacy services, and predictions as well as suggestions.

In conclusion, Both IoT and AI are powerful and are capable of making your business smarter. And if you combine these two technologies, it will enable enterprises to achieve even greater digital transformation. There are tons of domains that can harvest the advantages of the coexistence of both technologies. Of course, combining AI and IoT is no walk in the park; not only does it require a hefty investment, but it also requires new skills and expertise. But together both these innovative technologies have a major impact on businesses to maximize their profit and function more efficiently.