A recent survey of global business leaders reveals the most significant predictor in realizing value from Internet of Things (IoT) initiatives across an organization is the heavy use of artificial intelligence (AI).
According to the study conducted by SAS, Deloitte and Intel with research and analysis from IDC, ninety percent of survey respondents heavily using AI in their IoT operations reported exceeding value expectations.
The study asked 450 business leaders from around the world about their use of IoT and AI technologies.
The research also finds organizations using IoT with AI appear to be more competitive than IoT-only enterprises by a double-digit margin across a variety of business indicators like employee productivity, innovation and operating costs.
“In these results, we are seeing that organizations working with IoT data realize that if they want to get the real value out of the data, they need AI and analytics,” said Oliver Schabenberger, Chief Operating Officer at SAS.
“I think it is fair to say that most successful IoT operations are actually AIoT operations.”
AIoT is defined as decision making aided by AI technologies in conjunction with connected IoT sensor, system or product data.
AI technologies include deep learning, machine learning, natural language processing, voice recognition and image analysis.
The study shows companies that have developed AIoT capabilities report stronger results across critical organizational goals including the ability to speed up operations, introduce new digital services, improve employee productivity and decrease costs.
For example, companies using IoT data to speed up operations without AI saw a 32% increase; companies adding AI to the mix saw speeds improve by 53%.
AI opens the door to more sophisticated and rapid decision making that significantly affects results, the research says.
It broadens focus from operational problems like, ‘Is the equipment running or not?’ to decisions about supply and demand, product quality, retail merchandising, or the spread of illness in a health care facility.
“AI and IoT are no longer in separate swim lanes,” says Melvin Greer, Chief Data Scientist at Intel Americas.
“AI closes the loop in an IoT environment where IoT devices gather or create data, and AI helps automate important choices and actions based on that data,” says Greer.
“Today, most organizations using IoT are only at the first ‘visibility’ phase where they can start to see what’s going on through IoT assets. But they’re moving toward the reliability, efficiency and production phases, which are more sophisticated and require stronger AI capabilities.”