IoT and AI are already transforming many industries, along with the mix of connectivity, big data, machine learning. And an increasing benefit is making the duo more pervasive.
To fully realize the promise of IoT and the wealth of data it can provide, it's essential to connect it to artificial intelligence which is the brain which crunches all this data to give away a series of valuable predictions.
Combining AI and the Internet of Things
The following AI and IoT combinations all in use today are useful examples of how these two broad concepts collide. Below are the three best use cases of connected devices that leverage artificial intelligence.
Construction and mining
For construction and mining, the combination of IoT and AI can improve safety, increase efficiency and simplify site management making connected construction vehicles more aware of their surroundings. This avoids injuries, significantly improving safety and reducing cost. Using AI and IoT can help monitor vehicles on construction sites and improve safety.
Recently Nvidia Corp announced a partnership with Komatsu Ltd where Nvidia processors will be embedded into heavy machinery to create 3D models of construction sites to help the industry improve safety and increase productivity. This model can show how machinery, people and other connected objects interact, and to watch how vehicles move around the site.
Autonomous cars
Cars are ‘things’, and as we’re interested in ‘things’ that leverage powerful artificial intelligence, like self-driving vehicles. Automotive technology is ahead of the curve.
The whole Tesla fleet of autonomous cars operates as a network. When one car learns something new, they all learn it. That is beyond what other car companies are doing.
Interestingly, Google’s approach isn’t all that different and employs machine learning along with thousands of road-miles of test data that help predict the behavior of cars and pedestrians in various circumstances.
This is the impact AI is expected to have on autonomous cars. Massive amounts of data combined with machine learning enable cars to differentiate between people, trees, other cars and anything else that could create an unsafe situation.
Cars are becoming more instrumented and will increasingly become in charge of the entire safety of the car. As cars become much more autonomous, tolls or parking would become a mobility service.
Cars will need to handle payments and transactions.
If a car is idling at a traffic signal, for example, it may need to negotiate with nearby companies to figure out which of these companies can provide the cheapest energy within the five seconds of idling. This leads to an increasing demand for trusted transactions at the edge and Blockchain provides exactly the sort of technology required for these trusted transactions.
These examples are just the tip of the iceberg of potential IoT + AI applications. There are security and access devices, emotional analysis and facial recognition as few other possible applications. Future use cases for AI-powered IoT devices are infinite.