A survey by element14 confirms the continued growth of the IoT with the increasing deployment of AI technology and need for partners when delivering IoT solutions emerging as key trends.
A new global survey on the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) across a wide range of industries has revealed some interesting new trends, including a surge in willingness to use AI in some form, increasing concern about connectivity options, and a willingness to establish partnerships to accelerate the delivery of new IoT solutions.
The Global IoT Survey 2022 was conducted by element14,an Avnet company that specialises in the global distribution of electronic components, products, and solutions — and analysed 2263 qualified responses received between January and March 2022 with the aim of gaining a better understanding of technologies, challenges, and opportunities faced by designers and system integrators of IoT solutions.
“Many businesses are finding new and inventive ways to incorporate IoT hardware, software, and cloud-based applications across a diverse range of industry sectors,” said Cliff Ortmeyer, global head of technical marketing for element14. “However, it’s challenging to identify a core driver outside of what is already working for them within their immediate scope of work.
“Nevertheless, the migration to a world benefiting from the IoT is only set to grow and warrants our investment in future annual surveys. element14 is committed to supporting customers in their IoT journey and can offer a growing portfolio of IoT products and solutions, as well as access to new market insights that enable innovation.”
The survey results confirmed that while IoT deployment continues to grow strongly, there is no single “defining” IoT application. Multiple industries are adopting IoT in their own way at statistically similar rates. The key emerging trends highlighted in this year’s survey include:
- Concern about communications/connectivity — with so many options, selecting the optimum solution, whether wired, wireless, Bluetooth, LoRaWAN, or others, is a challenge.
- AI has seen exponential growth in the past year. The number of respondents using AI in some fashion jumped from 39 per cent in the previous survey to 56 per cent, with another 26 per cent stating that they expect to at least consider using AI in the future.
- IoT for manufacturing is seen by 30 per cent of the sector respondents as the bedrock of improved productivity. Manufacturing appears to be the most comfortable with IoT of all the industry sectors, and will be the one to watch for how adoption progresses.
- Private cloud services are falling out of favour as there are too many advantages to joining one of the big three providers: AWS, Google, or Azure.
Since the previous survey in 2021, attitudes to IoT development and deployment were shown to have changed dramatically, with engineers better informed and more enthusiastic about the return on investment advantages of IoT.
Other survey insights included:
- Industry 4.0 remained the primary application for 18 per cent of the respondents. There was strong growth in the use of the IoT for energy management, from 10 per cent in 2021 to 16 per cent this year. The global increase in energy prices around the globe suggests this trend will continue.
- Innovative and flexible suppliers are now seen as essential partners for the exponential growth in the diverse range of applications to deliver IoT benefits.
Companies recognised the opportunities to grow their business and establish industry leadership through IoT development, but there was a growing trend towards working with partners rather than alone to develop IoT solutions, and a demand for standardisation and interoperability.
The Global IoT Survey provides an opportunity for IoT product designers and system integrators to share their experiences on IoT deployment and identify markets yet to engage with the technology.
element14 is uniquely positioned to help in this development, offering an extensive range of development tools for IoT and working with innovative providers to deliver the latest for AI and security. Customers can access technical support and design resources, including the IoT Hub, AI pages, and an AI Configurator on the element14 website. Fast delivery is available on all major development boards for IoT, including the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Computer, Raspberry Pi RP2040 silicon, Raspberry Pi Pico, BeagleBone AI-64, and Ultra96 V2, as well as Kunbus and Industrial Shields’ industrial PLC control solutions.
Customers can read the full results of element14’s fourth Global IoT Survey, element14, in APAC.
