7 Industries That Will Be Revolutionized by the Internet of Things

What kind of revolutionary impact will the Internet of Things (IoT) have on some industries in the next few years, and which fields will feel the changes brought about by the Internet of Things?

Whenever people talk about how the Internet of Things will revolutionize the world, they usually list a series of use cases: self-driving cars, connected devices, smart healthcare, etc., but the impact of the Internet of Things goes far beyond that.

The Internet of Things is likely to penetrate familiar industries in ways that people have barely thought of, creating a whole host of new opportunities and potential new threats. You may see some fairly typical use cases, while others will sound almost like science fiction.

Beyond smart healthcare and smart homes, it’s worth taking a quick look at some of the ways the Internet of Things is likely to transform various industries over the next few years, some of which may be unexpected.

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1. Agriculture

Innovation in agricultural technology is nothing new, but farmers and agricultural organizations are using the Internet of Things to increase productivity and thus meet the growing food demands of the world’s population.

Smart agriculture is already gaining traction among farmers, who want to improve efficiency and make high-tech farming the standard across the industry. This can be achieved through the use of devices such as agricultural drones and sensors that can monitor each animal and plant independently, allowing for personalized feeding and healthy growing strategies.

By leveraging sensors and agricultural drones, farmers are making their daily tasks more efficient. New IoT practices such as remote monitoring of crops, equipment and livestock, and access to statistics on livestock and agricultural products are likely to help farmers increase productivity in the coming years to meet the world's food needs.

2. Advertising

From wearable devices to connected cars, smart products have created a range of new channels and media for advertisers. Today's smart devices are providing incredibly detailed brand data on consumer consumption patterns, activities, behaviors, and the most influential touchpoints, allowing marketers to adjust advertising at the right time to achieve the best results and target users for delivery.

By understanding consumers' purchasing and consumption habits, smart beverage bottles have provided marketers with a window into consumer behavior. For example, when consumers scan a Diageo whisky bottle with their smartphone, they can easily get promotional offers, such as discounts on future purchases, and recommended cocktail recipes, and provide personalized content based on customer needs.

3. Hotels

The way people travel and their experience abroad will change dramatically with the Internet of Things, especially when it comes to holiday accommodation.

Hotels have already begun to incorporate facial recognition technology to let managers and providers know who guests are before they arrive and check in. Sensors and emotion recognition cameras can also help hotel staff predict whether guests are hungry and provide food recommendations based on their personal preferences—even providing customized meals before the guest asks for service. This personalization also extends to all aspects of the guest’s stay, including automatically adjusting room temperature and lighting upon arrival.

4. Smart buildings

The Internet of Things is already having a significant impact on the construction and commercial real estate industries. New smart buildings are helping companies reduce costs while becoming more responsive to the needs of owners and managers.

The application of IoT will help improve profit margins for building developers, enable more efficient building operations, enhance user relationships and provide new revenue opportunities. Smart buildings will provide significant energy and cost savings while improving user comfort.

Besides helping to reduce costs, another purpose of smart buildings is to improve safety. By installing IoT facial recognition cameras, businesses can protect their workplaces in real time while taking into account the potential risk factors and long-term cost/reputational damage that may be involved.

5. Retail

With the development of the Internet of Things, retail (as we know it today) is about to undergo a major change, with physical store shopping and e-commerce becoming increasingly integrated. Consumers will soon be able to try on hundreds of different garments without having to go to a physical store by using augmented and virtual reality devices, which will give them an experience close to in-store shopping, but with a wider range of categories to try on.

High-end stores such as Gap are already piloting smart AR dressing rooms in select stores, and by 2020, more than 10 billion pieces of connected clothing will enter the Internet of Things.

It’s not just the fashion industry that will change, supermarkets will also revolutionize the way they retail as the Internet of Things develops in the agricultural and food consumption industries. As new collaborative agricultural technologies are combined with smart supply chains (which the Internet of Things makes possible), supermarket products will become increasingly cheaper because they can be precisely supplied according to consumer demand.

Not only will this help reduce food waste, but it will also save supermarkets from having to stock up on large amounts of excess produce and perishable goods.

6. Financial Services

As Fintech introduces innovative IoT applications, it is not difficult to see that traditional banks are under tremendous pressure, but they also enjoy many benefits.

As the Internet of Things becomes increasingly secure, banks and consumers are becoming more accustomed to managing financial transactions through a variety of connected devices.

We are already seeing the use of smart ATMs, and connected self-service devices allow users to quickly obtain loans, accept deposits, transfer money, and perform many other common financial transactions directly on the device.

Insurance will still be needed, of course. In fact, given the new risks posed by connected devices, self-driving cars and drones, more (and new) kinds of insurance may be needed.

And the large amount of data generated by IoT devices will mean that companies will be able to measure risks more accurately, helping insurance companies make more precise decisions.

In the future, premiums may be set based on a multiple risk factor assessment of the policyholder, such as activities, travel, work and life, rather than numerous single-category insurance products.

In addition, banks may use sensors and analytics to collect more information about their customers and provide personalized services. This will not only give banks a clearer understanding of their customers, but also understand their customers' purchasing patterns and spending habits.

7. Manufacturing

Manufacturing will be one of the industries most impacted by the Internet of Things. Manufacturers in all sectors, including automotive and electronics, have already invested in embedded devices to monitor equipment and assets. As hardware costs fall, the sector's investment in IoT devices continues to increase and is already reaping the benefits.

Many manufacturers are already using IoT solutions to track factory assets and to improve control and enhance analytical capabilities by installing predictive maintenance systems.

This is commonly referred to as "smart manufacturing", and the use of IoT devices will increase efficiency and productivity in the manufacturing industry. This is mainly achieved by installing sensors on existing manufacturing equipment, and for new generation equipment, smart sensors will increasingly be pre-installed as standard.

With each new industry joining the IoT, the whole concept of IoT becomes more and more complex and even difficult to manage.

As is often mentioned, the number of IoT applications and ultimately the number of devices deployed is enormous. However, these devices and services are often developed in isolation, often built on a variety of different code bases and operating system types, and we are quickly creating an extremely unwieldy IoT, making it increasingly difficult for enterprises to guarantee interoperability or a reliable support path. This is critical to the development of the IoT.

Canonical believes that the future of the Internet of Things and the realization of many of the above applications will ultimately depend on the highest degree of unification between the various components of the Internet of Things. Running sensors, edge devices, computers and clouds and infrastructure components are based on a common (and highly secure) code base, and there is an independent, highly automated and centralized method to provide security updates.

As hardware costs continue to drop and computing power increases, incorporating IoT devices into platforms becomes more realistic. By decoupling software and cloud services from hardware, greater benefits can be achieved because multiple "applications" can run on a single device.

Adopting a cross-industry application packaging format allows developers to build and target multiple operating system versions. By putting security at the core of IoT solutions, companies can protect their customers’ data and their corporate reputation. Starting with the right platform will be key to unlocking the potential of IoT.