Businesses across the world are moving rapidly to connect their products and equipment to the Internet-of-Things, opening up opportunities to create new business models and transform how they run their operations and engage with customers. However, tapping into the IoT is only part of the story. For companies to realise the full benefits of IoT enablement, they need to combine IoT with rapidly-advancing Artificial Intelligence technologies, which enable ‘smart machines’ to simulate intelligent behaviour and take well-informed decisions with little or no human intervention. Over the coming years, ongoing advances in AI will have profound impacts on jobs, skills and HR strategies in virtually every industry—underlining the fact that companies don’t have the luxury of time as they map out their plans for an AI-enabled world. Already, integrating AI into IoT networks is becoming a prerequisite for success in today’s IoT-based digital ecosystems. So businesses must move rapidly to identify how they’ll drive value from combining AI and IoT—or face playing catch-up in years to come.
Global TMT Assurance Leader and Global Telecommunications Industry Leader, PwC Germany