The Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) have taken companies, industries and economies to a new level. These technologies have enabled more efficiency, requiring little to no human involvement. While IoT and AI are intertwined, AI has played a role in unlocking IoT’s potential and capabilities.
What is IoT?
Before diving into the benefits and ways to take advantage of IoT capabilities, you will need to understand what IoT is in the first place.
IoT is a network of objects, referred to as “things,” that enhance and exchange data through various sensors, software and technologies. IoT can be as small as household items, like smart TVs, to as big as nuclear and energy management systems. Over time, IoT has become a critical technology used to connect various items to the internet through embedded devices. Now, society can improve communication between devices, people, processes and things.
As a result, many industries reap the benefits of IoT and see real improvements in their processes. Manufacturing, retail and healthcare are among the many sectors that can benefit. 
What is AI?
To understand AI's benefits and capabilities, you will need a basic understanding of the technology. AI allows computers and machines to mimic human problem-solving and decision-making. This combination of computer science and datasets enables technology to solve problems.
More and more industries are using AI because it can complete tasks more efficiently than humans. Manufacturers use AI to perform human functions, and those machines improve themselves as they collect historical data and analyze ways to improve future tasks. Some examples of AI we now take for granted are manufacturing robots, automated financial investing, website chatbots and much more.
As time and technology progress, AI becomes more and more advanced, with capabilities to complete tasks better than a human being. This has allowed industries and manufacturers to save time and money while improving quality control.
How to Use IoT and AI
There are many ways to take advantage of IoT and AI to improve different aspects of your industry, and company. Together, they are considered the Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT), where AI is the technology and IoT is the infrastructure. The ultimate goal of AIoT is to develop highly efficient IoT processes, advance the interaction between humans and machines, and improve analytics in order to enrich data management. Data management enrichment helps connected devices optimize data for making decisions and taking actions that maximize the benefit of their intended function.
When combined, AI and IoT allow for more control and visibility regarding the variety of devices and sensors connected to the internet. February of 2022, CompTIA reported “91.5% of leading businesses invest in AI on an ongoing basis.” Additionally, Gartner also reported “that customer satisfaction is expected to grow 25% by 2023 in organizations that use AI”.
Companies want to give customers their desired outcomes, which can be difficult if there is incorrect data. This is where AI and IoT come into play. With these two technologies combined under the umbrella of AIoT, businesses can collect better data and use the information to make predictions and conduct their operations more efficiently.
While AI and IoT have many advantages separately, they are better used together. The following are ways and outcomes of using these technologies to transform your business operations:
- More customer engagement
- Reduced operational costs
- Improved quality of products
- Implementation of conversational agents
- Customization of the user experience
- Optimization of overall business productivity
- Improved data analytics for making predictions
Manufacturers can use these technologies to make critical changes to their operations by better understanding customers, employees, business partners and equipment. For example, learn how the distributor and supplier relationship can improve supply chain disruption in this blog post.
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