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Opinion | Hyper-connectivity and AI are fast-moving trains – businesses must hop aboard or miss trip of a lifetime

Everything you have seen in technology innovation in the last eight years, which is a lot if you look back, will effectively be multiplied by three in impact

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In 2008, the number of connected devices surpassed the number of people on the planet – at nearly seven billion. That has more than doubled again in the last eight years and is forecast to triple again in the next three to four years to around fifty billion connected devices. Photo: Shutterstock

When I first started working with the Internet of Things (IoT) nearly 10 years ago I used to lead presentations with a “the world is changing, and it’s changing fast” mantra. Now, with the rise of new advanced technologies driven by artificial intelligence (AI) I simply start with “nothing is going to be like yesterday!”.

In this increasingly connected world, it is only by looking back that you can comprehend how quickly things have changed. In 1984, when I left secondary school and the original Apple MacIntosh computer went on sale, there were only 3,000 devices connected to the internet.

In 2008, the number of connected devices surpassed the number of people on the planet – at nearly seven billion. That has more than doubled again in the last eight years and is conservatively forecast to triple again in the next three to four years to around fifty billion connected devices, or what can be called “smart objects”.

The outcome will be innovation fuelled by connectivity. Everything you have seen in technology innovation in the last eight years, which is a lot if you look back, will effectively be multiplied by three in impact and all happen in the next 3 to 4 years.

This IoT is well under way, from when I first started working in the nascent industry, to now, and it has evolved from science projects into an industry which Gartner says will reach US$1.5 billion in sales this year.
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