Individually, the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are powerful technologies. When you combine AI and IoT, you get AIoT—theartificial Intelligence of things. You can think of Internet of Things devices as the digital nervous system while Artificial Intelligence is the brain of a system.
To fully understand AIoT, you must start with theinternet of things. When “things” such as wearable devices, refrigerators, digital assistants, sensors and other equipment are connected to the internet, can be recognized by other devices and collect and process data, you have the internet of things.Artificial intelligence is when a system can complete a set of tasks or learn from data in a way that seems intelligent. Therefore, when artificial intelligence is added to the internet of things it means that those devices can analyze data and make decisions and act on that data without involvement by humans.
These are "smart" devices, and they help drive efficiency and effectiveness. The intelligence of AIoT enables data analytics that is then used to optimize a system and generate higher performance and business insights and create data that helps to make better decisions and that the system can learn from.
The combo of internet of things and smart systems makes AIoT a powerful and important tool for many applications. Here are a few:
In a smart retail environment, a camera system equipped with computer vision capabilities can use facial recognition to identify customers when they walk through the door. The system gathers Intel about customers, including their gender, product preferences, traffic flow and more, analyzes the data to accurately predict consumer behavior and then uses that information to make decisions about store operations from marketing to product placement and other decisions. For example, if the system detects that the majority of customers walking into the store are Millennials, it can push out product advertisements or in-store specials that appeal to that demographic, therefore driving up sales. Smart cameras could identify shoppers and allow them to skip the checkout like what happens in the Amazon Go store.
In a smart city, there are several practical uses of AIoT, including traffic monitoring by drones. If traffic can be monitored in real-time and adjustments to the traffic flow can be made, congestion can be reduced. When drones are deployed to monitor a large area, they can transmit traffic data, and then AI can analyze the data and make decisions about how to best alleviate traffic congestion with adjustments to speed limits and timing of traffic lights without human involvement.
