NZ IoT Alliance: By 2020, 100% of IoT will be supported by AI

The New Zealand IoT Alliance has predicted, in their recently released report, that within three years, 100% of all effective IoT efforts will be supported by cognitive or artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.

The report suggests that for IoT deployment to be really effective, New Zealand organisations need applications such as machine learning and cognitive systems to obtain insight and action from data.

The report was commissioned by the New Zealand IoT Alliance, an independent member-funded group of tech firms, major corporates, start-ups, universities and government agencies.

The report finds that the potential net benefit to New Zealand could be worth as much as $3.3 billion over 10 years from just nine applications of IoT alone.

Alliance chair and NZTech chief executive Graeme Muller says New Zealand can be more effective and efficient by understanding and acting on a raft of improvements from issues as simple as water system improvements and intelligent street lighting through to more complex challenges such as driverless vehicles and better farm management.

But, to achieve this, New Zealand needs more collaboration between businesses to understand the wider opportunities that IoT data and the combination of data sources can provide.

"A clear Government position on IoT will help New Zealand to deploy cohesive and unified smart city initiatives across the country. Government investment in flagship IoT initiatives will also accelerate New Zealand's transition.

"IoT is a discipline, no different than finance or planning and requires national leadership. A national role of chief technology officer would help provide leadership in this burgeoning area.

"Accelerating a connected New Zealand and artificial intelligence (AI) applications will be particularly useful for understanding unstructured data, such as video, sound and images.

The report predicts that by 2019 more than 75% of IoT device manufacturers will improve their security and privacy capabilities.

Muller says that as security and privacy challenges are overcome, use cases involving human data will hit the spotlight in New Zealand; for example, connected cars, insurance telematics and personal wellness.

To deliver an effective programme that creates awareness and develops knowledge, the report emphasises the importance of New Zealand implementing an IoT vision and strategy.

The report states that New Zealand's IoT vision and strategy should consider:

• Is the right structure in place to create a sustainable and scalable IoT ecosystem in New Zealand?
• What overseas models could the New Zealand Government learn from?
• Should the Government partner with industry to look globally for the best-emerging technologies and bring that technology to New Zealand?
• What are the key IoT areas we aspire New Zealand to be world leaders in?
• How will we enable the ecosystem to deliver innovation?

By developing the right policy and regulatory frameworks for privacy and security, enterprises will no longer be inhibited by uncertainty and New Zealand will experience an explosion of IoT deployment and new uses of IoT for investment, the report finds.

Muller says this will lead to the maturation of IoT in New Zealand and with the appropriate support and guidance, IoT will become mainstream in most enterprise's digital transformation journeys.

He concludes, "organisations will endeavour to use IoT for a competitive advantage, improve customer experience and gain deep insights into their business, alongside improvements to productivity and efficiency.