2024 IoT And Smart Device

Trends: What You Need To

Know For The Future
Bernard Marr Oct 19, 2023,

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2024 IoT And Smart Device Trends: What You Need to Know For The Future

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By the end of 2024, there are projected to be more than

207 billion devices connected to the worldwide network of
tools, toys, devices and appliances that make up the
Internet of Things (IoT).

An ever-growing number of them will not be computers or

smartphones – as everything from toothbrushes to heavy
industrial machinery is brought online. Increasingly, they
will be smart devices augmented with artificial intelligence
(AI) and capable of making autonomous decisions.

Businesses around the world have unlocked the benefits

of IoT in recent years, and as individuals, we’re getting
used to a greater variety of wearables and everyday
connected products in our lives. This is a trend that
certainly won't slow down during 2024 as the distinction
between the physical and the digital continues to be
broken down.

IoT Security And Privacy

The more devices that are connected to your network, the
more potential doors and windows there are for attackers
to sneak in through. With AI-powered cyber-attacks
expected to pose a growing threat in 2024, ensuring
devices can be kept secure, particularly in an age of
remote and distributed workforces, will be a key trend. For
businesses in the age of digital and AI, maintaining the
trust of customers and workforces is an essential priority,
meaning security and privacy must be at the top of the
agenda when building networks of smart devices and
connected technology.

IoT In Healthcare
In healthcare, IoT devices can remotely monitor patients
as well as assist doctors with making diagnoses,
collecting data for research purposes and in the
development of new treatments. As society adapts to an
aging population, solutions such as virtual hospitals,
where patients remain at home but are monitored
electronically from a central location, will be critical to
managing the change. In 2024, we will also start to see
generative AI used alongside connected healthcare
devices to turn patient data into natural language reports
and analyses. The value of the IoT healthcare market has
been predicted to grow to around $150 billion this year, on
its way to reaching a valuation of $289 billion by 2028.

AI-Augmented IoT (AIOT) And

Convergence
We call devices connected to the IoT smart, but usually,
we mean connected. Increasingly, though, we are seeing
IoT technology converging with systems and devices
capable of making decisions and answering questions
using AI and machine learning. Just as with people, having
thousands of intelligent devices all connected and
attempting to carry out their tasks alongside each other is
likely to lead to arguments. Developing protocols to
enable intelligent devices to play nicely (and share data
safely) will be a priority for industry in 2024. This exciting
convergence will also almost certainly continue to bring us
interesting gadgets, toys and gizmos!

Generative AI In Wearables
Generative AI, and specifically large language models, will
become a common addition to the wearable devices we
use in 2024. Smartwatches and fitness trackers
augmented by this technology are already hitting the
market, enabling them to act as personal assistants or
fitness coaches. For consumers, this could spell the end
for regular (non-generative) AI assistants like Siri and
Alexa on wearables.
Edge Computing Meets AI And 5G
Edge Computing refers to devices that analyze data close
to the source where it’s captured instead of sending it to a
centralized server such as a cloud service for storage and
analysis. As data volumes grow, so does the need to
extract insights as quickly as possible so action can be
taken more quickly and the cost of transmitting noisy raw
data to the cloud can be reduced.

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Autonomous vehicles serve as a great example of edge

devices, as they need to interpret data from cameras to
spot hazards in the road without having to send it to the
cloud and wait for insights to be sent back. In 2024, the
ongoing rollout of 5G networks will make Edge computing
viable for many new applications, while AI integration will
make edge devices smarter and more autonomous. This is
likely to lead to a spike in adoption and innovative new use
cases.

Retail IoT
IoT has been widely adopted across retail, where it takes
the form of inventory systems, footfall tracking,
automated checkouts, and RFID marketing devices and
beacons.

Not every initiative is a success – Amazon closed some of

its famous contactless stores in 2023; however, it also
implemented pay-by-palm elsewhere, indicating that its
experiments with IoT in retail are far from finished.

Across the board, spending on IoT in retail is expected to

increase from $28.14 billion to $177.9 billion by 2031. This
will be driven by retailers increasingly recognizing smart
devices as essential for understanding and improving
customer experiences.

Sustainable IoT And The Circular

Economy
In 2024, moving towards sustainability and reusability has
to be a priority for us all. There are a number of ways we
can expect to see IoT technology used to achieve this aim.
IoT sensors are increasingly used to monitor heat
efficiency and energy use in buildings to identify where
savings and efficiencies can be made. It will be used to
optimize inventory, delivery and supply chains to ensure
resources are used efficiently when storing or distributing
products. It can help determine whether products are
being sustainably disposed of or reused, where possible,
by monitoring waste and recycling infrastructure. And to
optimize traffic flow in urban areas to improve air quality.

Vehicle-To-Vehicle (V2V)
Communications
Automobile manufacturers in 2024 look to v2v
communications to reduce accidents and maintenance
costs while also lowering the carbon footprint of journeys.
Cars share their position, speed and direction of travel, as
well as data such as hazards they detect, with other
vehicles in their vicinity. This allows driving to be
optimized in order to reduce vehicle wear and tear and
emissions and cut journey times. For autonomous or
connected cars, these many eyes networks will prove
more effective than relying on the limited vision of one
vehicle. Vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, where
cars connect to sensors embedded in roadside items
such as traffic lights and pedestrian crossings, will also be
a growing area of investment.

IoT And Digital Twins

Digital twins are virtual models of any object or system,
from tiny components to cities or even the human brain.
They are used to accelerate research and testing by
enabling simultaneous, super-fast experiments, drastically
reducing costs and time. IoT technology enhances the
realism of these models by ensuring they are built on
accurate real-world data. For example, a digital twin of a
city can capture real-time data on people and vehicle
movements via cameras and roadside sensors to optimize
infrastructure planning. 2024 will see digital twins
deployed across increasingly diverse and innovative use
cases – many of them enabled by IoT.

Brain-Computer Interfaces
Perhaps the ultimate in wearables will be devices that
attach to our bodies and are capable of reading our brain
signals, meaning they can be controlled by thought alone.
This might still seem very futuristic and far-fetched today,
and it probably isn’t anything that most of us will be
directly engaged with for some time to come. But it’s
something we’ll hear more and more about in 2024 as
experiments and trials by companies like Elon Musk’s
Neuralink stir up excitement and products leveraging the
technology begin to appear.

You can read more about future tech and business trends
in my books, The Future Internet: How the Metaverse,
Web 3.0, and Blockchain Will Transform Business and
Society, Future Skills: The 20 Skills And Competencies
Everyone Needs To Succeed In A Digital World and
Business Trends in Practice, which won the 2022
Business Book of the Year award. And don’t forget to
subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on X (Twitter),
LinkedIn, and YouTube for more on the future trends in
business and technology.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check

out my website or some of my other work here.

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