In 1991, a man by the name of Weisner described a day in the life of a person in the 21st century. At the time, it probably seemed a little far-fetched.
Sarah came home feeling a little under the weather — a smart chair measured her temperature and passed a command to a kettle to boil water to temperature comfortable for a [sour] throat and prepare chamomile tea with lemon. When she went to bed, lights automatically dimmed and smart comforter adjusted its temperature. When the clocks detected that it’s time to wake up, curtains went up, and Sarah awakened and felt herself healthy and cheerful. Her toothbrush detected a sign of cavity and made an appointment with her dentist while changing its mode to prevent irritation on a sensitive side of that tooth. By the time Sarah entered a kitchen, coffee was ready — her personal assistant detected that they were running out of coffee beans, and decided to try another sort of beans that has high user rating and has taste similar to which Sarah likes…
Today, that sounds less like a futuristic description of life with the Jetsons, and more like reality. The only thing required to make it actual reality is smidgen of extra AI to rapidly draw advanced insights from Sarah’s data. Using AI, Sarah’s data can be rapidly crunched, with instant insight gleaned from the information. Sensors can allow devices to quickly respond to equipment failure, in this case Sarah’s tooth, and an appropriate response can be launched. AI can evaluate the deviation from normal performance and can offer operational recommendations to alleviate the problem.
Together, the combined effect of IoT and AI has unlimited potential to bring the future into the present. AI is the partner that IoT needs to exploit the untapped potential of connected devices.
How would we describe a futuristic world of 50 years from now? It seems like nothing is off the table.