What comes to your mind when you hear “Internet of Things”? Talking washing machines, self-starting cars and so forth i guess, but remember internet-connected devices that communicate with one another will not only affect our lives inside the “smart home” but outside as well.
For workers, as the IoT become even more sophisticated it will change our working style by saving time and resources and opening new opportunities for growth and innovation. Before we take a look at how it’s going to affect our work lives, let’s first go through how it’s going to affect our lives inside our homes. Here are some possible scenarios that we may see in future.
Lighting
Immensely popular nowadays, smart lighting can be scheduled to turn on/off and change their intensity. It’s possible that it may further improve in the future. In a smart home completely powered by IoT, the lights can respond to other actions you take.
For instance, whenever you start watching a movie, the lights can respond to your home cinema and then turn off or get dim. Moreover, they may even react to the type of movie. Let’s say, you are watching a horror movie, the lights will sense it and will completely turn off to give you the proper atmosphere.
Doors
The doors may become smarter too. Such as whenever you want to enter, the door will first check if its really you through facial recognition or some other way and then open. Going further, the rest of the house can be made take actions in tandem with your entry.
For instance, the lights can turn off as soon you as leave through the door. Alternatively, if you are entering, they can turn on.
Windows
In the future, Windows can become smarter too. Imagine them automatically close the shutters at sunset and open at sunrise. You may even be able to program them to close or get lower automatically when it rains. Remember the home movie example, well, your curtains can get lower whenever you are watching a movie.
Thermostat
Today, you can control the thermostat in your home remotely via apps, but in the coming times you may not even need to do that. The thermostat will be able to sense if you are nearing your home. It will then check the room and external temperature and then set it accordingly. It may even recognise if you’re in the shower or on the treadmill or performing some other action and then adjust accordingly.
Gardens
Well, your gardens can become smarter too. In the future, IoT sensors in the garden can trigger the irrigation system if they detect dryness in the soil. Robotic lawnmowers can be automatically deployed if the grass exceeds a certain height.
Ok, I guess this much scenarios will be enough to give an idea of how IoT will effect our home lives. With that done, now let’s take a look at how it’s going to affect work lives.
Even more data
The IoT will be a data machine, meaning organizations will have to reevaluate how they collect and analyze information. The decision-makers will have to learn and adapt to a new form of data intelligence, moreover the amount and type of information produced by Internet of Things will also introduce new or expanded roles for data professionals including data analysts, strategists, and even customer service.
Know where everything is, all the time
There are a lot of ways through which Internet of Things will increase the productivity and efficiency of workplace life and business processes, one such way is by making location tracking much simpler and seamless. Internet-connected equipment and devices will all be geographically tagged, not only will this allow workers to easily and quickly hunt things down thus saving time but will also save money by reducing the loss rate.
Get anywhere faster
Your travel time will be reduced through the inter-connectivity of mobile devices, vehicles and the road you drive on, thus making it possible for you to get to work faster or run errands in record time.
The “connected car” of today is just the beginning of Internet of Things capability, car giants’ plans to introduce new connected features, such as real-time traffic information, in-car entertainment, automatic overtaking and even gesture control. Over the next decade, i believe the connected car could become commonplace on our roads.
That future is not far, when everything from streets to stoplights will be integrated thanks to IoT. Data from roadside sensors will be used to analyze traffic patterns around the city, the traffic light operations will be adjusted accordingly to minimize or perhaps eliminate traffic jams, thus saving us minutes if not hours.
Completely remote mobile device management (MDM)
Currently, IT departments can remotely control computers and mobile devices, but with IoT this control will extend to other Internet-connected devices too.
Soon, mobile device management technologies will extend to the remote management of Internet of Things devices, which will introduce changes for IT departments and IoT-connected employees.
Increased device management complexity
As the connected devices increases in number, so will the complexity of managing them. Workers currently use smartphones for communication, productivity and entertainment. Many of the future IoT-connected devices will lack a screen, the devices will be controlled via smartphones. So with Internet of Things, the workers will have an additional function: controlling IoT-connected devices.
The complexity will also grow due to the variety of OSs. The employees and IT departments will have to deal with a broader range of platforms, not just Android or iOS.
Both of these instances may require training for workers to learn how to control and manage connected, cross
Industries will be disrupted
IoT will undoubtedly make workers’ lives easier in a lot of ways, but the arrival of IoT also means big changes in every industry.
To help you understand let me give an example, Netflix more or less destroyed the DVD rental business by delivering their movies over broadband. One can get more movies on-demand now with very low costs.
In a similar way, every business and every industry will be disrupted over the next 30 years, so companies and their employees have to be prepared.
That’s all folks!