Everyday AI and Tiny Batteries: Key Takeaways from IoT World 2021

IoT For All sent a team to Silicon Valley last week to be a part of the action at IoT World, co-hosted with the AI Summit. The Santa Clara Convention Center was filled with innovation, collaboration, and excitement. Richard Evans and I explored everything the Santa Clara Convention Center had to offer, absorbing as much information and knowledge as possible. Here is an inside scoop into what we explored and what the industry sees coming next.

Some Key Takeaways

Mayor of the City of Santa Clara, Lisa Gillmor, gave the opening remarks on “The Center of What’s Possible.” Gillmor spoke on some of the ways IoT is used to better the city including higher security on citizen data management, autonomous driving, EV chargers integrated into street lights, and automotive tracking and traffic video surveillance applications. These smart city technological advancements made this the perfect city for the occasion!

Our Cities Are Only Getting Smarter

Paul Russel, VP of Wireless Business Products Manager of Teledyne LeCroy Frontline, spoke to the expectation of the number of connected devices in smart cities to grow exponentially over the next few years. Russel addresses cities in particular that are taking the lead in intelligence, mentioning Denver with their traffic management system driven towards connected fleets, safer pedestrian crossing for connected citizens, and “truck platooning” or the pairing of tractor-trailers for communication. Russel also reveals that traffic congestion has driven the Wifi Alliance to enable wifi to operate in a 6 GHz band to allow for higher performance with lower latency and faster data rates.

AI-Infused Automation In the Financial Sector

Heran Shah, Industry CTO Financial Services with IBM Automation, spoke on how AI is breaking into the financial sector. He broke things down to a granular level when it comes to the digitization of paperwork, workplaces, people, etc. where he also alluded to the “default-is-digital” requirement. Heran spoke on the requirements of digital adoption in general business practice and across other industries, by way of hyper-automation being a condition and not an option. With his presentation, he spoke on where we are with AI involvement in the financial sector and spoke to intelligent process automation, with things like automatic check readers and how that would pave the way to enterprise performance intelligence. Intelligence process automation is broken down into three separate phases in the process: discovery technology, analysis, and DevOps. This paves the way for the enterprise performance intelligence that would be a proactive system that monitors and measures all KPIs/outcomes that are associated with each business operation. These are just some of the exciting and impactful changes and developments coming to the financial sector and other industries! Thank you, Heran!

Entering the Era of Everyday AI

Kurt Muehmal, CCO of Dataiku, spoke on AI and how it looks every day through various pieces of data. He started with the definition of everyday AI as "making the advanced use of data almost pedestrian”, meaning AI is so ingrained in day-to-day life that it's just simply a part of life and business operations. He spoke on what Dataiku sees as the seeds of everyday AI today. Some key notes on what AI looks like came through the example involving Standard Chartered Bank, one of their award winners, is how they received massive improvements in their operations through the introduction of AI. Some of these KPIs include processing 10 million to 400 million+ rows of data quickly, turning 2,500 hours down to a 10-minute process. This talk from Kurt and Dataiku was extremely insightful - keep an eye on AI!

Hands-on Experiences

As we explored the Exhibition Hall it felt like we were kids at a candy store, interacting with technology in our own hands, seeing it with our own eyes. Here are some of the innovations that we can’t stop thinking about.

Thinnest Batteries We've Ever Seen

Atelios took it to the next level with their paper-thin batteries. The applications for their batteries are endless, having the potential to revolutionize battery-operated technology across pretty much any vertical. Being completely customizable, you can tailor their product to your device needs. Their primary batteries are high in energy density, surface mountable, and designed for high-power wireless communication devices.

Next-level Conversational AI

DeepBrain AI harnesses conversational artificial intelligence technology to create unique experiences that are available to all. Their artificial intelligence solutions produce human alternatives for news anchors, receptionists, assistants, and more. They presented their “Conversational AI Kiosk” that has the capability to hold a conversation and cater to your needs. Their interactive display was telling of all the potential opportunities and use cases their technology presents!

DeepBrain AI

Coming Out of IoT World 2021

We at IoT For All found a lot of value in attending this event from bumping shoulders with cutting-edge technology to learning from some of the brightest minds and key innovators in the space. We definitely recommend this event to tech enthusiasts and businesses alike, as we believe IoT benefits from a strong community (and an informed one!) and this event definitely helped foster the IoT and digital transformation movement.