The 4th Industrial Revolution: What Businesses Need to Know

We’re on the cusp of a new Industrial Revolution.

Every day, ordinary objects are becoming extraordinary. Things like lampposts, tractors, and medical devices are being empowered with mobile technology to communicate with each other — and with us. And this is transforming our world – the Internet of Things (IoT).

The IoT is every bit as transformational – or more so – as the industrial revolutions of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, according to Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.

The first Industrial Revolution transformed manufacturing with steam and water power. Then the second fueled mass production with electric power. And the third in the 1960s drove the advent of the Internet and digital technologies.

And now the fourth Industrial Revolution — driven by smartphones, software development, high-speed mobile broadband and the cloud.  Together, they are disrupting or will disrupt industries in every corner of the globe.

This fourth revolution is already well under way.

The global research and consulting organization Frost & Sullivan [1] says that 9 billion devices – excluding smartphones and tablets – are now connected to the IoT. They include things never connected to the Internet before – homes, cars, watches, alarms, shipping containers, wheelchairs, personal health monitoring devices. The total is expected to grow to between 20 billion and 50 billion by 2020. The economic impact forecast is from $4 trillion to $11 trillion by 2025.

Businesses need to embrace these technologies or be consumed by them – disrupt or be disrupted. Just look at the taxi industry and Uber.

To quote Frost & Sullivan, “Every organization in every sector needs an IoT strategy.”

That’s why at AT&T we created a report showing how businesses can gain competitive advantage through the IoT. The report is titled What you need to know about IoT: The right information can change the world. It  provides meaningful data on how connected devices can help cut costs in a highly secure manner, grow revenues, boost efficiency and satisfy customers. It also identifies real-life business use cases where IoT is generating tangible return on investment.

Just a few examples from the report of IoT’s potential:

  • Connected Car — Machina Research predicts[2] at global connections in the automotive sector will grow from 125 million in 2014 to 1.2 billion in 2024. This presents automakers and developers with unparalleled opportunities to enhance in-car experiences and safety.
  • Smart Cities – A United Nations report predicts that nearly 70% of the global population will live in urban areas by 2050. The IoT gives cities powerful new tools to save money, boost citizen engagement and operate more efficiently and sustainably.
  • Fleet Management and Telematics – The IoT helps fleet managers monitor assets 24/7. This can help reduce maintenance, idle time, paperwork, regulatory violations and insurance expense.

You can download it here or visit www.att.com/iot for more information. AT&T has also launched the first in a series of reports on Cybersecurity on how businesses can better secure their data. You can download that report here.

Getting out in front of the IoT in a safe and secure manner will help businesses large and small prosper in this fourth Industrial Revolution.


[1] Frost and Sullivan, The Internet of Things (IoT): How Real is it Today? , Dec. 2015

[2] Machina Research, The Connected Car Market Will Grow Rapidly to be Worth USD284 Billion by 2024, April 2015

[3] World Urbanization Prospects, 2014 Revision, United Nations, 2014

Ralph de la Vega is the president and CEO of AT&T Mobile and Business Solutions.  He serves as chairman of All-Markets Initiatives for the Boy Scouts of America, and is a member of the board of Junior Achievement Worldwide.  He is the author of the highly acclaimed bestseller Obstacles Welcome: How to Turn Adversity to Advantage in Business and Life.  For more about Ralph and his book visit www.ralphdelavega.com

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