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Timeline: The History of the Industrial Internet of Things

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The Internet of Things (IoT) isn’t only for connecting the latest gadgets, like a voice-activated speaker or a smart thermostat, to your increasingly connected home.

In fact, the same circumstances that have led to the explosion in smart consumer gadgets, such as universal wireless connectivity, cloud computing, cheap sensors, and better artificial intelligence, are also being used in conjunction with big data to power the next generation of industry, as well.

This new technological layer, called the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), is transforming massive industries like manufacturing, energy, mining, and transportation – and it’ll have a multi-trillion dollar impact on the economy as a whole.

The Birth of the Industrial Internet

Today’s infographic comes to us from Kepware, and it shows how these technological forces have emerged over time to make the IIoT possible.

Timeline of the Industrial Internet of Things

The road to the creation of the IIoT started in 1968, when engineer Dick Morley made one of the most important breakthroughs in manufacturing history.

That year, Morley and a group of geek friends invented the programmable logic controller (PLC), which would eventually become irreplaceable in automating assembly lines and industrial robots in factories.

Other Major Innovations

Here are some other major innovations that were instrumental in making the IIoT possible:

1983: Ethernet is standardized
1989: Tim Berners-Lee creates Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
1992: TCP/IP allows PLCs to have connectivity
2002: Amazon Web Services launches, and cloud computing starts to take hold
2006: OPC Unified Architecture (UA) enables secure communications between devices, data sources, and applications.
2006: Devices start getting smaller, and batteries and solar energy are becoming powerful and more economical.
2010: Sensors drop in price, enabling them to be put into pretty much everything

And today, the IIoT is a big deal: it’s transforming the backbone of major industries by adding a new layer of technology that helps companies optimize operations, track and analyze equipment, implement predictive maintenance, make sense of massive amounts of data, and make real-time decisions that were never before possible.

IIoT Market

And by 2030, the IIoT is estimated by Accenture to have a $14.2 trillion on the global economy – making it one of the most important forces shaping the future business world today.

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Technology

Charted: Changing Sentiments Towards AI in the Workplace

Opinions about using AI in the workplace have undergone a transformation from 2018, and so have the AI tools themselves.

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A series of charts measuring how people feel about having AI in the workplace.

Is generative AI the catalyst for the next industrial revolution? Or is it a flash in the pan? Is the entire workforce destined to become AI makers and managers?

It’s possible that one, all, or none of these options could be correct. But despite how fast large language models (LLMs) and tools have grown the popularity of artificial intelligence, one thing that is clear is that there are no quick or easy answers.

Amidst all this uncertainty, opinions on how we use AI in the workplace have evolved. Recent survey data from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) reveals how the labor force feels about AI in the workplace today, compared to how they felt five years ago.

The consultancy surveyed 13,000 people (C-suite leaders, managers, and frontline employees) in 18 different countries for the results, and divided their top two responses into five categories: Curiosity, Optimism, Concern, Confidence, and Indifference.

ℹ️ Data note: Since the top two feelings were selected and categorized per question, the percentages across categories do not total to 100%.

More Optimism, Less Caution Around AI

General curiosity about AI remains almost unchanged (at 60%) since 2018.

Meanwhile, despite how rapidly AI has advanced in the last five years, or perhaps because of it, more than 50% of workers surveyed are optimistic about AI’s impact on work, a 17 percentage point (p.p.) increase from 2018.

And though 30% remain concerned about AI, this fell 10 p.p. over the same time period.

Sentiment towards AI20182023
Curiosity60%61%
Optimism35%52%
Concern40%30%
Confidence17%26%
Indifference21%14%

Clearly, respondents perceive AI in the workplace far more positively now than they did in 2018. But that’s not all. The respondents’ confidence in how AI can influence their work has also increased (+5 p.p.) and indifference towards it has shrunk significantly (-7 p.p.).

Given the explosive growth in generative AI since the end of 2022—ChatGPT gets 1.8 billion visitors a month—it’s not surprising that workers are far more aware of AI compared to just five years ago.

Optimistic Leaders, Cautious Employees

As with any survey data, the devil is in the details. BCG notes that the sentiments between rungs on the company ladder differ sharply around AI.

A series of charts measuring how different positions in a company feel about having AI in the workplace.

While two-thirds of polled leaders are optimistic about AI in 2023, less than half of polled frontline employees shared the same sentiment. Frontline employees were also the biggest group that responded with concern (nearly 40%).

Importantly, frontline employees are almost as optimistic as they are concerned about AI in the workplace.

PositionOptimismConcern
Leaders62%22%
Managers54%28%
Frontline Employees42%39%

Managers were closer to leaders in their AI optimism, though some experts believe their jobs might actually be the most at risk of being replaced all together.

More Use, More Optimism Around AI

With ChatGPT reaching 100 million active users just two months after launching, it’s clear that more and more people are experimenting with generative AI.

In BCG’s poll, regular AI users—categorized as people who use it at least once a week for work—are nearly three times more optimistic than concerned about AI’s impact on their work in 2023.

AI Use LevelOptimismConcern
Regular62%22%
Rare55%27%
None36%42%

Even rare users are two times more optimistic than cautious, with the non-user category registering the most concern.

Which brings us to who these regular users are.

A series of charts measuring how people who use AI are more optimistic and less concerned about having AI in the workplace.

A staggering 80% of the leaders polled say they’re already regular users of AI, compared to 46% managers and 20% frontline employees.

While eyebrow-raising, these figures are not surprising.

People in leadership positions tend to have a mandate to stay ahead of the curve on current business trends, and along with their less strictly defined roles, have more freedom to try, use, and adopt AI tools while they formulate policies for their workplace.

PositionRegular UserRare UserNonuser
Leaders80%12%8%
Managers46%23%31%
Frontline Employees20%20%60%

At the same time, AI tools may not be green-lit en masse in many workplaces yet, preventing frontline employees from giving them a go.

So Is AI Coming For Jobs or Not?

Regardless of how definitively one can make a claim about artificial intelligence taking away people’s jobs, the survey respondents were unanimous that AI in the workplace will have some kind of an impact on their employment.

Pie charts showing how a vast majority of survey responders want upskilling to dealing with AI in the workplace.

Slightly more than one-third felt that their job is in jeopardy as of 2023, while an overwhelming 86% polled said they needed training to adapt to how AI will transform their work.

With how fast the field is currently transforming, upskilling could be the safest path to follow as the AI revolution unfolds.

Where Does This Data Come From?

Source: The AI at Work: What People Are Saying report from the Boston Consulting Group.

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