The Internet of Things has been a huge growth area in recent years, with a tremendous amount of innovation looking to capitalize on the connectivity of an increasing range of devices.

The growth in connected devices is what a recent IBM report has called The Economy of Things.  The report details three core areas that they believe will be transformed:

1. Asset Marketplaces – I’ve written previously about the under-utilization of physical assets in areas such as healthcare, and the IBM report reveals just how widespread this is.  It suggests that nearly 70% of real estate in the US is under-utilized, which opens up the opportunity for tremendous gains to be made via the use of digital marketplaces.
2. Risk Management – when it comes to providing credit and finance to ventures, it is often difficult to accurately determine the risk profile of the borrower, especially in markets with no formal measure of credit.  The report suggests that digital usage data and virtual contract reinforcement can revolutionize credit markets.
3. Efficiency – The authors contend that the insights derived from connected devices could yield sizable efficiency gains, especially in industries that aren’t technology intensive.  Industries such as agriculture could be huge beneficiaries of this, for instance.

Predicting how fast moving industries or trends will unfold is always fraught with difficulty, and this is certainly the case with the Internet of Things.  Nevertheless, this is a useful introduction to some of the ways in which it might be impacting various industries and sectors.

As with any change, it pays to be on top of those at the forefront of innovation so you can learn from the numerous experiments that are happening around the world and can apply your learning in your own experiments.