CompTIA, a leading non-profit organization that supports the global tech industry, recently announced the publication of their 2021 Emerging Technology Top 10 List. Instead of utilizing a single ranked list of technologies, CompTIA chose to focus on the leading applications in relation to AI and IoT.
CompTIA’s internal Emerging Technology Community, composed of tech executives and thought leaders in the industry, utilized the data from a recent quantitative study from an online survey given to professionals in February 2021. Four hundred US-based businesses identified the most common use cases for IoT and AI. CompTIA then narrowed that list to five use cases for each technology, based on member input and experience.
“We challenged ourselves to be as relevant as possible, inclusive of our community members’ input, and prescriptive with recommendations,” Greg Plum, senior vice president, strategic alliances for Markee.io, and chair of the council, said. “We made a conscious effort this year to move to a more practical model – allowing our audience to understand not only the types of technologies that were emerging but how they are being leveraged and monetized right now.”
AI was most used in predictive sales and lead scoring, CRM and service delivery optimization, chatbots, asset tracking, and industrial monitoring. IoT, on the other hand, was identified as useful in detecting security threats, automating marketing campaigns, smart badges, smart buildings, and fleet management.
“The pandemic has accelerated digital transformation and changed how we work,” Khali Henderson, senior partner at BuzzTheory and vice-chair of the Council, noted. “We learned – somewhat painfully – that traditional tech infrastructure doesn’t provide the agility, scalability, and resilience we now require. Going forward, organizations will invest in technologies and services that power digital work, automation, and human-machine collaboration. Emerging technologies like AI and IoT will be a big part of that investment, which IDC pegs at $656 billion globally this year.”
As AI and IoT continue to work together for smarter and more efficient processes, we can expect to see more applications being used to transform the workplace. Industry leaders can then make better, data-driven decisions to drive sales and further enhance their service offerings.
