Vasupradha Ramachandran
Intelligent connectivity is a combination of high-speed, low-latency 5G networks with Artificial Intelligence which can potentially connect billions of devices with the help of the Internet of Things (IoT). By 2025, it is expected that there would 30.9 billion connected devices across the globe. The combined capabilities of these technologies can bring about massive changes in various technological verticals. Of late, network service providers are aiming to provide more than just network facilities to support the growing technologies.
With AI, apart from the advantage of always being connected, things will be smarter than ever. Already AI-powered virtual assistants are playing a mighty role in most of our lives right from waking up in the morning to fixing appointments. Intelligent connectivity could help with the betterment of the existing AI applications by making them more reliable, secure and productive. The combination of IoT, 5G and AI is collectively called intelligent connectivity.
Market adoption and growth rate of intelligent connectivity
The rate of adoption of intelligent connectivity might differ vary from country to country because of the delay in the deployments in certain geographical areas. This narrows it down to the list of developed countries that contribute towards the adoption of intelligent connectivity.
China is expected to be the key driver in the adoption of this technology with around 30% of its population out of 1.3 billion 5G adopters across the globe by 2025. The rate of adoption is also expected to be high in Japan and South Korea due to the number of mobile subscribers. North America, Europe, Middle East Asia and the Asia Pacific will also contribute visibly towards the adoption of intelligent connectivity.
Applications and use cases of intelligent connectivity
The high-speed and low-latency connectivity by 5G networks along with the ability to collect massive amounts of data with the help of data-driven decision-making capabilities of AI will have the capabilities to potentially change the way things work in almost all of the business verticals. The main sectors that will majorly be benefited from intelligent connectivity are as follows.
Transportation and Logistics
The low-latency characteristics of 5G will enable drivers and roadside infrastructure to collect and share huge volumes of data in real-time. The data consists of details on the location, speed of vehicles, the amount of traffic, pedestrians on the road, etc. Intelligent traffic monitoring systems on vehicles will then use this information to assist the driver in driving safely.
Many companies like Tesla have already started working on self-driving vehicles and released prototypes of those vehicles. But these self-driving vehicles are not road-legal in many countries due to the insufficient capabilities of technology in certain aspects at present. Shortly, AI and 5G together, will assist in developing reliable self-driving vehicles. The data collected by the smart computer will transmit data to the available sensors on-board using 5G to minimize latency. This will help in identifying the surrounding vehicles in the environment and other obstacles on the road. Moreover, the development of autonomous vehicles will greatly increase the adoption of Mobility as a Service in cities where network connectivity is abundant.
Industrial and Manufacturing operations
Intelligent connectivity in the industrial sector will enable the machines to effectively connect in real-time and with AI capabilities, the machines can make data-driven decisions to carry out operations. This will greatly increase productivity and minimizes the chances for manual and human errors.
Applications that are driven by intelligent connectivity can enable conducting various tasks like maintenance, inspections and repairs without the need for human intervention. This could be very helpful in industrial areas like mining and oil rigs where humans have to go through life-threatening situations to carry out these tasks. These applications can be used in safe environments as well.
Healthcare
5G’s constant low-latency availability will enable connecting various devices that will accelerate the adoption of wearable technologies in hospitals. AI-powered platforms will help in constantly monitoring the patient’s current health status and predicting the possible scenarios. These AI platforms, by collecting all the relevant data, will be able to provide tailored medical treatments to patients. By getting to know more about patient’s status, hospitals can have the necessary resources available in advance. Intelligent connectivity can also develop the rate of adoption of remote healthcare facilities as doctors can monitor, inspect and offer feedback for patients in remote locations without the need for any transportation.
Safety and security
5G connectivity can enable the deployment of numerous security devices across premises and actively connect them in real-time and enable sharing data in ultra-low latencies. High-quality videos can be transmitted in real-time without delays to have a clear view of the environment. AI and machine learning capabilities can identify individuals using facial recognition, analyze activities such as body movements and facial expressions to notify the people in case of any distress. AI can also be used to detect past events to improve security and predict potential future scenarios.
Apart from the above-mentioned sectors, cloud-based gaming services, Augmented reality and virtual reality services, etc can also be massively benefited from intelligent connectivity. There are a lot of other use cases for intelligent connectivity but we still have a long way to go to completely implement this technology. However, due to the combination of various powerful technologies, the cost of implementation would be higher. But for companies who are looking to develop their business at a faster rate, intelligent connectivity can offer so much more than what they could fathom to achieve their goals.
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