Author: Connected World
Enterprises must work together to address complex sustainability issues no one can solve alone. Business leaders across the globe know that reducing energy consumption, leveraging the IoT (Internet of Things) to pursue digital transformation, and tackling sustainability goals on an individual level and through collaboration is a mandatory business objective. In an AVEVA survey of more than 850 global industrial leaders, 85% say they plan to increase their investment in digital transformation in the next three years. Why? One key reason, according to the survey, is to tackle climate change, in part by embracing automation and leveraging advanced technologies to unlock…
A growing trend, IT (information technology) and OT (operational technology) are more often coming together to improve business efficiencies, employee safety, business agility, and support a hybrid work environment. At its core, IT expertise is needed in order to scale and secure the network, as OT systems are brought onto the corporate network. We are seeing this line beginning to blur in a number of different ways. For one, Gartner suggests roughly 82% of CIOs have responsibility for OT systems, which has increased in the last three years. What’s more, 89% say it will increase in the next three years.…
Voice command is gradually becoming a more prominent way consumers interact with their devices. However, concerns about “big brother” are still ever-present. As companies work to make the use of voice assistants as intuitive, seamless, and secure as possible, the AI (artificial intelligence) technologies behind these solutions will need to evolve to support the next generation of voice-activated use cases. A new study from Hub suggests 83% of consumers ages 16-74 have used voice command to control one or more devices, including smartphones, tablets, smart speakers, and vehicle infotainment systems, among others. For 62% of these consumers, voice commands are…
New York City, as the most populous area in the country, can literally make its own rules above and beyond those of the state of New York. For example, buildings account for two-thirds of the annual carbon emissions in New York City, and Local Law 97 is part of New York City’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050. Approximately 50,000 commercial and residential buildings in New York City are now required to obtain a Building Energy Efficiency Rating by 2024 or face penalties. Research has found that one of the factors that can benefit owners in…
It isn’t CES if it isn’t full of surprises, but no one wanted the surprise to be Omicron, the latest COVID variant wreaking havoc on society. The industry so desperately wanted a normal CES this year, but what it got is a halfway-back-to-normal-but-still-not-normal CES, in which several major companies bailed at the last minute and attendance was a fraction of what it usually is. Despite all of that, CES 2022 showcased some amazing, connected technologies and, per usual, it helped set the tone for the upcoming year in terms of the IoT (Internet of Things) tech trends. Not surprisingly, given…
For the past year or so, key companies in the appliance space have been working together on something important—the HCA (Home Connectivity Alliance), an open, industry-facing, member-driven manufacturers alliance comprised of global home appliance, HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), and TV manufacturers. Founding member companies American Standard, Arcelik, Electrolux, GE, Haier, Samsung, and Trane have come together to focus on discovering how appliance manufacturers can use connectivity to best serve their customers for the long run. HCA president and board chairman Yoon Ho Choi, head of IoT (Internet of Things) business planning and partnerships at Samsung, says when HCA…
Episode 751 12.21.21 Peggy and Sanjay Ravi, GM automotive, mobility, & transportation industry, Microsoft, tackle the year in review and the year ahead. Ravi discusses some of the interesting highlights in automotive—and the challenges the industry endured as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the semiconductor shortage. Despite all the challenges, the industry has remained very resilient, and he shares some of the industry’s most interesting partnerships. Below is an excerpt from the interview. To listen to the conversation from The Peggy Smedley Show, click here or to access the entire show go to https://peggysmedleyshow.com Peggy Smedley: …I thought maybe the…
Plastics flowing into the ocean are expected to almost triple by 2040; that is, of course, unless we take immediate action to protect our environment. SABIC and Microsoft are an example of two companies coming together to do something big for our environment. The two companies recently collaborated to create Microsoft’s first consumer electronic product—The Microsoft Ocean Plastic Mouse—with an exterior shell containing 20% recycled ocean plastic. Ocean plastic is defined as plastic that has been certified by a third party as recovered from any ocean or ocean-feeding waterways or where it washed ashore from these locations. Ocean plastic differs…
Lithium prices are soaring, fueled by the EV (electric vehicle) momentum. Without lithium-ion batteries, there are no EVs. But as the U.S.(United States) heads towards a greener economy, we’re reminded that we do not yet have an alternative energy solution that doesn’t have some sort of environmental impact. As with almost any commodity, rising demand and prices may incentivize some suppliers to cut corners. The U.S. has some of the world’s strictest environmental standards, constraints that make establishing and maintaining a domestic lithium supply even more imperative. The U.S. is already running behind Bloomberg estimates that the U.S. will have…
The future of work discussion has always been an interesting one, but never so much as it is right now, because of how much has changed in the past 18 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Globally, the shifts businesses needed to make to adjust to the new reality were so major that there just seems to be no going back to the former pre-pandemic status quo. In speaking with experts across industries, Connected World has found that enterprise leaders in just about every vertical believe the pandemic sped up trends that were already underway, like the shift to hybrid work models…