Author: Connected World

At IBM Think last week, organizations showcased deploying and scaling innovations such as AI (artificial intelligence) and quantum at speed and scale quickly. This message was front and center that resonated throughout the many stories shared while I was in Boston for the event. I had the pleasure to meet IBM Bob, uncover more about Digital Sovereignty, dig deeper into IBM Quantum, and get firmly planted in what feels like  Day Zero of the AI revolution. With today’s pace of change and speed of innovation, the time has come to build the castle while the princess is in it. At…

Connected World Editorial Director Peggy Smedley recently sat down with Twisthink CEO Dave Moelker to get to the heart of why contextual data is so vital today and why this is truly a gamechanger for OEMs (original-equipment manufacturers) as they look to the future to compete, and deliver outcomes that outperform their most challenging competitors in a world that never sleeps, but demands provocative data insights, smart new revenue streams, and excellent winning service anywhere in the globe. And that means data context. CW: Why do so many predictive maintenance solutions still lack critical context? DM: Too many solutions were…

Recently Kelly Ireland, CEO of CBT and Connected World Editorial Director Peggy Smedley had an opportunity to catch up to talk more about the biggest cultural challenges and opportunities reshaping the connected worker across services industries, healthcare, transportation, and beyond. They addressed what’s holding organizations back, what’s finally starting to move, and where mindset and technology must meet if there is going to be real transformation. CW: What’s the biggest cultural belief with the connected worker that still slows transformation today? KI: It’s not the technology. For many companies, the barrier is the culture that has developed over decades—combined with new…

As AI (artificial intelligence) and cloud computing continue to expand, data centers are facing growing pressure to reduce energy consumption while maintaining performance. As a result, researchers are developing new mathematical and algorithmic approaches to make these systems more efficient and sustainable. As one example, researchers at Virgina Tech are exploring how advanced mathematical algorithms can reduce power usage in data centers while also improving data security and system performance. Their work focuses on optimizing how computing resources are allocated and managed. Where this becomes particularly innovative is in the use of mathematical modeling to solve multiple challenges at once.…

3.8 Million Workers by 2030 Are organizations doing enough to protect lone workers? Berg Insight suggests adoption of connected safety solutions is growing steadily, but still far from universal. Around 2.5 million lone workers across Europe, North American, and Australia and New Zealand were using connected safety solutions by the end of 2025. That number reflects consistent growth yet also highlights how early the market remains. The market is projected to grow to roughly 3.8 million users by 2030. Europe alone is expected to grow from 1.4 million users in 2025 to more than 2.2 million by 2030. Perhaps one…

Will AI Agents Confess to Their Mistakes or Cover Them Up? By Tim Lindner During the past year there has been a growing number of reports raising the alarm about AI (artificial intelligence), in formats such as chatbots and agents, giving false or misleading information in response to queries “it” did not like. In short, lying. So, it comes as an interesting counterpoint to this concern that an AI agent admitted its guilt by providing a “true confession” about how it improperly deleted an entire database. The broad spectrum of print and film coverage of “true confessions” as a genre…

Academia, industry, and research institutions are working together to achieve greater innovation, as AI (artificial intelligence) expands beyond just software and into the physical world. As a result, we are seeing the emergence of collaborative research hubs focused on physical AI, where intelligent systems can interact directly with real-world environments. Case in point: Fujitsu Limited and Carnegie Mellon University have announced the launch of the Fujitsu-Carnegie Mellon Physical AI Research Center. This initiative is designed to advance core technologies that improve the scalability and real-world capabilities of AI systems, with a focus on bridging academic research and industry deployment. By…

27% Are security investments keeping pace with emerging threats? Juniper Research suggests adoption of post-quantum cryptography is accelerating, but not fast enough. Just 27% of businesses globally are expected to deploy post-quantum cryptography by 2035, even as the total number of adopters surpasses 100 million. That is a sharp rise from only about 35,000 organizations in 2026, highlighting how early the market still is. The market is projected to grow from $1.2 billion in 2026 to $13.3 billion in 2035. Perhaps one of the more interesting takeaways from the research is that quantum-safe security is moving from theoretical planning to…

This One Is Virtual, Not Physical. Historically, the word “diaspora” has been used in the context of the movement, migration, or scattering of people based on race, ethnicity, and religion. For whatever reason, people that had been geographically displaced. Regardless of the reason, the movement of people has not been pleasant nor without casualties, and these historical displacements have been mostly permanent. The displaced could not and did not return home. I see a new type of diaspora in progress. It is the displacement of humans in a variety of work roles by AI (artificial intelligence). The crucial question is…

While AI (artificial intelligence) is rapidly transforming industries, its progress is increasingly constrained by the hardware it depends on. As traditional chip improvements slow and energy demands rise, researchers are rethinking how computing systems are designed. At Arizona State University, new efforts are underway to develop adaptable hardware that can keep pace with the evolving needs of AI applications. Aman Arora, an assistant professor in the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, is leading research on reconfigurable computing. His work focuses on FPGAs (field-programmable gate arrays), which are flexible chips that can be reprogrammed after manufacturing to create faster, more…