Research Study Calls Data Security the Greatest Challenge for AIoT

The Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT)—a combination of AI and the IoT—delivers intelligent and connected systems that are capable of correcting and healing themselves. This combination of two independent technologies has and will continue to have a growing impact on multiple industry verticals, with some calling it a “lethal combination” that is set to lead the Industry 4.0 revolution. 

Before it is able to do this, however, there are several barriers and challenges that the AIoT needs to overcome. These include cloud infrastructure, latency, and bandwidth, and current advances in edge computing are clearing the way.

But there is one challenge in particular that is the biggest and may continue to plague the AIoT to an extent in perpetuity, even when some of the technical barriers have been broken down—data security.

 

The Edge of Tomorrow

This claim is according to new research by XMOS which claims that data security is one of the “biggest risks” to the $3 trillion AIoT market. XMOS released its findings on April 30 in its ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ report. 

XMOS states that engineers are concerned about security because of the high risk of data leaks and hacking as devices become smarter and start routinely handling more and more information of a sensitive nature. 

 

The XMOS Edge of Tomorrow report called on 200 electronics engineers to share their views regarding the building blocks of the AIoT

 

The Barriers to Adopting AI in Products 

The XMOS study stats that nearly half (45%) of the electrical engineers surveyed believed that, as such, it is data security and autonomy that present the biggest risks to the AIoT and the looming AIoT “revolution”. 38% believe that the biggest threat is more bandwidth while 32% believe it is latency, 24% believe it is scalability (or a lack of) and a further 24% believe it is cloud infrastructure limitations. 

The question asked of these engineers by XMOS was: “What are the biggest barriers to adopting AI in your products?” with data security and autonomy, latency, scalability, cost, and power consumption being the five choices. Respondent engineers were also asked about their perception of the AIoT and whether they believe incorporating AI into their products boosts their competitive advantage. 

 

Technological Advancements Are Solving Some of These Issues

Commenting on the report Mark Lippett, CEO at XMOS, said: “The AIoT market will reach its potential when specific concerns have been addressed around how to make individual devices smarter and safer, without costs spiralling out of control and without overloading the cloud with significantly more data processing."

While we do not know when it will hit its peak, the convergence of AI and the IoT will have huge effects on almost every industry, from automotive to finance and electronics to manufacturing and supply chain.