The birth of an Internet of Things ecosystem

The Internet of things and artificial intelligence is held to be among the most important technology trends we are facing now. More and more physical devices with built-in internet connectivity will provide us with innovative digital solutions that simplify our everyday lives and the way we do business. Some estimates suggest that there will be nearly 30 billion units in the world in 2021 connected to internet within a wide range of industry sectors. Through artificial intelligence, computers can analyze large amounts of data generated from those devices connected to the network and find new and better solutions to problems previously unavailable. In Norway, an ecosystem is now being built around the Internet of the Things in the Trondheim region. Here education research and entrepreneurship takes place in an open collaboration between academia, business and government with NTNU, Telenor and Wireless Trondheim as the key players today. However, there are also challenges associated with these new trends that require us to be smart in terms of how we conduct research, innovation and business development in the future. Learning from other similar initiatives globally, as well as focus on a broad stakeholder composition in the start-up of such regional ecosystems, will be useful to address these challenges. Handled properly, the Internet of things and artificial intelligence can form the basis for economic growth and creation of new jobs in Norway.