Blockchain, IoT and AI — A Perfect Fit

Authors: Riccarda Joas, Jonas Gross, Philipp Sandner (German version here)

Blockchain, IoT, and AI are innovative technologies which will pave the way of digital transformation and will disrupt various industries. These three technologies will converge and will create new business models: Autonomous agents (i.e., sensors, cars, machines, and other IoT devices) will act as own profit centers 1) that have a digital twin leveraging IoT, 2) that autonomously send and receive money leveraging blockchain technology and 3) that autonomously make decisions as independent economic agents leveraging AI and data analytics. We argue that this convergence of technologies will drive the development of such autonomous business models and the digital transformation of companies.[1]

Introduction

Today, blockchain technology, internet of things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI) are remarkable innovations, which will improve business processes, bring new business models into existence and disrupt whole industries:

1. Blockchain, for example, can increase trust, transparency, security, and privacy of business processes by providing a shared, decentralized distributed ledger. Precisely, blockchain technology or, in general, distributed ledger technology can store all kinds of assets similar to a register.
2. IoT drives the automatization of industries and user-friendliness of business processes, which is essential for the German and the European industry.
3. AI improves processes by detecting patterns and optimizing outcomes of these processes.

Currently, the interconnection between these innovations is mainly neglected. However, these innovations can and should be applied jointly and will converge in the future. A possible connection between these technologies could be that IoT collects and provides data, blockchain offers the infrastructure and sets up the rules of engagement while AI optimizes processes and rules. By design, blockchain, IoT and AI are complements and can exploit their full potential if applied combined.

This article discusses the added value, which blockchain, IoT and AI can provide for companies. We argue that the convergence of these technologies can be particular beneficial for data management, identity management and the automatisation of business processes.