The global IoT market is set to surpass $1.8 trillion in 2028 driven by 5G and AI according to research firm GlobalData. The company forecasts that the market will achieve a CAGR of 13.5%, growing from $959.6 billion recorded in 2023 to $1.8 trillion in revenue in 2028. However, the firm says that the IoT market must address challenges such as security concerns and fragmented standards to ensure widespread adoption and success.

The predictions are contained in GlobalData’s Strategic Intelligence report, “Internet of Things”. The report claims that enterprise IoT will account for 72% of market revenue by 2028, up from 70% in 2023. The consumer segment will make up 28% in 2028, down from 30% in 2023.

According to the report, new terrestrial wireless and satellite technologies will expand IoT connectivity options. Enhanced 5G now supports IoT use cases that demand lower complexity, reduced cost, and decreased power consumption. The research also argues that AI is increasingly important as an IoT catalyst, particularly AIoT.

William Rojas, Research Director, Strategic Intelligence at GlobalData, said: ”AIoT technologies in the form of embedded AI acceleration microprocessors, combined with the addition of new wireless access technologies, will act as a further catalyst for IoT adoption across enterprise and consumer sectors. Deployments that might have initially used only one type of IoT sensor are expanding to include a wide range of sensors as the cloud analytics processing capability continues to expand.”

However, security remains a concern for IoT deployments. The fragmented security standards landscape and weak security of many IoT devices could hold back further IoT adoption. The firms claims that despite ongoing industry efforts, there are no globally accepted IoT security standards. Many IoT devices have limited computing capacity and cannot run effective security software, leaving them and the networks to which they are connected vulnerable to cyberattacks.

Rojas said: “Unlike other technological methods and tools such as AI, cybersecurity, and cloud computing, IoT is a digital ecosystem consisting of interdependent connectivity and data layers that aggregate, store, and process telemetric, image, and video data from IoT sensors. Embedded AIoT can also play a role in enhancing security at the IoT device level. Where more heavy compute resources are needed with low latency, then edge computing will be the best option.”