The underestimated impact of the convergence of AI, IoT and big data

For years many of us have been paying attention to the ways that several technological realities such as the Internet of Things, big data and artificial intelligence (AI) are impacting organizations across numerous industries, applications and areas. When we looked at the several technologies in the SMAC stack (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) or IDC's core 3rd platform technologies we looked at them separately but also in their combinations and interlinked value as they powered new next generation applications. It seemed pretty obvious that cloud services, big data/analytics, mobility (mobile devices, apps and broadband) and social (business) were fully intertwined ever since we started writing about that third platform, which IDC presented back in 2011. In that sense of intertwining the same goes for the second platform and its many technologies in areas such as local area networks, the client-server model, personal computers, the Internet and so forth. And in case we forgot that these technology-driven realities, as well as their real underlying technologies (there is no such things as one social business technology, mobile technology or even cloud technology) had little value and impact as such, Gartner reminded us that it was the convergence of mobile, social, cloud and information which enabled digital business through what the research firm called The Nexus of Forces.