I have been working in the M2M, IoT, and data space since founding Pod Group (a provider of IoT connectivity & billing software) in 1999, and have become greatly interested in how new technologies affect our working lives. Seeing the changes brought by automation, sensor technology, and artificial intelligence first-hand has given me insight into the everyday effects of technological progress. This led me to develop a management structure that promotes our human skills, in order to help us take full advantage of AI and the future of tech, and to ensure that businesses are prepared for radical change. Follow me on Twitter @ctowersclark and send your suggestions on what I should write next to content@podgroup.com

In more industrial situations, an AI system that can recognize different materials and grasp things more effectively without having to repeatedly try to pick up an object could bring new capabilities to a wide range of different processes and sectors. Handling extremely hazardous materials such as nuclear waste, for example, could be made far safer if a human were not required to control a robotic arm and a system could use image inputs to learn how best to pick up a container or even raw radioactive waste with a significantly reduced chance of dropping and spilling toxic material. In construction, autonomous lifting arms or those attached to vehicles could calculate the weight of an object based on its material and 3D images of, say, a steel girder. When digging or drilling to lay foundations, prepare a site, or laying underwater pipelines, ultrasonic images could be fed into the system and paired with tactile probe data to determine exactly where to drill in real-time without damaging existing infrastructure or delicate ecosystems.