Nearly half (43%) of organizations spanning 18 business sectors throughout North America, EMEA, Asia/Pacific and Latin America, are already using or plan to use the Internet of Things (IoT) in 2016. This comes from a November poll by technology research firm Gartner of 465 IT and business professionals in these regions.

29% of respondents say their organizations are currently using IoT. An additional 14% say they plan to implement IoT this year while another 21% said they plan to after 2016.

“In other words, the number of organizations adopting IoT will grow 50 percent in 2016, reaching 43 percent of organizations overall,” Gartner says. “In aggregate, the majority of organizations (64 percent) plan to eventually implement IoT. However, it is also important to note that another 38 percent have no plans to implement IoT, including 9 percent that see no relevance whatsoever in the technologies.

“While there is near universal acceptance of the importance of the IoT, less than a third of organizations surveyed were actively exploiting it,” said Gartner Research Director Chet Geschickter. “This is largely because of two reasons. The first set of hurdles are business-related. Many organizations have yet to establish a clear picture of what benefits the IoT can deliver, or have not yet invested the time to develop ideas for how to apply IoT to their business. The second set of hurdles are the organizations themselves. Many of the survey participants have insufficient expertise and staffing for IoT and lack clear leadership.”

The firm estimates that more than half (56%) of businesses in asset-intensive industries will have implemented IoT by the end of 2016, and that a third (36%) of service-oriented “light” businesses will.

So far, for businesses who have already implemented IoT, the primary business case, according to Gartner, is internally focused, such as improved efficiencies, cost savings, and enhanced asset utilization, as opposed to external-facing IoT implementations for enhancing customer experiences or increasing revenue.

Cybersecurity, integration and management of business requirements are considered to be the biggest challenges associated with the IoT. Still, 2016 is poised to be a “very big year” for IoT adoption, according to Gartner.

Image via iStock