Computers are regarded as ‘intelligent’ machines, but this intelligence only comes from human operators telling them what to do. Now, we’re seeing a new wave of innovation that’s transforming all kinds of machines – not just computers – into ‘intelligent’ devices that will revolutionize our biggest industries.

The Industrial Internet will be the most important development since the Industrial Revolution, giving the world a platform to exchange untold amounts of Big Data – and that will lead to massive advantages that experts have only just began to quantify.

There are three crucial ‘enablers’ driving the advance of the Industrial Internet. Firstly the essential hardware, including digital communications devices and the advanced sensors machines need to communicate, has become much more affordable. Second is the exponential growth of computing power, particularly the development of smaller and more powerful microprocessors that allow us to talk with and manipulate any machine. Third, and arguably the most important, is Big Data software which gives us the ability to crunch the massive amounts of data these machines generate and understand what they’re saying.

The Intelligence of Big Data

Using Big Data analytics, it’ll be possible to drive efficiency across every industry that matters, from manufacturing and health care, to energy production and transportation. The benefits for the transportation sector are particularly promising. According to the International Energy Association (IEA), the sector accounts for an enormous 27 percent of the world’s energy demands. Industrial fleets including trucks, aircraft, ships, trains and buses are said to consume almost half of this demand. By increasing these fleet’s efficiency, the IEA claims it should be possible to reduce their fuel demands by 14 percent, leading to a seven percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Using Big Data, transportation companies will be able to calculate the optimum speeds at which their trucks should drive, whilst engineers will be able to determine the best fuel mixtures to increase engine efficiency at the lowest cost. Meanwhile, the aviation industry can use the intelligence they derive from the Industrial Internet to design more efficient engines and predict maintenance cycles so these rarely, if ever, break down.

The Human Factor

Advances in Big Data, computing power and hardware have converged to make the Industrial Internet a reality, but there’s a fourth crucial ‘enabler’ that’s often overlooked but every bit as important.

Just like the original Industrial Revolution, this coming wave of intelligent machines will depend just as much on human talent as the technological advancements that people have made. The Industrial Internet revolution will demand thousands of people with specialist skills to design, build, operate, regulate and secure the underlying technologies that drive it.

In its Industrial Internet Vision whitepaper (PDF), GE notes that this revolution will lead to massive demand for next-generation engineers who can incorporate traditional skills such as mechanical engineering with IT skills. Thousands of data scientists will be enlisted to create algorithms and platforms needed to collect the data generated by intelligent machines. Software developers will be needed to design the analytics tools capable of processing and reading that data, and there’ll be a huge wave of user interface experts, whose job will be to sift through reports and identify those that need to be acted upon.

Meanwhile, thousands of professionals will be working to support the Industrial Internet’s infrastructure, including network engineers whose job it will be to design and maintain the networks transmitting that data; security experts will be tasked with devising ways of securing those vulnerable networks and systems; regulators, who will be required to come up with consistent standards and protocols that can help businesses and industries to flourish; and also educators, tasked with the job of infusing the above skills into new students and ensuring the have the abilities required to succeed in a world driven by Big Data.

No doubt, the Industrial Internet will create many more roles that we haven’t even conceived. As our industries are rapidly transformed, companies will be forced to trust their most dynamic and versatile employees to fill these new positions, and those that take the initiative first will almost certainly see the biggest rewards. The Industrial Internet might be built on artificial intelligence, but it’s the human intelligence that makes everything falls into place.