Global spending on industrial internet-of-things (IoT) platforms is likely to go up from $1.67 billion in 2018 to $12.44 billion in 2024, according to a recent IoT Analytics report.

The industrial IoT should increase at a compound annual growth rate of 40 percent over the next few years, the report added. Among the basic technologies of Industry 4.0 are AI, additive manufacturing (also known as 3D printing), and blockchain, which provides verifiable control of the manufacturing supply network.

As autonomous IoT platforms start to replace the large software-driven manufacturing execution systems currently in place in the manufacturing sector, “both manufacturers and platform developers need to make sure they’re building the infrastructure they’ll need to support these new capabilities,” quipped Choice IOT’s CEO Darren Sadana.

The changes now taking place in manufacturing are often referred to as Industry 4.0, or the fourth industrial revolution. The first three industrial revolutions were precipitated by the transition from handwork to machinery (late 18th century), electrification and standardization (late 19th-early 20th century), and computerization (beginning c. 1950), Sadana said.