1. HOW SMART PRODUCTS
HELP COMPANIES PROFIT
FROM DATA

2. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
HOW SMART PRODUCTS HELP
COMPANIES PROFIT FROM DATA
Data and AI are making our products smarter, which in turn
can generate new and valuable data back to businesses. In
this article, we explore the important relationship between
data in our ever-smarter products.

3. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Smart and connected devices have permanently changed the way we
live, work and play. Many of us feel we aren't complete without our
smartphones nearby. So much so that a term – “nomophobia” - has
been coined to describe this form of separation anxiety, reportedly felt
by up to 44 percent of people!
As well as phones, in recent years, we have seen our lives taken over by
smartwatches, smart TVs, smart toys, smart kitchen and bathroom
appliances, smart exercise equipment, and smart just about anything
else you can think of.

4. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
When we’re talking about products, “smart” often means networked. Increasingly
we also hear about intelligent devices that use machine learning – a form of
artificial intelligence (AI) – to get better at learning about us and helping us in
everyday life.
What they all have in common is that they use data to operate in a way that is
more helpful to us than the non-smart devices we’ve traditionally used for the
same jobs. Giving existing tools access to data has meant we can reimagine most
of the everyday objects that we rely on to carry out basic tasks. Businesses across
just about every industry have worked out how to profit from this growing
demand for everything we use to become better, more helpful, and more
convenient.

5. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BEST SMART
PRODUCTS?
We now share our homes with AI assistants that play music for us and help us
to schedule our busy lives. Today they also often act as hubs for controlling
the myriad of other networked home appliances such as lights, doorbells,
thermostats, TVs, and security cameras. Devices like smart washing machines
are not simply remote-controllable – Samsung's range of smart machines
uses AI to detect what's in your laundry and choose the most suitable
program, automatically determining the amount of water to be used and how
long it will spin for, to minimize waste. Jura makes a coffee machine that
teaches itself to understand your personal preferences such as flavor, strength,
and whether to add sugar or sweeteners.

6. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Outside of the home, intelligent vehicles, including cars, trucks, ships, and aircraft,
are quickly becoming a reality. Tesla activated level two autonomous driving in its
vehicles this year. Drivers still need to be alert and have two hands on the wheel at
all times in order to take over, but the company (and others) plan on unveiling
fully autonomous vehicles soon. Dubai aims to make 25 percent of its public
transport network reliant on autonomous vehicles by 2025, and in 2017
demonstrated the viability of autonomous flying taxis, with none other than the
crown prince acting as a guinea pig for the test flight! The autonomous ship
Mayflower is set to make the first self-guided journey across the Atlantic ocean
this year, named after the first ship that carried pilgrims to the new world in 1620.
And autonomous construction vehicles are also on the horizon, with companies
like Built Robotics working to develop excavators and bulldozers that could
potentially operate on human-free constructions sites.

7. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
The development of smart textiles is also opening up the possibility of many new
types of products, including sportswear that monitors performance. Hexoskin
makes smart clothing that was initially designed to monitor health indicators such
as heart rate and skin temperature in elderly people but is now worn by
astronauts on the International Space Station. Smart textiles often work by
embedding circuits and sensors into the weave of the fabric. Another smart
clothing manufacturer, Nextiles, has partnered with bra makers Lilu to create a
smart breast-pumping bra for new mothers who are breastfeeding.
All of these innovations have come about because companies looked into ways to
integrate the wealth of data in the world around us, advanced “smart” computing
solutions, and everyday products we’ve used since the start of the modern era, in
order to come up with something new and better.

8. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
ANY COMPANY CAN CREATE SMART PRODUCTS
The fact that start-ups are so prevalent in this space is a great indicator of the fact that you
don’t have to be a Silicon Valley giant to create products that are networked and powered
by AI. The important thing is that you understand what data is available and what problems
it could help your customers to overcome as they are using your products.
Often this can mean creating a service that you can sell alongside your product to
generate additional revenue. Similar to how fitness trackers will provide basic functionality
“out-of-the-box” but also upsell us bolt-on services that give us access to advanced
analytics and insights. Or security cameras that let us take out subscriptions to cloud
storage services where footage is automatically uploaded.

9. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
By thinking about data services in this way, companies can create products that add
new functionality, improve ease of access, and increase customer satisfaction with
their devices. They can also understand more about how and when devices are likely
to fail or break down, reducing the cost of servicing warranties and increasing
product lifespan.
This means data gathered by these types of devices can also be used to further
improve a company’s products, as well as its internal processes, such as
manufacturing or customer service. As we mentioned already, Tesla is still working
on getting fully self-driving cars on the road, but the existing cars are themselves
already helping with the preparation; their arrays of cameras and sensors are
gathering data on roads and driver behavior that’s fed back to the company and
used in the simulation training of the next generation of autonomous vehicles.

10. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
A solid data strategy underpins all the most successful attempts at creating smarter
products. This means understanding how data can be used to hit your company’s
business goals, what data sources you already have available (internally and
externally), how to start benefitting from unstructured as well as structured data,
what technology infrastructure you will need to start putting it to work, what human
skills and talent you will need in your team, and how you will measure your success.
Often this means working hard to develop a data-centric culture. The importance of
data-driven decision-making should be understood at all levels, from the boardroom
to the shop floor, and as much of the workforce as possible should be empowered
and augmented with data and analytics tools when they are carrying out their jobs.

11. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Following these principles, today, any company in just about any market
should be able to think about how they can shake things up to create
products that can revolutionize their industry and improve their customers’
lives.
Using data to create smart products is one of the topics covered in depth in
the second edition of my book Data Strategy – How to Profit From a World
of Big Data, Analytics And Artificial Intelligence.

12. © 2021 Bernard Marr , Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Bernard Marr is an internationally best-selling author, popular keynote speaker,
futurist, and a strategic business & technology advisor to governments and
companies. He helps organisations improve their business performance, use data
more intelligently, and understand the implications of new technologies such as
artificial intelligence, big data, blockchains, and the Internet of Things.
LinkedIn has ranked Bernard as one of the world’s top 5 business influencers. He is
a frequent contributor to the World Economic Forum and writes a regular column for
Forbes. Every day Bernard actively engages his 1.5 million social media followers
and shares content that reaches millions of readers.

13. hello@bernardmarr.com
www.bernardmarr.com