The Internet of Things represents the next chapter in the ‘digital liberation’ of urban environments, according to Arup’s head of digital services Australasia, Greg Stone.

Speaking at the Smart Cities and Urban Innovation Workshop at the University of New South Wales, Stone said IoT follows on from the rise in ubiquity of the internet and mobile devices.

“What we’re seeing is that [IoT] is profoundly changing the role and the contract between the players that now populate our world in different dimensions,” he said.

“We’re also starting to see it play out in the way that expectations are changing around how building owners construct buildings, not just for resale or letting in a standardised way, but also how those buildings participate as part of a precinct or a city.”

Stone said the expectations that residents and patrons have in terms of connectivity are carrying over into urban environments.

He noted a number of concurrent drivers that are pushing built environments toward technology integration and connectivity with the broader environment:

• Political – “the social contracts between citizens and governments are starting to break down, and need to be redefined”
• Social – “Brand ‘Me’ is transitioning  from the social software world into the enterprise”
• Economic – “we’re seeing a change towards a low-growth economy, where we cannot expect the sorts of compound growth that we’re used to”
• Technological – “the new technologies that are coming on are all about abstracting the way it works and making it look like magic, building seamless, low-impedance connections between the physical and the virtual”
• Environmental – “the responsibilities for our planet are – rightly or wrongly – more in favour of individuals and their own personal wellness”.

Stone said the decision to use digital solutions like IoT are no longer an option, as they are being embedded in very deep ways in everything we do.

He also said that society has transitioned from one that connects to information to a context society, where people expect a personalised information experience.

However, he is observing the start of another shift in information interaction, caused by the onset of AI.

“The notion that artificial intelligence at an industrial scale is now available and is bringing about the notion of intent, where it asks ‘What do you really want to do, and how can I predictively and seamlessly provide the right information to you?’,” he said.

Stone said that these personal experiences that people are having with technology are not translating across into urban environments, where they still lag behind in terms of connectivity and digital experience.

He sees the need to bring large-scale internet technologies that encourage human interaction into the way that experiences are formed in urban areas.

“Connected technologies now allow you to move beyond the idea of providing a map for someone or creating an experience within a building for example, to one that spans from before they enter a space and after they leave.”

This causes what Stone termed as “the experience conundrum”, where companies have to consider how people’s experiences with technology are going to change in the future with the onset of concepts like IoT and AI.