A recent study reveals that only 2% of deployments achieve sufficient reliability to ensure success. Meanwhile, a third (34%) of businesses cite poor Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity as a major obstacle to adopting artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.
A report titled “State of the IoT 2025,” published by global IoT company Eseye, shows that poor connectivity in IoT devices is hindering one-third (34%) of businesses. This hinders them from embracing AI systems efficiently.
The study surveyed 1,200 senior IoT decision-makers and warns that these unreliable data flows are jeopardizing businesses’ AI strategies. The findings show that only 2% of companies achieve the required high levels of connectivity. These levels are essential for AI deployment.
While most business leaders acknowledge that high connectivity is crucial for device performance, this performance gap persists. The study found that “74% of respondents believe that achieving near 100% global connectivity is critical to their business.”
This five-year-long study, commissioned by Eseye, warns that this unreliability will directly impact business operations. More than a third of businesses cited equipment malfunctions. These malfunctions lead to inaccurate and untimely data collection, resulting in flawed business decisions (36%) and reputational damage (36%), as their primary risks, hampering AI utilization.
Paul Marshall, co-founder and chief customer officer of Eseye, stated, “We’ve all heard about the immense potential of artificial intelligence to help us solve major global challenges, from creating smarter healthcare and more sustainable cities to managing our energy and water resources. But what’s often overlooked is that these revolutionary AI models rely entirely on a continuous stream of real-world data from a vast network of IoT sensors.”
“Our research reveals a key flaw in this infrastructure. We found that only 2% of IoT deployments achieve near 100% performance.” “The connectivity problem is alarming. This means we may be building a transformative AI vision on a network that is not yet stable and reliable. This not only jeopardizes the ROI of businesses but also hinders the evolution of AI applications.”
“In mission-critical IoT scenarios, failures are not just inconveniences, but life-threatening ones. Imagine a life-saving medical sensor detecting a sharp drop in a patient’s blood oxygen level. If a connectivity failure prevents this data point from being transmitted and analyzed by AI tools, the alert cannot reach clinicians in time. The result? Missed opportunities for intervention, or even preventable death. To make the promise of AI accessible to everyone, we must first solve this fundamental IoT connectivity challenge.”
These findings are based on the “State of the IoT 2025” report. The report gathered insights from 1,200 senior decision-makers responsible for IoT projects in the UK and US, focusing on AI integration.