Ambient IoT and AI: the fusion enabling intelligent environments

Content

• Ambient IoT + AI = intelligent and autonomous environments: Battery-free sensors powered by ambient energy enable real-time, human-free decision-making.
• Real-world applications in industry and cities: From supply chain traceability to traffic management and air quality monitoring in smart cities.
• Key challenges and standards for adoption: Interoperability, Cyber Security, and energy efficiency shape the path toward scalable and sustainable ecosystems.

What is Ambient IoT?

Ambient Internet of Things (Ambient IoT) extends traditional IoT by using interconnected IoT devices that operate autonomously, without conventional batteries and powered by energy harvesting.

In this way, Ambient IoT integrates seamlessly into the environment, minimizing human intervention and enabling decentralized decision-making. It allows for real-time data processing and analysis without centralized servers, enhancing security, reducing latency, and improving both efficiency and sustainability.

This results in greater scalability and sustainability, driving adoption across sectors such as logistics, urban management and industrial automation. It also applies to agriculture, where self-powered sensors can monitor soil moisture and weather conditions with minimal maintenance needs.

■ The concept of Ambient IoT, coined by 3GPP in 2023, has gained momentum with the creation of the Ambient IoT Alliance, which promotes its global adoption and standardization.

Invisible Ambient Intelligence (IAI)

Invisible Ambient Intelligence (IAI) emerges from the integration of AI into these smart devices and connected sensors designed to operate discreetly and without human intervention. Similarly, IAI blends into the environment without altering user experience, working transparently and without requiring explicit interactions.

The goal of this convergence is to create interconnected ecosystems where data is collected, processed and applied autonomously. Based on principles of ubiquitous computing, machine learning and ambient energy, IAI delivers intelligent solutions for urban, industrial and domestic environments.

IAI is enabled by combining low-power connectivity, optimized IoT devices, and energy harvesting techniques that eliminate the need for batteries.

In this context, Edge AI and Edge Computing systems process data collected or generated by IoT devices to deliver real-time, automatic and adaptive responses. This facilitates use cases from smart city traffic optimization to predicting failures in industrial systems—enhancing efficiency and reducing costs.

Ambient IoT standards and protocols

To ensure Ambient IoT works efficiently and at scale, it is essential to adopt low-power communication protocols such as NB-IoT, which enable data transmission with minimal energy consumption.

The evolution of this technology is grounded in solutions like passive RFID, widely used for battery-free identification. This is commonly applied in ID cards, stock management or public transport access, enabling efficient interaction without internal power sources.

Leading tech organizations are aligning around this connectivity technology, including:

• 3GPP optimizes mobile networks for low-power IoT devices, including:
  
  
  • NB-IoT (Narrowband IoT) is a narrowband connectivity solution for IoT devices requiring low energy consumption, wide coverage (even indoors), and low-cost connectivity.
  • LTE-M (LTE for Machines) offers greater bandwidth than NB-IoT, supports voice, mobility and lower latency. It suits Ambient IoT scenarios requiring fast or mobile data transfers.
• IEEE develops protocols to optimize data transmission in IoT networks.
  
  
  • UWB (Ultra-Wideband) is a short-range radio technology offering high spatial precision (centimeter-level) and accurate data communication, ideal for Ambient IoT applications needing exact positioning.
• Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is well-suited for Ambient IoT due to its low power usage and compatibility with mobile devices.
• RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track passive, battery-free tags attached to objects.
• MQTT and CoAP protocols enable efficient data transmission in resource-constrained devices, ensuring that information flows without excessive power consumption.

■ NB-IoT is key to Ambient IoT as it supports long-range connectivity with ultra-low power usage, enabling devices to operate without batteries or with multi-year autonomy.

Applications transforming industries and cities

Establishing technology standards is essential to enable applications and use cases capable of transforming entire sectors—from supply chain optimization to the development of smart cities.

Use case: Ambient IoT in the supply chain

Ambient IoT has impacted supply chain management through the integration of self-powered sensors into products and packaging to provide constant monitoring of key conditions such as:

• Temperature and humidity: Sensors in the pharmaceutical and food industries ensure that goods are transported under appropriate conditions.
• Location and traceability: IoT devices enable real-time shipment tracking, enhancing logistics and reducing losses.
• Fraud prevention: Detection of tampering in cargo helps fight product counterfeiting.

■ IAI enables Ambient IoT solutions to be predictive rather than merely reactive, anticipating and responding to events. This is crucial in urban management or industrial automation, where failure prevention can reduce downtime, cut costs and boost efficiency.

Ambient IoT's impact on smart cities

Ambient IoT is transforming urban management through self-powered sensors that monitor the environment in real time, integrating technology invisibly to enable smart automation of urban processes without human intervention, including:

• Air quality monitoring with sensors detecting pollutants and providing accurate data to improve environmental regulations.
• Traffic optimization using sensors in traffic lights and roads to gather real-time data and adjust traffic flow, reducing congestion.
• Energy efficiency through distributed sensors that optimize power usage in public lighting systems and smart buildings.

Challenges in implementing Ambient IoT

While Ambient IoT offers great benefits for smart cities, its large-scale adoption faces technical, operational and regulatory challenges. A functional ecosystem requires addressing hurdles such as energy harvesting, interoperability and Cyber Security.

The Ambient IoT Alliance (AIoTA) supports standardization efforts to ensure secure adoption aligned with existing standards.

AIoTA aims to create an open, standards-based ecosystem for the efficient interconnection of battery-free Ambient IoT devices using technologies such as NB-IoT, Bluetooth or 5G, considering:

• Energy harvesting: Efficiently capturing and storing ambient energy is critical for the continuous operation of devices.
• Interoperability: To ensure compatibility, the variety of manufacturers and technologies requires clearly defined standards.
• Security and privacy: Data generated by Ambient IoT devices raises concerns around Cyber Security and information protection.

■ Low-power devices may have limited capacity to implement robust security protocols, making them vulnerable to attacks. Additionally, the distributed nature of these systems increases the potential attack surface.

Conclusion

Ambient IoT is transforming the interaction between the physical and digital worlds by enabling self-powered devices to collect and transmit data in real time. Combined with AI, it gives rise to Invisible Ambient Intelligence (IAI), which opens up new possibilities for creating smart environments where process automation optimizes resource use and boosts efficiency.

Use cases in the supply chain and smart city management showcase the impact of Ambient IoT. Self-powered sensors ensure product traceability, monitor air quality and regulate traffic without human intervention.

The future of Ambient IoT relies on overcoming key challenges: ensuring interoperability between devices from different vendors, optimizing energy harvesting, and safeguarding data security and privacy.

The goal is to build a digital ecosystem where devices are autonomous, communicate efficiently, and protect user privacy.

Despite these challenges, initiatives like the Ambient IoT Alliance are promoting the standardization and adoption of solutions that merge low-power wireless connectivity, optimized electronics and energy harvesting techniques.

This convergence enables the development of more resilient and autonomous digital ecosystems, paving the way for a future where technology integrates invisibly into our surroundings, promoting sustainable development and a higher quality of life.