What Is the Internet of Behavior and Why Is It the Future?

A personalized customer approach is one of the key revenue drivers for businesses. The creation of individually tailored services has become possible as companies started gathering more data about their customers. In this respect, IoT technology has played a major role in getting and processing customer data. In 2021, the number of connected IoT devices reached 12.2 bln and by 2025, the figure is predicted to make it to 27 billion active endpoints.

Meanwhile, IoT is actively growing and enhancing. Known tech influencers such as McKinsey foresee that in the context of customer service the technology will eventually evolve into the Internet of Behavior (IoB), moving from gathering customer data to detailed analysis of customer behavior. We already can see how IoB manifests itself in tech today and in a matter of several years, it’ll develop into a whole new system of customer behavior investigation.

In this article, we’ll have a look at what the Internet of Behavior can offer to businesses and their customers, how it can be implemented, and what the future will be like with IoB.

What Is the Internet of Behavior?

Customer behavior has always been a major interest for the marketing field. The more business understands why a customer behaves this or that way, the easier it becomes to anticipate and effectively cater to customer needs and even influence some behavior patterns. Therefore, it’s evident that those companies that will manage to deeply understand human impulses, intentions, and motives will quickly turn into market leaders in any industry sector.

But, how will companies be able to actually understand what their customer really likes, wants, and needs? It seems like the tech industry has the answer to this question – the Internet of Behavior.

To understand what the Internet of Behaviors is, we need to figure out what the Internet of Things is first. Internet of Things is the technology that encompasses a number of devices in the form of sensors, activators, and appliances connected under one network which can monitor and manipulate physical objects. The technology gathers and processes tons of sensor and gadget data and can provide some detailed analytics on them.

When applied to humans, the Internet of Things basically turns into the Internet of Behavior. It analyzes user state – the person’s location, their overall health, emotional condition, general preferences, and so on, depending on the parameters the gadgets are tracking. We already can see the implementation of IoB in diverse wearable gadgets, Smart home appliances, and in a variety of software apps where companies track user cookies and metadata to find more information about their activities there.

Internet of Behavior Advantages

Many experts think of IoB as an extension of IoT. That’s because IoB goes further than just gathering and processing the obtained data. It analyzes user data in terms of behavioral psychology and provides companies with new insights on how to improve the experience of their customers and enhance their products and services.

Here is how companies from different industries can implement the Internet of Behavior to their benefit.

Improved Sales With IoB

• By studying customer behavior, companies can create an outstanding user experience in their apps and offline stores.
• Anticipate customer expectations and provide them with the needed services in the right place at the right time.
• Improve sales touch points along the customer journey.

Better Marketing With IoB

• Align marketing campaigns to customer expectations.
• Precise evaluation of campaign effectiveness based on the number of recommendations to other potential customers and overall customer behavior.
• Gathering customer data about product preferences, shopping places, and shopping time.
• Showing marketing notifications in real time depending on customer location and their buying behavior.

Enhanced Customer Experience With IoB

• Customer experience optimization based on their purchase behavior.
• Create smoothly-automated environments where everything is linked to user behavior and preferences.
• Tracking customer post-purchasing experience and analyzing their readiness to make the next purchase.

Products and Services Improvement With IoB

• Evaluate product and service effectiveness based on the demand among customers and their adjustment to customer expectations
• Gaining more info about how customers interact with a company’s brand, products, and services
• Evaluate staff expertise level and improve the service quality
• Improved public safety and customer health based on the customer behavior

Internet of Behavior For Different Industries

Numerous companies already implement the Internet of Things in their work and the Internet of Behavior is gaining momentum. IoB is a whole new area of research that can significantly contribute to Industry 4.0 and Web 3.0 development. Meanwhile, some companies already implement IoB in practice. Let’s have a look at some real use cases of IoB implementation.

IoB in Retail

Many retail businesses such as Walmart, Amazon, and many others already implement elements of IoB in their work. For example, Barista launched its facial recognition experiment to determine who their customers are – what their age and gender are and how they feel when visiting the cafe. Based on this data, the technology suggested the visitors an appropriate drink.

Meanwhile, many online services such as Netflix, Amazon, Google, and so many others use the data gathered from devices and user accounts to improve their product recommendations and tailor adverts depending on user preferences.

Insurance Industry and IoB

Internet of Behavior can be effectively implemented in the insurance business. The IoT devices largely used in car manufacturing for vehicle monitoring can also be applied to learning more about a driver’s health state and their behavior on the roads. Insurance companies can use this data to make informed decisions about insurance cases and such agencies like Allstate and StateFarm are already doing that. The companies track drivers’ conduct on the roads and with the IoB help decide separately on each case.

Utilization of IoB in the insurance industry will allow businesses to minimize the number of car accidents and encourage more responsible driving and behavior on the roads.

IoB in Healthcare

Currently, healthcare is one of the most advanced areas where IoB is utilized. That’s because healthcare IoB development is supported by the directly interested in the technology medical device manufacturers and non-directly related companies such as mobile device manufacturers.

Mobile device manufacturers such as Apple, Xiaomi, Samsung, and many others are making large investments in wearable accessories development. They include smartwatches, fitness trackers, body-mounted sensors, and others. This allows people to better monitor their health condition and prevent/detect at the early stages the development of various diseases.

Read more about how wearable gadgets influence the development of Smart healthcare.

A powerful combination of healthcare with tech advancements such as IoB results in a variety of benefits for public healthcare – better tracking of chronic diseases, timely prevention of disease development, promotion of a more responsible attitude to well-being, easier access to health service through telemedicine, and much more.

The Future of the Internet of Behavior

The IoB technology is in the state of its inception in many respects and has much room to develop. Nevertheless, there are many businesses actively investing in the development of the technology. The Precedence Research company states that the global IoB market size will increase by 5.5 times, growing from $391.5 bln in 2021 to $2,143.57 bln in 2030. The IoB CAGR in the forecasted period is expected to grow by 20.79%.

In 2023, it’s expected that the IoB technology will progress more in its development together with the spread of 5G technology and further advancements in the field of Artificial Intelligence. This way, IoB can surely be considered one of the top strategic technology trends in the upcoming year.

Conclusion

The Internet of Behavior is becoming one of the central tech trends for business development. That’s because it allows companies to better understand their customers’ wants and needs and better adjust to these requirements. However, IoB isn’t only limited to marketing purposes, it can also be effectively used in public health monitoring, insurance, and much more.

A wide range of companies are already effectively utilizing IoB in their work. If you’re also considering implementing the technology in your digital solutions then our software developers who have much experience in building diverse IoT solutions will be happy to assist you with that.