• by Tom Goodwin , Op-Ed Contributor, October 15, 2015

In this marketplace of complexity and paralysis that ‘smart’ devices, sensors, beacons, self-driving cars and the entire world of the Internet of Things enter, I worry that we’re going about things wrong.

When new technologies arrive we seem to embrace the newness so eagerly that everything becomes additional. We consider what new things can now be done, what new possibilities are created, what new opportunities there are to connect with people. Everything is additive. 

The current malaise in the IoT is that these things are not wanted or better, we’ve designed around the new, not what is wanted, we’ve not solved problems with technology, we’ve embellished.

• To open a car door with a BMW app takes 13 steps, when proximity keys developed 10 years ago require one.
• Apple Pay is currently a demonstrably more complex payment experience than NFC cards.
• My smart home is a cathedral to stupid thinking, turning on a light requires hope and patience. 

The near-term future looks worrying. We have retailers falling in love with iBeacons, when in reality most people don’t want more stimuli in a store. 

I firmly believe that the complexity of digital disruption, or digital transformation, or the modern business era or business for Millennials, whatever you want to call this movement, just needs a one word strategy: simplicity.

The Internet of Things can become a philosophy that reduces complexity everywhere. I want the world of sensors, connectivity and smart processing to reduce the cognitive burden in every aspect of my life. I want everything that can be fully automated to be so. I want anything that needs my input to be reduced down to the simplest question and interaction, a nudge of sorts. I see the potential for business stemming from the following strands of thinking: 

• Automation -- I’d love to be checked into a hotel automatically by entering the premises and a short notification on my mobile requesting a swipe to the right to check in. I’d like my phone to then become my key and check out in a similar manner. Every service brand from airlines to hotels, restaurants to retailers should be viewing the IoT as a way to make everything frictionless and fast. If Amazon patented one-click shopping, what about one-press shopping? Why can’t I buy from ads online with my thumbprint to my default address and paid by my default credit card? 
• Upselling -- Many businesses around the year have perishable inventory that is painful for people to buy. To pay for and get on an earlier flight takes a wait in line and an impossible array of keystrokes from a grumpy airlines associate. Why can’t earlier flights be offered to me as I walk into the airport? Can’t another swipe right extract my money for a seat going spare? In car rental locations can I get please be offered a better car for more money in a similar fashion?
• Platform thinking -- I’d love to see brands moving away from selling products to selling services, so they need to understand how the world of the Internet of Things can aid this. Are gyms selling access to gym equipment or trying to aid fitness goals? It’s surely the latter, so how can data and software be considered as important as hardware and swimming pools? If you sell clothes, are you a clothing maker or a lifestyle maker? If you sell cars how can you use the iOT to differentiate your product with better digital services?

The Internet of Things is a world of unmatched opportunity for brands and companies that understand that people have unmet needs and technology can add extraordinary value that unlocks significant business value in return. Technology now makes virtually anything possible.

But let’s ideate around consumer needs and simplicity and not the shininess of the new.