• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, December 30, 2018

As 2018 winds down, I took a look back to see which aspects of the Internet of Things most interested you during the year.

Based on readership of Connected Thinking and stories in the AI & IoT Daily, here are the most viewed stories as a potential benchmark for what may lie ahead in the next year:

1. ESPN Taps AI Platform To Measure Programming The sports network agreed to use the Veritone artificial intelligence platform to monitor and measure live coverage.
2. Walmart Intros Interactive Toy Lab As Digital Playground For Kids The mega retailer really upped its IoT game during the last year.
3. L.L. Bean To Continually Track Clothing After PurchaseThe Wall Street Journal started this one.
4. Diageo’s Bulleit Bourbon Adds Augmented Reality To Bottles Some serious innovative tech was added to liquor bottles during the year.
5. L.L. Bean Backs Off Continually Tracking Clothing After Purchase The chairman of L.L. Bean told me the Maine retailer would not be tracking any clothes on people.
6. Google Projected To Pass Amazon In Smart Speaker Race This certainly hasn’t happened yet!
7. Apple Pay, Google Pay Decline In Merchant Acceptance After all these years, mobile payments still can’t catch a break.
8. Walmart Files Patent For Drone Customer Service In Stores No drones seen flying in Walmart stores as of yet, but at least the idea of doing it is on the table.
9. Augmented Reality Heading To 3 Billion Devices, $85 Billion Revenue AR is going to be significant, but those glasses sure are needed.
10. Study Finds 360-Degree AR Ads Perform Better, Improve CTR 300% Yet one more reason augmented reality is a big deal.

What do you expect will be the big AI and IoT development during the next year?