The UK economy could lose out on up to £9.25bn in savings over the next year if smart technology growth isn’t accelerated, with more businesses and consumers adopting connected and smart devices.
The figures come from Samsung‘s Smart Society Barometer, which researches smart technology views and adoption rates among 1,000 UK businesses and 2,500 members of the public.
The figures for the impact of poor smart tech adoption were particularly worrying for businesses, with a potential £5.6bn in earnings lost out on. 27 per cent of businesses admitted they had lost out on a contract or client because they didn’t have the right smart technology in place, rising to 37 per cent of financial businesses, and 41 per cent in the telecoms and utilities sector.
According to the report, increased adoption of smart technologies could save businesses an average of £81,000 over the next 12 months, increasing productivity and data access to drive efficiencies with businesses.
IT managers interviewed as part of the study revealed there had been a lack of investment, both in terms of time and money, in smart technology. Only 11 per cent of annual IT budgets were being spent on smart technology, on average, and 20 per cent of IT managers admitted adoption was being held back because training people was too time consuming.
“At Samsung our aim is to create technology that makes people’s lives easier,” said Andy Griffiths, president of Samsung UK & Ireland. “To do this we need to understand the technology that businesses and consumers want and need, and equally what the barriers to the adoption of these new technologies might be. The Smart Society Barometer is our temperature gauge on how the UK is adapting to the rapid innovation taking place within the technology industry, which in turn allows us to create products that match the needs of UK businesses and consumers.”
Among consumers, 51 per cent of respondents felt comfortable with the idea of incorporating smart tech into their personal life, but 24 per cent also admitted a lack of understanding of what smart technology is and how they could benefit from it.
In terms of potential savings, the report estimates that UK consumers are missing out on up to £3.6bn, largely in terms of household savings from smart meters and other products that enable household equipment to be remotely controlled.
You must be logged in to post a comment.