The Internet of Things (IoT) is “A wide ranging technology quickly expanding to more aspects of our lives and our economy, Venessa Harrison, AT&T president for North Carolina told the WRAL Executive Exchange IoT event Tuesday morning.

“AT&T is at the forefront,” of the IoT revolution, she said. “In fact, we were the first telecom company to establish an Emerging Device organization back in November 2008. Today, we’ve certified more than 2,200 types of connected devices. As of the first quarter this year, excluding smartphones and tablets, AT&T has more than 23 million connected devices. “

She added, “The landscape is changing rapidly, and I believe platforms powered by the internet of things will revolutionize our lives much as smartphones already have. But here’s a really important point: the key to sparking this revolution is creating great customer experiences.

“No matter whether it’s a user of a home automation platform, or the driver of a connected car, or a plant manager who has a connected factory, we have to make the Internet of Things easy to use.

“That creates real value.”

A shift is occurring in which our devices take care of us instead of the other way around, she said.

“Our smartphone is now a remote control for our life.”

As an example, she cited AT&T’s Drive Studio, which makes it possible to access the app for AT&T Digital Life, its home security and automation service, from a connected car.

Talk to your car

“Once you’ve told your home and your car how you want them to act in situations, then those inanimate objects end up taking care of you instead of you taking care of them,” she explains.

“Say I’m walking from my home to my car. I can program my wireless device so that once I get within a certain distance of my car, my car knows it’s me because my smartphone tells it it’s me, and my device tells the car to unlock the door and start the engine.”

Once you back out of your driveway, the Digital Life mobile app can initiate a “leave home” program you put together for you specific needs.” And it can all happen without the user even touching a button.

Initially Digital Life was available in only 15 markets, but today its in 83. Both services are available in Raleigh. There are more than 5 million devices connected by the service.

IoT can make a big difference in someone’s personal life, too, Harrison said.

“Not long after we launched the Digital Life service, an employee who has an autistic son told me he set up his home system to alert him if the doors were opened – which his son was not supposed to do. While he was working in the garage, the alarm went off and his son was indeed on his way out the door. So it prevented what could have been a more serious problem and gives him peace of mind. So IoT is impacting our lives across the board and expect to see it doing that more and more.”

IoT expanding rapidly

Right now, she said, 80 things are connected to the Internet for the first time every second. By 2020 that figure will expand to 250 every second. Gartner says there will be 25 billion connections by 2020.

All of this will also be big in terms of dollars, she said. “It will be a trillion dollar business in only a few short years. “

So what are some goals a business can achieve with the Internet of Things?

“Increasing revenue, streamlining operations, reducing costs, saving time, increasing visibility: all of these business goals are more readily achieved through Internet of Things connections.”

Not only cars and homes, but cities, too connect through IoT.

Earlier this month AT&T formed its dedicated Smart Cities organization. “We’re helping communities solve problems by connecting things like utility meters, street lights, and water systems. Smart City solutions range from detecting speeding cars, to conserving energy with motion sensor lights in parking garages, video monitoring, and intelligent transportation,” Harrison said.

The company also added more than one million connected cars in the second quarter of 2015 and expects 10 million vehicles on its network by the end of 2017.

It is also working on the aftermarket opportunities for connected cars.

She noted there are about 160 million cars on the road with on board diagnostic ports that can accept plug-in solutions. AT&T currently sells two plug ins – the ZTE Mobley Wi-Fi hotspot and Car Connection 2.0 which offers a variety of services such as parental controls and remote maintenance monitoring.