Double-digit growth of the Internet of Things

It is an invisible or almost invisible presence and is increasingly pervasive that of connected objects. In Italia those active in 2025 were over 175 million, more than 3 per inhabitant, with a growth of 13%. The same trend for the market, which is worth almost EUR 11 billion (+12%). The Internet of Things is an increasingly dynamic market driven by certain application areas such as utilities, connected cars and smart buildings while working on the integration process with artificial intelligence. This was revealed by the Internet of things (IoT) Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano presented today.

In the latest generations of Iot devices, artificial intelligence comes on board. This is the Edge Ai, the one inside the system that has the ability to process according to AI models directly on board the connected devices or close to the data source. The advantages include reduced time, limited to dependence on cloud infrastructure, and optimised bandwidth utilisation, allowing data to be processed in real time and triggering immediate responses. This approach is particularly relevant in industrial and infrastructure contexts. Then there are systems based on intelligent agents (Agentic AI) capable of pursuing specific objectives autonomously or semi-autonomously, interacting with their surroundings and adapting their behaviour according to the results obtained.

The most popular solutions are those in the utility sector, such as smart meters for electricity, water and gas. Millions of installations, many of which are being replaced because they have reached the end of their useful life. This segment is worth around 1.9 billion with +18%. It is followed by connected cars with a little over 1.7 billion: at the end of 2025 there were 6.5 million connected vehicles circulating in Italy (+16%) thanks to on-board sims, while those with a 'black box' installed for insurance purposes number more than 10.6 million. Smart transportation infrastructure solutions for the monitoring, management and predictive maintenance of infrastructures such as roads, bridges, viaducts and tunnels are growing. On the other hand, smart building solutions are slowing down, to 14 billion, due to the rescheduling of the super bonus tax incentives. They are followed, with a market value of around 1 billion each, by the smart factory (1.16 billion, +12%) and the smart city (1.03 billion).

"The offer of Iot solutions continues to evolve, prompting more and more companies to exploit the data collected by connected objects to develop new services and integrate Artificial Intelligence," observes Giulio Salvadori, director of the Iot Observatory. "Today, more than half of large companies and a third of medium-sized ones are already working in this direction or plan to do so within a year. It is also significant that 40% of companies report already measurable returns on investment, demonstrating how Artificial Intelligence can translate into direct economic value'.  The industrial applications of Iot are accelerating. The Polimi Observatory shows that 71% of large Italian industrial enterprises have already implemented at least one IOT project, compared to 59% recorded among medium-sized enterprises. Above all, there is the will to develop new initiatives in the coming years. In 2025, the growth of Industrial Iot projects was significantly supported by the incentives of the Transition 4.0 and 5.0 plans, with 2.2 and 2.75 billion euro disbursed respectively. "A key role has also been played by the Transition 4.0 and 5.0 incentives, with respectively 2.2 and 2.75 billion euro disbursed in 2025 and as much as 9.8 billion foreseen in the next three years, which will give further impetus to the sector," concludes Angela Tumino, director of the Iot Observatory. However, the procedural complexity and the continuous regulatory revisions relating to Plan 5.0 have often generated great uncertainty among companies'.