Australia's IoT Opportunity - Driving Future Growth

This first-of-its-kind study takes a broad economic view of Australia's IoT opportunity, assessing the implications for industries most likely to benefit and the potential to develop a local IoT sector.

IoT – key to Australia’s competitive future

Australia has benefited and prospered from an unprecedented 27 years of economic growth. However, economists argue that our good fortune is mainly due to external factors rather than productivity improvements. Weak productivity growth costs the economy dearly and could make Australia uncompetitive in global markets critical. PwC modelling focused on fundamental drivers of economic growth – demographics and productivity – suggests that Australia could slip out of the G20 to the 23rd in terms of GDP (PPP) by 2030.

The Internet of Things (IoT) allows Australia to address this downward trajectory. If adopted at scale, it could significantly improve the productivity of several of the nation's key industries and, in doing so, deliver substantial benefits to the whole economy. Failing to leverage this technology effectively risks a significant reduction in global competitiveness.

This study takes a broad economic and business view of the IoT opportunity. It assesses the revenue and cost implications of the technology on industries most likely to benefit from it: construction, mining, manufacturing, healthcare, and agriculture. It also considers the opportunities for developing the IoT industry (as a subset of the broader tech sector) in Australia. Lastly, it looks at the cybersecurity risks associated with the increased uptake of IoT technology.