By Claus Hetting, Wi-Fi NOW CEO & Chairman
Embedded systems leader embedUR says developing intelligent software for the edge is a multi-billion dollar opportunity in the making – as well as a task that requires new types of ecosystem players with very specific AI software development skills and experience. The company is ramping up across the globe to meet expected massive demand for a new class of embedded software solutions leveraging AI.
It is not common knowledge but one of the first companies to develop solutions for managed home Wi-Fi – back in 2017 – was embedUR. Since then the company has grown and evolved to become a global leader in embedded software, serving dozens of household-name customers as a preferred research and development partner including developing software for Wi-Fi connected devices. Now embedUR is shifting its focus to meet expected massive demand for intelligent clients at the edge, the company says.
“Next generation connected IoT devices will be smart – meaning they will incorporate their own embedded AI capabilities to be able to learn and react intelligently to their environment. There’s practically no end to the IoT use cases that will demand these new capabilities. Meanwhile the development of AI-based embedded software is a specialised skill that requires a new kind of ecosystem partner. This is the emerging multi-billion dollar market for software development that we’re targeting,” says Rajesh Subramaniam, CEO and founder of embedUR.
The company estimates that value of the embedded software market will grow from what was US$15 billion in 2022 to $24 billion in 2028. Close to 30 billion IoT devices will find their way to consumers by 2027. In many segments – for example in automotive and healthcare – the role of electronics and software will grow to take up much more of an item’s cost. In particular Wi-Fi-connected smart homes and enterprises will facilitate and drive the need for intelligent IoT solutions, embedUR says.
He also points out that intelligence and management from the Cloud will still be needed although to a lesser degree. “Smart clients will react much faster to their environment because they will rely less on Cloud infrastructure, although of course Cloud connectivity will still be there. Another big benefit of intelligent clients is a reduction in Cloud computing costs, which can be considerable once a product reaches mass market scale,” Rajesh Subramaniam says.
The megatrend towards AI-capable clients is a major opportunity but also a looming risk because it is something that very few companies are ready to embrace. This is because a new class of software solutions is required – and nearly nobody has software staff and departments ready to deal with this new complexity, he says. “Imagine for example a producer of HVAC appliances or any industrial type IoT device you can think of. To incorporate intelligence into use cases, developers would need to build, train, and validate complex AI models. This is not a trivial task,” Rajesh Subramaniam says.
Rajesh Subramaniam founded embedUR in 2004. Today the company is headquartered in Fremont, California with close to 400 research and development staff working globally. The company’s solutions are deployed across a raft of market segments including home broadband CPEs, transport, industry, remote metering, enterprise networking, and more. Rajesh expects that embedUR’s new strategy will lead to many hundreds of percent growth for the company over the next few years.
We’re delighted to announce that embedUR is a Wi-Fi NOW partner for 2024.
/Claus.
