As the internet moves beyond screens and into factories, ports and urban infrastructure, Asia is emerging as the global leader of the physical internet. Dense industrial ecosystems, coordinated infrastructure policy and manufacturing scale are giving the region structural advantages the West increasingly struggles to match.
The internet is no longer confined to apps, platforms and screens. Across Asia, sensors, embedded systems and connected infrastructure are transforming factories, cities and energy networks into realtime computational environments — reshaping how societies operate, govern and compete.
As Asia accelerates the deployment of connected infrastructure, IoT is evolving from consumer technology into a new layer of geopolitical power. The future of digital influence may depend less on screens and platforms — and more on who controls the systems sensing the physical world.
Artificial intelligence dominates today’s technology conversation. Companies call it the new electricity, investors chase it like a modern gold rush and governments view it as a strategic asset. Yet one simple question sits underneath all this excitement: how big is the AI market? And even more importantly: what is the AI market, exactly?
