A tech company that uses AI-powered sensors to bring real-time and item-level visibility across a supply chain just partnered up with one of the world’s largest telco giants.
IoT tracking platform Wiliot announced it is working with AT&T to scale the deployment and operation of its “Physical AI” platform — which turns physical items into data processing units linked to AI — across enterprise supply chains.
Called IoT Pixels, the sensors come no bigger than a postage stamp, but they feed the AI with critical and real-time information about each item being delivered from its active location down to its temperature and handling conditions.
The IoT Pixels, which sends out data via Bluetooth, don’t require batteries. Instead, they are powered by “ambient radio frequency signals.” Wiliot said these real-time and always-on sensors set themselves apart from RFID or barcodes, whose data are only as good as the last time the code was scanned.
The Velociti collaborator is seeing a lot of demand for this level of visibility across complex supply chains. AT&T, for its part, will give Wiliot the network infrastructure, cellular connectivity and field execution required to deploy and operate these networks at scale.
“Physical AI depends on continuous data from the physical world, and scaling that data requires deployment expertise, network connectivity, and a certified device ecosystem,” said Amir Khoshniyati, vice president of marketing at Wiliot, in a statement.
“AT&T brings all three. This collaboration expands our ability to deploy and operate Physical AI networks across large, distributed environments — and establishes a path to delivering that data as a service for AT&T’s global customer base,” he said.
Wiliot said it is working with most Fortune 50 companies that have active supply chain initiatives. Its platform is now deployed across tens of thousands of sites, nearing “hundreds of millions of actively tracked assets.”
The numbers so far point to how Wiliot’s technology has been a net positive for its clients. For example, the company said their deployments have improved inventory accuracy up to 99 percent, with fewer lost, damaged, or delayed packages by 60 percent.
“By working with Wiliot, we’re bringing a new class of Physical AI data into our ecosystem, adding visibility at the case and asset level, and enabling new services built on that data,” said Lee Wagner, AT&T area vice president. “We see Physical AI data as a significant emerging opportunity for AT&T and our customers.”
