By Zhao Xiaofei, Original
Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) announced the list of typical cases of the Internet of Things (IoT) empowering industry development in 2025, with a total of 82 projects selected nationwide. Structurally, the 82 cases cover four major fields: 59 for industry applications, 13 for social governance, 5 for people's livelihood and consumption, and 5 for integration with new industries. Compared with previous years, the case classification continues the previous categories, but a new category of "integration with new industries" is added for the first time, reflecting the application of IoT in new fields.
IoT Application Landscape Viewed from Typical Cases
First, Industry Applications Are the Primary Manifestation of IoT Value
In terms of industry applications, the manufacturing sector remains the dominant force. Among the 59 industry application cases announced this time, 26 are from the manufacturing sector, accounting for 31.7% of all cases. These cases highlight the characteristics of data-driven management in manufacturing scenarios enabled by IoT. For example, Midea's "IoT-based AI-driven full value chain collaborative operation", Qingyan Xunke's "intelligent factory full-domain perception and digital management of people, vehicles, and objects", and Jiangxi Copper's "digital mine comprehensive management and control platform". These cases fully leverage the rich production scenario data obtained after IoT connectivity to form data-based decisions, reflecting the transformation of the manufacturing sector from "rule by man" to "data-driven governance". In addition, unmanned factories empowered by IoT have also made significant progress, such as XCMG Hanyun's "construction of a leading factory in the construction machinery industry" and Linyi Steel's "unmanned material yard", which reduce the cost of industrial production.
In the energy sector, 15 cases were selected, accounting for 25.4%. Cases such as PipeChina's "full-domain collaborative empowerment of oil and gas pipeline network smart energy ecosystem", State Grid Zhejiang Electric Power's "smart supply guarantee of source-grid-load-storage in ultra-large city power grids", and TGOOD's "vehicle-grid-cloud collaborative smart grid construction" collectively reflect the urgent need for digital transformation in the energy industry under the "dual carbon" goals. In fact, over the past decade, the energy industry has been a key application field for IoT, achieving the connectivity of various physical energy equipment very early on. It can be said that without the intervention of IoT, there would be no modern smart energy system. Notably, China Southern Power Grid's "Dianhong - Construction of a Unified Power IoT System Based on an Open Source Framework" was selected, building its overall equipment management and control capabilities under an open-source ecosystem.
In addition, cases were also selected in fields such as agriculture (7 cases), construction (6 cases), and logistics (5 cases). For example, MaShang Consumer Finance's "AIoT-driven digitalization of livestock and poultry: full-chain empowerment of smart chicken farming". This solution is not only an IoT-empowered digitalization scheme for livestock and poultry but also creates a closed-loop business model for smart chicken farming. Specifically, the smart chicken farming platform collects real-time breeding data such as flock weight, activity level, and environmental temperature and humidity, and combines it with sales records to generate digital asset certificates. These certificates can serve as a "credit white paper" for farmers, solving the problem of "lack of three financial statements", helping banks and insurance institutions accurately assess their operational capabilities and risk levels, resolving the difficulties and high costs of financing for farmers, and providing risk underwriting for farmers through insurance.
Second, Urban Management Becomes the Focus in the Field of Social Governance
Among the 13 cases in the field of social governance, 7 cases are for urban management. Compared with previous IoT cases, although the number has decreased, the proportion has significantly increased, reflecting the transformation of IoT-empowered social governance from "broad net-casting" to "precise drip irrigation". Cases such as Rizhao City's "IoT perception network + AI agent" smart community platform, JSTI Group's "lightweight monitoring of urban bridges", Jiangsu Taihu Cloud Computing's "smart monitoring of urban lifeline waterlogging", and Zhejiang Heda Technology's "leakage warning of water supply pipeline network" focus on the key pain points of the safe operation of urban infrastructure, reflecting the capability upgrade of IoT from "visible" to "well-managed".
Third, People's Livelihood, Consumption, and Integration with New Industries Explore New Scenarios for Future Life
This time, there are only 5 cases in the field of people's livelihood and consumption, with only 1-2 of the most representative cases retained in each subdivided direction, such as "integrated communication and computing vehicle-mounted module" in the field of intelligent connected vehicles, and "smart elderly care cloud platform" in the field of smart health. In the author's view, IoT application scenarios in the field of people's livelihood and consumption should be richer. Most scenarios have already penetrated into all areas of people's lives, and there is no need to achieve further promotion through the publicity of typical cases.
The "Integration with New Industries" section was established for the first time in 2025, with a total of 5 cases this time. Cases such as China Unicom (Liaoning)'s "IoT + 5G private network smart port", Hainan Flyer Technology's "cross-domain collaborative autonomous and precise observation platform for underwater robots", and Hebei Jiuzhi Technology's "IoT-empowered biomanufacturing" make the establishment of this section highly meaningful. However, in the author's view, the specific embodiment of new industries is not very obvious in the cases collected this time. It is expected that more cases of deep integration between IoT and emerging industries, as well as future industries, will emerge in the future, such as physical AI scenarios supported by IoT and low-altitude economy empowered by IoT.
Characteristics of IoT Applications Viewed from Typical Cases
The 82 typical cases collected this time represent the main fields of IoT applications. They are the result of deep interaction between technology supply and demand, presenting some distinct characteristics and providing references for the continuous development of IoT in the next step.
First, the deep integration of AI and IoT has become a standard configuration. More than 20 cases explicitly mention AI applications, such as Midea's "AI-driven full value chain collaboration", Rizhao City's "IoT perception network + AI agent", and CHN Energy Baoding's "IoT + AI digital and intelligent management of thermal power infrastructure". These indicate that AI empowers IoT with a capability leap from data perception to autonomous decision-making. These are just the AI + IoT scenarios reflected through the titles; in fact, those not reflected in other titles are also deeply integrated with AI functions in practical applications. Previously, relevant IoT policies proposed the requirement to "deepen the integration of mobile IoT and artificial intelligence", and the implementation of this requirement has accelerated in recent years.
Second, requirements such as green and low-carbon, as well as security and controllability, have significantly improved. Cases such as Tianjin Kunpeng's "green and low-carbon logistics park energy management", Zhejiang CHINT's "near-zero carbon park source-grid-load-storage integration", and Inner Mongolia Environmental Protection Investment's "water pollution warning and tracing in the Yellow River Basin" directly support the national "dual carbon" strategic needs. Through precise monitoring and intelligent scheduling, IoT has become a key technical support for carbon emission reduction. At the same time, China Southern Power Grid explicitly proposed "unified open-source base to ensure the security and independent controllability of the operating system". In key fields such as energy, the independent controllability of IoT systems has become a rigid demand.
Third, full-chain collaboration replaces single-point applications. Cases such as MaShang Consumer Finance's "full-chain empowerment of smart chicken farming" and Jointown Pharmaceutical's "full-chain trusted traceability system" reflect the evolution from single-point device networking to digital collaboration across the entire industrial chain. This is also a response to the policy proposal to "explore the application model of 'solution + product + service' and promote the formation of a batch of industry solutions with large-scale promotion value".
Given the deep penetration of IoT in various fields, IoT is upgrading from a digital empowerment tool for traditional industries to a fundamental element of new quality productive forces. The list of typical cases of IoT empowering industry development in 2025 is a microcosm of China's IoT industry applications. In the future, as new market demands continue to emerge, the deep integration of AI large models and IoT, along with the continuous improvement of the independent and controllable technology system, IoT will play a more critical supporting role in advancing new industrialization and building a Digital China.