Ambient IoT has proven that battery-free sensing is possible, but enterprise adoption now depends on reliable network infrastructure to deliver trusted data across real operating environments.IoT connectivity solutions to move that sensing into usable, trusted enterprise workflows is the crux of the next phase.
In a Reader Forum opinion for RCR Wireless, Giampaolo Marino (Chief Strategy and Growth Officer at Energous) argues that the next phase of Ambient IoT will be defined by the network rather than by the tag alone.
From battery-free sensing to system-wide visibility
Marino says the industry spent years proving that low-cost, battery-free sensors could exist, and that the work demonstrated physical objects such as pallets, packages, pharmaceuticals, food products, retail inventory, and industrial assets could carry intelligence without the cost, maintenance burden, and waste associated with batteries.
He frames that breakthrough as enabling an ambition to make the physical world continuously visible to digital systems, but says the central question shifts as deployments scale: whether an entire system can deliver trusted data across the environments where enterprises operate.
Battery-free is not network-free
Marino pushes back on a battery-free means network-free framing, saying that ambient harvesting is an important breakthrough but harvesting energy is not the same as operating an enterprise-grade visibility network.
He argues that a sensor still needs to be energized reliably and read consistently, and that the sensors data needs to move into cloud systems, enterprise applications, compliance workflows, and operational dashboards.
In his view, the goal is the right infrastructurelight enough to deploy economically but robust enough to support real operations.
Enterprises buy the tag as a network, not as a component
Marino says the market often discusses Ambient IoT at the component levelhow small the tag is, how inexpensive it is, and how it harvests energybut he argues enterprise buyers ultimately care about the tag as a network, not about the tag in isolation.
He describes a tag experience that depends on whether the network provides reliable visibility across environments such as loading docks, cold rooms, warehouses, trucks, backrooms, staging areas, and dock doors.
He also describes real operating environments as unforgiving, pointing to metal, moisture, distance, orientation, and human activity as factors that affect performance.
Trusted visibility requires edge-case coverage
Marino argues that partial visibility is not enterprise visibility, saying many enterprise use cases do not tolerate partial coverage because missing too many edge cases prevents systems from becoming a foundation for automation, compliance, traceability, inventory accuracy, or AI-driven decision-making.
He claims that in some environments, 80% visibility is not 80% success and can be operational failure, adding that missing one in five reads can lead to missed pallets, incomplete chain-of-custody records, inaccurate inventory, overlooked temperature excursions, unresolved shrink, or false confidence in a process with blind spots.
He says enterprise users buy confidence rather than read rates as abstract technical metrics, and argues that incomplete data creates operational riskteams hesitate to automate, compliance groups question records, executives lose confidence in rollouts, and pilots stall before scaling.
Field conditions separate pilots from productionand change TCO math
Marino says harsh environments separate pilots from production and describes cold chain as illustrating why lab demonstrations may not reveal weaknesses.
He says refrigerated or frozen environments expose weaknesses through temperature extremes, condensation, moisture, physical handling, and continuous operation, and that in such environments the lowest-cost network layer can quickly become the most expensive part of the deployment if it cannot produce consistent data.
He extends that principle beyond food to logistics, postal networks, pharmaceuticals, industrial operations, and retail distribution, and says production environments reward architecture, durability, regulatory discipline, and system-level engineering while exposing shortcuts.
He also argues that total cost of ownership starts with trusted data, saying the cheapest component is not always the lowest-cost deployment and that a network should be assessed by the reliability of the data it produces, the environments it can withstand, the ease of deployment, the regulatory constraints it satisfies, the maintenance it requires, and the operational decisions it enables. He lists costs from failed pilots and missed reads through to truck rolls, troubleshooting, replacement hardware, internal skepticism, and business processes built on incomplete data.
What infrastructure designed for RF and durability means
Marino says Ambient IoT has already proven that battery-free sensing is possible, and that the next test is whether Ambient IoT can deliver the reliability enterprises need to run operations differently.
He says wireless power infrastructure should be designed as core infrastructure, and that systems should be engineered for RF performance, environmental durability, regulatory compliance, deployment flexibility, manufacturing scale, and long-term operational support.IoT connectivity solutions must be treated as operational infrastructure, not just a component of the tag experience.
He concludes that companies adopting Ambient IoT are looking for visibility they can act on rather than interesting technology, and that the future of Ambient IoT will be determined by systems that make physical operations continuously, reliably visible and secure.