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Smart Tangibles News Digest #2501

  • Writer: Yoel Frischoff
    Yoel Frischoff
  • Nov 9, 2025
  • 6 min read

Updated: Dec 4, 2025

Issue #1, November 9, 2025


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Global Smart Tangibles News from around the world (Image credit: NASA)

Here’s this week’s Smart Tangibles News Digest - focused on product strategy for connected hardware, IoT, Policy, UX, and Manufacturing.



1. EU Data Act - practical impacts for automotive and cloud


The Data Act is now applicable and the Commission is standing up helpdesks, model terms, and trade secret guidance - which directly affects data access and monetization models for connected products. #Policy





2. Using IoT data to power proactive customer support


Moves support from reactive RMA to predictive service - a core lever for servitization and outcome based pricing. #Strategy





3. Telcos say AI driven network automation is their top 12 month priority


If carriers push automation first, expect tighter SLAs and smarter diagnostics for massive IoT - enabling higher reliability for connected products without bespoke workarounds. #Strategy





4. Reports of EU considering delays to AI Act provisions


Any deferral or grace periods would shift compliance timelines for embedded and edge AI features in connected products sold in the EU. #Policy





5. Embedded world North America - on the ground roundup


Dense recap of edge AI, connectivity, and toolchain demos shaping 2026 device roadmaps - useful signal on component and partner ecosystems. #Tech.




News In Detail


  1. EU Data Act - Practical Impacts for Automotive and Cloud



The EU Data Act is no longer theory - most provisions have been applicable since 12 September 2025. The Commission is now putting real scaffolding around it: a Data Act Legal Helpdesk, model contractual terms for data sharing and cloud switching, plus detailed guidance on how far companies must go in giving access without exposing trade secrets. 


For automotive, the new guidance spells out when vehicle data and related services are in scope. Remote functions (lock and unlock, remote charging, OTA configuration), predictive maintenance and other bi directional services are treated as “related services”, which means OEMs will need to design APIs and governance so that drivers and fleet operators can share data with independent repairers, insurers or service providers on fair, reasonable and non discriminatory terms - while still protecting derived and inferred data. That directly touches connected car business models built on exclusive access to telematics. 


For cloud providers, the Act tightens the screws on lock in: there are new rights to switch providers, obligations around interoperability and portability, and forthcoming standard contractual clauses that will reshape how cloud and edge services are bought and sold in Europe. Together with the unfair terms rules for B2B data contracts, this will force connected product vendors to revisit their data architectures, commercial bundles and SLAs - especially if they sell into the EU but host or process data elsewhere. 


👉 More detail in Mayer Brown’s analysis:


  1. Using IoT data to power proactive customer support


IoT telemetry turns support from “customer calls with a problem” into “brand quietly fixes or preempts the problem before it bites.” The article shows how always-on device data gives support teams real time visibility into product health, so they can push patches, nudge users, or schedule maintenance before a failure becomes an RMA or a one star review. Think smart thermostats that self diagnose and update, printers that auto order consumables, or appliances that warn of abnormal vibration long before a breakdown. 


That shift is exactly what servitization and outcome based pricing depend on: you are no longer paid for boxes shipped, but for uptime, comfort delivered, or cups dispensed. Proactive support cuts downtime, shrinks truck rolls, and feeds a continuous loop of insights back into product and process improvement. Over time, the support function stops being a cost center and becomes part of the value promise and moat - your competitors may copy hardware, but not your installed base data and playbooks. 


Of course, there are strings attached: wiring IoT into support means grappling with integration complexity, consent, data protection, and staff training so agents can actually use telemetry instead of falling back to scripts. The piece closes with practical best practices - explicit opt in, security by design, and continuous monitoring of both systems and customer journeys - as prerequisites for any serious proactive support program. 





  1. Telcos say AI driven network automation is their top 12 month priority


New research from Motive, surveyed at the Network X 2025 conference, shows that 37% of operators put AI driven network automation at the top of their 12 month investment and implementation agenda. The same study highlights AI powered diagnostics and customer care as the biggest opportunity area, even though only about one in five respondents can currently show clear ROI from their AI spend. 


If carriers really execute on automation first, this has important knock ons for connected products and massive IoT. Smarter, AI assisted network operations mean better real time visibility into congestion and faults, fewer opaque “black box” outages, and more consistent performance guarantees. For device makers, that translates into tighter, more enforceable SLAs, more robust remote monitoring, and fewer hacks and workarounds to achieve reliability at scale. Instead of building custom redundancy and failover for every deployment, product teams can lean more on the network itself as an intelligent, self healing layer. 


The open question is whether telcos can close the ROI gap quickly enough. To make these investments pay, operators will push value added services: premium tiers for deterministic latency, “network assurance” bundles for industrial IoT, and packaged diagnostics APIs exposed to OEMs and platform providers. For Smart Tangibles, this is a clear signal to design for telemetry and SLA integration from the outset - your next generation device might treat AI driven connectivity as a product feature, not just plumbing. 




  1. Reports of EU considering delays to AI Act provisions


According to recent reports, the European Commission is weighing whether to pause or soften some of the AI Act timelines, including a potential one year grace period on enforcement for the highest risk AI systems and a delay of fines for transparency and content labeling obligations until around August 2027. This reflection comes amid heavy lobbying from big tech, 46 European industrial champions, and direct pressure from the Trump administration, which has warned against EU tech rules it sees as discriminatory toward US firms. 


For anyone shipping embedded or edge AI inside connected products sold in the EU, this does not remove obligations, but it may shift when they really bite. High risk categories cover safety critical and rights sensitive use cases – think automotive ADAS functions, industrial robots, some consumer biometrics, and AI that influences access to essential services. A grace period would stretch the runway for conformity assessments, risk management systems, logging, and technical documentation, and might slow immediate pressure to retrofit legacy devices already in the field. 


Strategically, the signal is mixed. On the one hand, product teams get more time to align architectures, supply chains, and model governance with AI Act requirements. On the other, buyers and regulators may still treat the original dates as a de facto benchmark, especially in regulated sectors like mobility, energy, and health. For Smart Tangibles and other connected hardware, the safest assumption is that EU AI guardrails are coming - even if staggered - so any delay is best used to design cleaner data flows, human oversight hooks, and explainability into edge AI features rather than to postpone the work. 



  1. Embedded world North America - on the ground roundup


This Embedded Computing Design video recap walks the floor at embedded world North America 2025 in Anaheim, stopping by Congatec, Axiomtek, Microchip, ICS and the DevZone to show what is actually shipping for edge devices, not just slideware. 


Across those booths and others, a few clear threads emerge: practical edge AI (from NPUs on SOMs to AI enabled industrial PCs), connectivity options tuned for industrial and automotive use cases, and full toolchains that bundle secure boot, OTA, and DevSecOps integrations. Combined with other ewNA wrap ups, you get a picture of 2026 roadmaps built around secure by design platforms, AI assisted firmware migration, and tighter silicon plus software ecosystems rather than point solutions. 


For teams planning smart devices, this kind of on the ground roundup is a fast way to spot which vendors are maturing into long term partners (with full stacks and lifecycle support) and which components are becoming “default choices” for edge AI, connectivity and storage. It is less about one killer announcement, more about reading the ecosystem: which boards, RTOSes, security stacks, and dev tools are repeatedly paired together on the show floor.




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