No life without a smart link

It used to be the case that we depended on electricity to power our appliances and modern conveniences, and if the power went out, we could be stuck in elevators or locked out of our homes.

And of course, without power our TVs and washing machines wouldn’t work. Not even the microwave. Unless we had a Powerwall or solar backup system. Computers have always relied on UPS and datacenters on backup generators. Cellphone towers all have battery backup.

Which keeps things running. Unless the ‘net goes down. When there’s a major outage, like a fiber cable break, they scramble to fix it, and services are soon restored.

But now our everyday appliances are ultra smart. From the TV to the coffee machine, they’re constantly connecting to the manufacturers’ servers for updates, settings, profiles and data. And if Samsung, ABB, Xiaomi or whoever controls your device is down, well, then so are you.

Even if you have Starlink.

Being without TV or a fresh latte isn’t the end of the world (though some might argue otherwise), but if it’s a medical device or say, point of sale terminal, that could seriously disrupt your business – or your life.

Businesses that rely on AI agents are even more vulnerable. If your agentic service fails, or becomes unstable, how well prepared are you to switch to an alternative, or (shudder) a manual process?

And that’s the point. We are all so dependent on smart things in our lives, not just phones, that when they stop being smart, we’re stuck.

It’s not just electricity and the internet. Smart devices need the mothership to be up and running too. So we can get on with life.