How current trends in IoT point to 5G RedCap, zero trust, AI, and convergence as the new essentials
The new IoT frontier is here.
IoT used to feel like an innovation project. Now it’s embedded in everyday operations. When sensors, cameras, and connected equipment automatically feed decisions or trigger actions, IoT becomes the layer that protects uptime, enables scale, and keeps distributed teams aligned.
What does this mean for IT leaders? It means that in 2026, enterprises must acknowledge that an IoT strategy can’t be merely “good enough.” Now it’s mission-critical.
Several key IoT trends are driving that shift. LTE phaseouts are forcing earlier hardware upgrades. AI is changing both how work gets done and how threats evolve. And as more devices come online to support essential operations, IT teams are being asked to deploy, manage, and secure them all with fewer hands.
The risks of ignoring the changing IoT environment include preventable outages, devices that can’t connect as networks change, and a widening attack surface that’s harder to defend at scale. For today’s enterprises, these risks quickly translate into real business impact.
In this blog, we’ll break down four practical “survival rules” IT leaders can use to navigate the latest IoT trends while modernizing connectivity, strengthening security, and keeping operations running in the year (and years) ahead.
2026 IoT trends: Four rules for survival
Don’t get stuck on LTE-only planning
Your LTE devices may be performing well today, but long device lifecycles still require long-term planning. Networks change over time. Network operators sunset older networks, reallocate spectrum, and focus investment on newer generations and services. Over a five- to ten-year lifecycle, those shifts can affect coverage performance, device availability, and the long-term economics of an LTE-only roadmap. Will your devices still have the coverage, longevity, and performance profile you need five to ten years from now?
The prudent starting point is to begin designing migration paths now. This is especially important for IoT endpoints that need more capability than basic sensors, but don’t require the throughput or cost of an always-on video scenario. For those deployments, 5G RedCap (or “Reduced Capability”) is a practical next step.
5G RedCap is a simplified, more affordable, long-life 5G option designed specifically for IoT devices. It reduces complexity and power requirements while keeping devices operational, secure, and on a modern connectivity roadmap. Not every device needs to move to RedCap right away, but RedCap expands options in a way that fits real-world constraints.
Zero trust is no longer optional
IoT expands your network’s attack surface. IoT devices introduce vulnerability because they are often deployed outside controlled environments. They also run lightweight operating systems and may not support the full security tooling commonly used on laptops and servers. And because IoT devices are often interconnected and may be broadcasting their IP address, a single weak endpoint can open a path into the broader network.
These security challenges are why more enterprises are turning to a zero trust IoT approach to secure their rapidly expanding IoT exposure. Zero trust removes implicit trust by continuously verifying device access, obfuscating IP addresses, and reducing lateral movement across the network. The goal of zero trust is to assume compromise is possible by any device, limit the blast radius, and identify abnormal behavior before it disrupts the network.
What does zero trust look like in real IoT deployments?
- Strong device identity: Establish secure onboarding, certificate-based identity, and lifecycle management, so you know what is connecting to your network and can revoke access when needed.
- Least-privilege access: Limit each device to only the services it requires and nothing more.
- Secure remote access: Use zero trust network access to give contractors and employees least-privilege, app-level access to the specific IoT tools they need without exposing the broader network.
- Encryption in transit: Protect data as it moves across networks and apply integrity checks when appropriate.
- Segmentation/microsegmentation: Contain risk by restricting what any compromised device can reach.
- Continuous monitoring: Treat unusual device behavior as both a potential uptime and security issue until you confirm the cause.
Use AI as an early warning system
As IoT deployments grow, the work required to manage them often increases faster than your IT team's headcount does. That’s why it makes sense to pair AI and IoT not only to make endpoints “smarter,” but to also make operations more resilient and manageable.
The convergence of AI and IoT is changing how teams detect issues and defend the edge. Applied well, AI can help IT teams:
- Spot anomalies early
- Predict issues before outages occur
- Automate triage
- Support edge intelligence
AI doesn’t replace IT teams, but it does help them see further and act faster, especially when the environment is distributed, always changing, and difficult to staff at the edge.
Simplify by converging networks
Many enterprises have built IoT over time by stacking multiple networks and tools—Wi-Fi here, LTE there, private cellular for some sites, and separate overlays for vehicles. That approach may work on a small scale, but it becomes more complicated to operate as device fleets grow. One of the most actionable IoT trends for IT leaders is convergence to simplify network architecture for consistent operations across locations, devices, and use cases.
Convergence is a practical response to operational sprawl. As IoT device fleets grow, running separate networks and management tools increases troubleshooting time, slows change control, and makes consistent policy enforcement harder. A converged architecture standardizes how connectivity is delivered and operated across locations and use cases. Convergence delivers:
- Lower operational overhead
- More consistent policy enforcement
- Improved uptime
- More predictable scaling
Preparation determines success
The IoT landscape of 2026 will challenge many enterprises because scale and complexity are accelerating. Enterprises that perform best will be those that build a stable foundation in connectivity, security, intelligence, and management.
In this environment, vendor strategy becomes an important operational strategy. A single-vendor approach simplifies operations as you scale. Consolidating around one architecture and one operational model makes it easier to apply consistent security controls end to end, standardize deployment and lifecycle processes, and maintain uptime across thousands of endpoints. It also reduces integration seams, so teams spend less time stitching tools together and more time improving performance and resilience.