Here’s a look at 10 of the coolest and most noteworthy vendors who are innovating and making big moves within the industrial IoT space.
Industrial IoT is where the rubber meets the road with the best and brightest IoT providers forever changing the economics in one industry after another with a new generation of AI offerings.
There may be no better example of the breadth and depth of just how dramatic the changes being driven by industrial IoT providers than in Siemens’ ambitious partnership with AI market leader Nvidia to bring physical AI solutions to “every industry and industrial workflow.” The cornerstone of that effort is Siemens’ Digital Twin Composer that connects design, simulation and real- time data with AI.
“By combining Nvidia’s leadership in accelerated computing and AI platforms with Siemens’ leading hardware, software, industrial AI and data, we’re empowering customers to develop products faster with the most comprehensive digital twins, adapt production in real time, and accelerate technologies from chips to AI factories,” said Siemens CEO Roland Busch in the announcement of the partnership. That has resulted in a big payback for PepsiCo, which has seen a 10 percent to15 percent reduction in capital expenditures by identifying hidden capacity and a 20 percent increase on throughput in initial deployments.
Among the other industrial IoT game-changers are fleet management software provider Samsara, which is making driving safer with powerful AI models that in Fiscal Year 2026 prevented 380,000 accidents and digitized 340 million workflows; AssetWatch, whose real-time machine monitoring system aimed at preventing downtime saved one customer $16 million in potential lost gross margin; and HiveMQ, which is turning raw industrial data into real-time intelligence and autonomous actions at the edge.
When Barry Libert took over as HiveMQ chairman and CEO last October, he announced the company’s all-out offensive to become the “leading industrial AI” platform.
“Industrial leaders don’t need more AI hype,” said Libert. “Rather, they need measurable results from data they can trust and models on which they can rely.”
As part of the 2026 IoT 50, here then are CRN’s choices for the top 10 IoT industrial leaders delivering those results.
AssetWatch
Brian Graham
CEO
The real-time machine monitoring powerhouse, based in Columbus, Ohio, is preventing downtime for industrial IoT customers, resulting in huge cost savings. The company’s Vero predictive maintenance service saved one customer $16 million in potential lost gross margin.
BrightAI
Alex Hawkinson
Founder, CEO
BrightAI is powering an edge AI revolution by anticipating industrial system infrastructure failures and proactively preventing them. The San Francisco-based real-time edge monitoring provider has more than 50,000 AI endpoints in the field.
Cognite
Girish Rishi
CEO
The Oslo, Norway-based IoT SaaS superstar is driving an industrial IoT AI revolution with AI token usage up 500 percent in the last fiscal year and monthly active users up 26 percent.
HiveMQ
Barry Libert
CEO
The Landshut, Germany-based industrial AI platform provider’s HiveMQ Pulse data intelligence platform is powering an AI revolution by turning raw industrial IoT data into real-time intelligence delivering autonomous actions at the edge.
Honeywell
Vimal Kapur
CEO
The IoT industrial solution behemoth is driving an AI revolution. Case in point: the AI analytics and behavioral-based Honeywell Cyber Proactive Defense offering for industrial environments. The Charlotte, N.C.-based company also has developed an AI- enabled retail offering with Google and solution provider 66degrees.
Litmus
Vatsal Shah
CEO
The industrial edge data platform provider powerhouse moved from Niche Player to Challenger in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Global Industrial IoT platforms. The San Jose, Calif.-based company also received additional funding aimed at boosting its AI capabilities.
Samsara
Sanjit Biswas
CEO
The fleet management software provider is making driving safer with powerful AI models that are compounding as it adds more customers. In Fiscal Year 2026, the San Francisco-based company prevented 380,000 accidents and digitized 340 million workflows.
Siemens
Roland Busch
CEO
The Munich, Germany-based industrial IoT behemoth is teaming with Nvidia to bring industrial and physical AI solutions to “every industry and industrial workflow.” Together the two companies are “building the Industrial AI operating system,” said Busch.
Tive
Krenar Komoni
CEO
The Boston-based global IoT real-time shipment monitoring provider, which recently secured an additional $20 million in funding, has sold more than 3.5 million shipment trackers to date with coverage across 186 countries.
Zededa
Said Ouissal
CEO
Santa Clara, Calif.-based Zededa is pushing the AI envelope with its Edge Intelligence Platform. Ouissal said the platform removes the “final barrier” for enterprises to bring the full value of AI to where their business operates.
