IoT Influencers to Follow in 2027
The people who make the Internet of Things legible — analysts, engineers and operators worth following as IoT collides with AI agents.
IoT Analytics counted 21.1 billion connected devices by the end of 2025, heading for 39 billion by 2030 — but the bigger story for 2027 is that the category's plumbing changed. Matter 1.5 finally brought cameras and doorbells into the standard, and the EU's Cyber Resilience Act starts to bite: reporting duties from September 2026, full compliance by December 2027, fines up to €15 million. The people below are the ones who explain what that means in practice — and this edition corrects the record where they have moved on: one podcast is on hiatus, several have changed employers, and the field's centre of gravity has shifted from "connected" to "connected, observable and agent-ready".
Two deadlines and one standard release define the 2027 field. The Cyber Resilience Act (in force since 10 December 2024) applies its vulnerability and exploit reporting obligations from 11 September 2026, with full compliance from 11 December 2027 and fines up to €15M or 2.5% of worldwide turnover. And Matter 1.5 (Connectivity Standards Alliance, 20 November 2025) brought the first support for cameras and doorbells — WebRTC, pan-tilt-zoom and privacy zones — plus closures, soil sensors and an energy-tariff device type; v1.5.1 followed on 31 March 2026.
| Name | Known as | Follow for |
|---|---|---|
| Stacey Higginbotham | Consumer Reports; IEEE Spectrum columnist (Stacey on IoT on hiatus) | The clearest consumer/industrial IoT analysis anywhere |
| Peggy Smedley | IoT World Today; the Peggy Smedley Show | Industrial IoT and connected worker |
| Tom Raftery | Independent tech and sustainability analyst and podcaster (ex-SAP) | Energy and sustainability technology |
| Antonio Grasso | Digital transformation advisor | IoT explained for executives |
| Rob Tiffany | Research Director, IDC | Edge computing and industrial systems |
| Daniel Elizalde | VP of Product, ReUp; teaches IoT product management at Stanford | IoT product management discipline |
| Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino | Author, Smarter Homes | Ethics and design of connected products |
| Kirk Borne | Chief Science Officer, DataPrime | Data strategy across connected systems |
| Alasdair Gilchrist | Author, Industry 4.0 | Industrial IoT implementation reality |
| Maciej Kranz | General Manager, Enterprise, Pure Storage; author, Building the Internet of Things | Enterprise IoT adoption playbooks |
| Sandy Carter | COO, Unstoppable Domains; author, AI First, Human Always (2025) | AI and digital identity at enterprise scale |
| Tamara McCleary | CEO, Thulium | Brand-side view of IoT and AI trends |
| Pete Bernard | CEO, EDGE AI Foundation | The edge-AI community — where IoT and agents now meet |
| François Baldassari | Founder/CEO, Memfault (acquired by Nordic Semiconductor, 2025) | Device observability for connected fleets |
Why IoT still matters here
Agents need a world to act on. The physical interface — sensors, machines, vehicles, shelves — is IoT's territory, and the people above are the ones documenting what happens when LLM-era software meets it. Related: our Industry 4.0 coverage via the interviews index, and the topics hub.
Frequently asked questions
How was this list compiled?
This is the original Engatica IoT list, rebuilt for 2027. Rather than replacing it wholesale, we checked every one of the original entries against current public sources, updated the roles that had changed, and added two people who represent where the field moved: edge AI and device observability. The result favours people who explain IoT in public — analysts, engineers and operators — over people who merely hold IoT job titles.
How often is the list updated?
On the annual edition cycle, with corrections applied whenever we find them. The 2027 pass changed most entries: Stacey Higginbotham's newsletter is on hiatus while she writes for Consumer Reports, Rob Tiffany moved to IDC, and Maciej Kranz is now at Pure Storage. IoT job titles churn faster than almost any beat we cover, so treat the roles as checked at edition time and flag anything that has moved on.
How can I get added to the list, or get an entry corrected?
Send nominations through the nominations page with evidence of recent public work — a talk, a standard they helped ship, a newsletter practitioners actually read. We are especially interested in people working on device security and edge AI, where the field is moving fastest. Corrections to existing entries go through the same page; if a listed person's role has changed, include a current source and we will update the live entry.
What is the EU Cyber Resilience Act, and when does it bite?
The Cyber Resilience Act is the EU law that makes secure-by-design a legal duty for products with digital elements — most connected devices included. Its vulnerability and exploit reporting obligations apply from 11 September 2026, and full compliance is required from 11 December 2027, with fines up to €15 million or 2.5% of worldwide turnover. For IoT makers, it ends the ship-it-and-forget-it model this list's security voices warned about.
Sources
- Number of Connected IoT Devices (State of IoT, Fall 2025) — IoT Analytics (2025)
- Matter 1.5 Brings Camera Support — MacRumors (2025)
- EU Cyber Resilience Act Requirements for Products with Digital Elements — Pillsbury (2025)
- Stacey Higginbotham — Author Page — Consumer Reports Innovation (2025)
- Daniel Elizalde (personal site: VP of Product, ReUp; Stanford IoT teaching) — danieleizalde.com (2026)
- The IoT Podcast — Rob Tiffany (IDC) — iotpodcast.com (2025)
- Tom Raftery — Profile — Thinkers360 (2026)
- Kirk Borne (Chief Science Officer, DataPrime) — The Agent Times (2026)
- Maciej Kranz — Wikipedia (2026)
- Sandy Carter — Wikipedia (2026)
- Pete Bernard, CEO, EDGE AI Foundation — Speaker Details — CES Exhibitors (2026)
- Nordic Semiconductor Acquisition of Memfault — Euronext Live (2025)