Forget about whether you're smarter than a fifth‑grader – how do you compare with the products you use in your daily life? Smart technologies are finding their way into everyday things, from toothbrushes, to tennis rackets to beverage containers. The resulting opportunities for product companies are seemingly endless, from game‑changing innovation, to new levels of efficiency in product development, manufacturing, marketing, sales and the customer experience.

At the same time, however, smart products are also dramatically disrupting marketplaces and existing business models. As a new and increasingly interconnected smart product economy arises – marked by new types of partnerships and consortia – product companies need to get on‑board fast to ensure they are not left behind.

To understand the smart product phenomenon, Cognizant's Center for the Future of Work—in partnership with the Economist Intelligence Unit (the research arm of The Economist magazine)—surveyed over 200 product design and innovation executives across the U.S. and Europe. The following infographic reveals a few of our survey's insights, as well as steps that companies can take to harness the opportunities of the rapidly developing smart product economy.

Figure 1

To learn more about the accelerating trend in the smart product market, read our white paper "The Rise of the Smart Product Economy," and visit the digital business section of our Web site. Additional insight can be found atwww.futureofwork.com.