A proof of concept answers one question: can this be done? For IoT that might be whether a LoRaWAN sensor reaches the gateway from inside a metal silo, or whether a legacy PLC can be read without interrupting production. It is usually built on a development board, with a quick dashboard and no attention to security, enclosure or scale.
The value is cheap learning; the danger is mistaking a working demo for a product. A PoC that proves radio coverage says nothing about battery life, provisioning a thousand units or support costs. Defining the question, the success criteria and the end date up front avoids pilot purgatory, where a PoC grows into a pilot that never becomes a rollout. A minimum viable product is the next step when the answer is yes.
Part of the IoT Glossary. Spotted an error or a missing term? Tell us.