LIVE FROM CES 2014: John Chambers (pictured), CEO of Cisco, predicted that “digital countries” will become an industry hot topic in the coming months, in a keynote presentation that highlighted his vision of the evolution of the internet of things.

“I want you to think about how you take many of the technology concepts that we have talked about at this conference, such as the internet of everything, cloud, mobility, big data, how it changes lives, and think what is next,” he said.

“And think again not about how fast it has moved since last year, but how fast things have moved since we did the first hosting of the Internet of Things World Forum in Barcelona just in October of last year. And when you think what will be the topic for this time next year, I can tell you already what it’s going to be,” he continued.

“It’s going to be about digital countries. The ability of a country to completely transform itself.”

The executive said that “Israel will probably be the best example of it”, due to a number of factors including its advanced position in terms of technology, and the challenges it is facing in areas such as job creation, economic increases, transform healthcare and education.

Chambers said that 2014 will be an “inflection point” in terms of the growth of the connected world.

“If you look back 10 years from now, the impact of the internet from the time of its inception to today, the internet of everything will have five to ten times that impact,” he argued.