Heavy industries may be the looming giants of the Internet

Old-line industries haven't seen much of a payoff from the Internet yet, but once they get moving they could become bigger users than either tech companies or consumers.

As tech boomed and consumer businesses like retail changed radically in the 1990s and 2000s, industrial productivity in the U.S. was only growing by about 4% per year, General Electric Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt said Tuesday at a GE conference. Since 2010, growth has slowed to about 1% per year, he said. 

IT advances have paid off for tech companies and some businesses, but heavy industries like energy and transportation haven't been able to take part to a great extent, Immelt said. Now there are tools to help them take advantage, and CIOs in industrial firms can become business heroes, he said. GE thinks it can help make that happen.

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