What Does it Mean for Everything to be Smart?

What are the challenges for invention on the Internet of Things?  In the early days of our use the only application was an indicator of what a thing was.  So it could be counted, located, or paid for. Now the possibilities have grown, and we expect many very complex things to take their place on the net and start conversations with other things that are there.    How do you innovate on the IoT?  Would seem a place ready for the use of agent models.