Words by Troy Barrios
Arthur C. Clarke once observed, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” This year’s Isobar Trends Report has us on the brink of a magical transformation—the intersection of man and machine, where man-made technology is infused with empathy and emotion. Interfaces will become more intuitive, even intimate, shifting from screens to voice. Business models tap into communities in the form of the sharing economy. One-size-fits-all transactions will become passé as personalized service becomes the rage. And the great hope is that all these intersections of science and humanity will create more opportunities for creativity and compassion towards a better world.
This is the year of Augmented Humanity, a meeting of man and machine, “code and conscience.” Jean Lin, Isobar’s Global CEO, says, “Artificial intelligence is great, but humans score on emotional intelligence. The power of being human is in empathy. This cannot be automated or outsourced. Augmented Humanity will use technology to scale everything that is best and most powerful about human interaction.”
KEY TRENDS
1. Body Talk
The fact that voice recognition was the dominant technological innovation in 2017 was harbinger of an era where smart environments and technologies will interact with humanity through eyes, ears and voice. In short, our bodies becoming the prime means of interacting with and experiencing technology.
For example, Saarland University in Germany is exploring temporary electronic tattoos that turn the contours of our skin into smartphone controls. Levi’s partnered with Google to create a smart jacket imbued with gesture-controlled sensors inlaid into the cuffs so you can take calls, listen to music or access maps with a flick of a finger. The implications are enormous. Already, 8% of US-based owners of smart speakers have used voice to shop, transfer money, and pay bills. In the U.K., one in five users have placed orders via Alexa. And the there are the possibilities inherent in Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods—a move that promises to revolutionize grocery shopping behavior forever. In fact, to counterbalance, Walmart has just struck a partnership with Google Home, while Target partners with Pinterest.
What This Means
*Forming a habit. Already, Amazon and Walmart are working on a voice-operated auto-replenishment model for those grocery items you buy time and again.
*Reinventing search. With projected 60% increase in users of smart speakers using voice activated platforms, will come a shift search behavior from keywords to voice and visual search. For brands, this means a rethink of how content will be optimized for this kind of interface.
*The utility imperative. AR can give us significant opportunities to augment everyday interactions with useful information—for example, calorie counts, price comparisons, ratings and reviews. This means consumers will access a level of transparency never before possible. For brands, this makes it increasingly important to capture positive feedback.
2. Powered by People
As technology turbo charges into the sharing economy, we observe how dynamics are shifting in the worlds of business and e-commerce, where innovative business models like Blockchain are harnessing the power and reach of communities over that of corporations. Disruption is occurring in all areas of life, but particularly so in the world of business.
One trend is subscription models, whic have been gaining popularity for some time across sectors from flowers to beauty to clothing. Baby Gap recently entered the market with OutfitBox, a quarterly subscription that automatically sizes up as our baby grows. Amazon has introduced Subscribe and Save to their Prime customers. Beyond simple subscriptions, business models are also evolving towards online communities. Pure Planet, a renewable energy startup, offers energy at cost price to its members, alongside community powered customer service. As the roles of retail channels evolve, fostering that sense of community instore as well as online represent a significant opportunity in a world where real world connections are becoming increasingly valuable.
What This Means
*Find a niche market. Brands can see this time as a great opportunity to use direct-to-consumer models to experiment with new product categories, price points, and support emerging trends not yet supported by conventional retail.
*Brand as service. With millennials and Gen Z prioritizing access over service, brands will need to build new kinds of relationships based on giving service rather than a purely transactional relationships. For example, smart brands like GM are exploring how they can use their financial and logistical resources to facilitate peer to peer relationships allied to the blockchain—and in this way increase sharing of everything from energy to bandwidth.
*The power of reciprocity. With customers seeking a sense of personal reward and participation from businesses, brands need to embrace a spirit of generosity and reciprocity. Great example: Shell’s Jump for your lunch campaign encouraged users to jump on kinetic tiles, generating energy which was used to pay for lunch from the Shell Synergy Food Truck, a clean technology kitchen serving ecofriendly food.
“As technology turbo charges into the sharing economy, we observe how dynamics are shifting in the worlds of business and e-commerce.”
3. The Makers and the Machines
The time is ripe for the extraordinary union of art and technology, the intersection of which will produce works never before imagined. “Art is one of the last domains in AI where there is an optimistic view on how humans and machines can work together,” said David King, founder of Move 37. Though we’ve seen digital artists make pioneering inroads into new worlds in creativity, what looms ahead is an even more massive revolution with AI and VR creating art that is already indistinguishable from that created by humans. In every field, from music to painting to literature.
Researchers from Rutgers University, the College of Charlston and Facebook’s AI Lab collaborated on a project training AI to reproduce historical styles of art, and then create images that were entirely original. In the field of journalism, a number of news outlets are using AI to generate simple articles that would previously have required a journalist’s input. The Wordsmith software, for example, automatically generates match reports and polling updates, and its parent company, Automated Insights, generated 1.5 billion articles in 2015—and is possibly that year’s biggest content producer. Even more exciting, VR and 3D printing is changing our perception of what is real and what is virtual, as happened at the Royal Academy’s Virtual Reality Exhibition where installations were created with Google’s Tilt Brush programme.
What This Means
*Creative automation. If AI can generate articles and ads, we can project to a time when creative thinkers will be freed up from the relatively mundane tasks of, for example, writing banner headlines or product descriptions for a website, to focus on the bigger picture.
*Next gen customization. 3D printing technology will make it possible for a whole new level of customization. Crayon Creatures, for example, can print toy figurines based on children’s drawings. Picture This will turn the same drawings into clothing.
*Harder working assets. With increasingly diverse platforms for their content, ranging from TVCs to Facebook or YouTube ads, it will be very important for brands to think about ‘modular creative assets’ that can be combined in different ways for different platforms.
The Isobar Trend Reports 2018 predict an age of Augmented Humanity because, at every touchpoint, these key trends emphasize the importance of human emotion. It’s no longer enough for us to understand the science behind the innovation; it’s much more important is to consider human emotions and what drives human behavior. Increasingly, the relevant question is not how does it work, but how does it feel. Download the complete report here.
This article was published in the adobo magazine Trends 2018 issue.
