The Future of Marketing
Have you considered how much you do today with the aid of technology? What about the items you grew up with that your children may have never actually seen – a coffee-stained and wrinkled roadmap, a checkbook register, the TV set in the family room with access to only 10 stations (and that’s if you had cable)? Technology has changed nearly every aspect of our day-to-day lives. We use GPS to get us to our destination and wearables to let us know how many steps we’ve taken in the day. We manage our checkbook, pay our bills, and control our home security system with mobile apps. We order paper towels and diapers with the Amazon Dash Button. Technology has simplified daily tasks and given us access to an ever-growing number of options. And as amazing as all of these advancements are, there’s so much in store for us as we approach 2020.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made huge strides in recent years in the fields of media, advertising, retail, finance, and healthcare, with voice recognition being the most widely used AI technology. But the future of AI lies in access to the data that we voluntarily feed every day to Google, Amazon, Facebook and more. With access to this data, AI will do far more than simply answer our questions. With the profiles that it creates, it will actually be able to predict our needs.
AI is poised to change every aspect of our lives:
At work – Worried that your job may one day be filled by a robot or AI technology? Well, that might be the case but that doesn’t mean that the job market is about to dry up. It’s just changing. New jobs will be required to curate, manage and continually evolve the technology and the vast amount of data to deliver these predictive experiences. Education and training will have to adjust to fill these new roles.
At home- Today’s home tech is super-cool, but it’s still a little cumbersome. It may take multiple steps to complete a task. But tomorrow’s tech will be different. Cameras that learn what specific gestures mean and microphones that can interpret voice inflections will make creating just the right setting for a romantic dinner less awkward and far more natural.
Our personal lives – We’re gradually becoming more comfortable with the knowledge that data is being collected and stored with every interaction. And while we’re still concerned with privacy, we expect that businesses will use our data to create better experiences for us. So it’s not impossible to think that Alexa, Viv, Siri, and Home will become more than just devices in our homes. We will unintentionally build relationships with them, expect more and more from them every day, and rely on them as our trusted personal assistants. So the next time you miss a flight, all of the details will be taken care of before you even have a moment to breakdown into tears over it.
As business people and marketers, tech that does is changing what we make, the ways we serve, and how we sell. The future of marketing is only limited by the walls that we put up that keep us from harnessing the power of technology.
Still intrigued by all this tech talk? Check back next week for our final post in the Cronin 2020 series… Tech that senses.