Predictions For 2017-18

Disruption has moved from an infrequent inconvenience to a consistent stream of change that is redefining markets and entire industries. In 2016, we saw the astonishing rise of Pokémon Go, which demonstrated accelerated digital change in areas such as augmented reality. Gartner’s top strategic predictions for 2017 and beyond describe not only the disruptive effects of digital business innovation but how secondary ripple effects will often prove to be more disruptive than the original disruption.

Three high-level trends emerge from the predictions:

• Digital experience and engagement will draw people into non-stop virtual interactions
• Business innovation will create extraordinary change from mundane concepts
• Secondary effects will be more disruptive than the initial digital change

Gartner’s Top 10 Predictions for 2017 and Beyond

1. Immersive Shopping Experience – By 2020, 100 million consumers will shop in augmented reality.

Whether they allow you to try on makeup or place virtual furniture in your home, immersive technologies such as AR increase consumer engagement by enabling them to fully explore features and conveying additional information that can aid in a buying decision. Popular applications, such as Pokémon Go, will help propagate the technology and bring it into the mainstream. 1 in 5 global brands will use AR for shopping by the end of 2017.

2. Voice First Browsing – By 2020, 30% of web browsing sessions will be done without a screen.

Many teens already use voice search daily and new audio-centric technologies, such as Google Home and Amazon’s Echo, are turning “voice first” interactions into ubiquitous experiences. By eliminating the need to use your hands and eyes for browsing, vocal interactions extend the web experience to multiple activities, such as driving, cooking, walking, socializing, exercising, operating machinery, etc. By the end of 2017, watch for room-based screenless devices to be in more than 10 million homes.

3. Mobile Apps Decline – By 2019, 20% of brands will abandon their mobile apps.

Many brands are finding that their mobile apps are not paying off. They simply haven’t delivered the level of adoption and customer engagement that companies expected. App stores are crowded and the cost of application support in not only maintenance, upgrades and customer support but also marketing to drive downloads, exceeds original ROI calculations. Google’s effort to make the mobile web more “app like,” will gain traction, and companies will opt to reduce their losses by allowing their apps to expire. Watch for Apple’s reluctant embrace of the mobile web as a vehicle for customer engagement.

4. Algorithms at Work – By 2020, algorithms will positively alter the behavior of over 1 billion global workers.

Employees, already familiar with behavior influencing through contextual algorithms on consumer sites such as Amazon, will be influenced by an emerging set of “persuasive technologies” that leverage big data from myriad sources, mobile, IoT devices and deep analysis.

JPMorgan Chase uses an algorithm to forecast and positively influence the behavior of thousands of investment bank and asset management employees to minimize mistaken or ethically wrong decisions. Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic uses influence algorithms to guide pilots to use less fuel. By year end 2017, watch for at least one commercial organization to report a significant increase in profit margins because it used algorithms to positively alter its employees’ behaviors.

5. Blockchain Grows Up – By 2022, a blockchain-based business will be worth $10 billion.

Blockchain technology is established as the next revolution in transaction or event recording. A blockchain ledger provides an immutable, shared view of all transactions between engaging parties in a distributed, decentralized network. While the Bitcoin blockchain ledger is itself well-understood, blockchain remains an immature technology. By 2020, new businesses and business models will emerge based on smart contracts and blockchain efficiencies. These smart contracts automate at a reliability, customization level and speed not achievable with traditional business systems.

6. Digital Giants Everywhere – By 2021, 20% of all activities an individual engages in will involve at least one of the top-seven digital giants.

Many of us interact with at least one of the digital giants (by market capitalization: Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent) in our digital worlds of web search, mobile, social networking, messaging and music streaming. As the physical, financial and healthcare worlds become more digital, many of our activities will be connected and within reach of the digital giants. Note that collectively, the digital giants will have direct and indirect knowledge of what we do as individuals and the fundamental issue will be what they do with the data.

7. Innovation Requires Greater Investment – Through 2019, every $1 enterprise invest in innovation will require an additional $7 in core execution.

Many organizations have adopted a bimodal style of work to jumpstart innovation. While exercises are designed to experiment and “fail fast,” those that do receive approval for implementation involve a level of complexity, scale, and business change ramifications that may not have been considered in the initial planning stage.

8. IoT Saves Trillions – By 2022, IoT will save consumers and businesses $1 trillion a year in maintenance, services, and consumables.

Digital twins capture real-time data, allowing smarter maintenance and service schedules for physical objects such as large pumps, airframes, and turbines. When the sensor-enabled real world twin sends data to the digital twin, it can simulate the physical state, allowing the digital twin to be inspected instead of the physical object. This would be helpful for a submerged sewage pump or any other asset in which on-site inspection is inconvenient, costly or hazardous.

Consumers, too, will benefit when they can extend the life of the oil in their cars from a prescriptive replacement “every 5,000 miles” to replacement triggered by a measurement of the engine’s performance.

Emerging and established companies need to keep in mind these predictions, especially the tech leaders during hiring and procurement. Investments need to be smarter, better and more calculative in nature.

Source: Gartner

AR and VR – an emerging Marketing Tool for Brands

Virtual reality and augmented reality are the two most discussed technologies that are impressing users across the globe.The latest advents of the technological world are focusing on discovering newer ways to market brand objectives and their associated campaigns on a broad front.

While technical experts are busy in finding impactful ways to use VR for marketing, app developers and social media marketers are incorporating unique value propositions in their current branding campaigns. If you wish to know more about how the two technologies can impact the current marketing trends and social media branding activities, then read on.

Being Digital is the New Focus for Everyone

Since users are making a switch from traditional newspapers and media to the internet, it becomes highly imperative for marketers to understand the need of transforming their branding activities as per the changing trends. Being digital and accessible from anywhere and anytime is the prime focus for marketers in 2017 and this is where AR and VR can provide a practical solution.

Social Media Has Now Become the Mainstream Marketing Channel

In a recent research conducted by Pew Research Center, nearly eight-in-ten online Americans (79% approx) are now using Facebook. It automatically shows the global presence of users on social media networks, and marketers are making numerous efforts to improve their advertising, content, and promotional activities to target these audiences in fresh ways.

How AR and VR Will Revolutionize Global Marketing Trends?

One of the biggest advantages of these technologies is that it allows marketers to offer content and create rich, immersive and engaging experiences for consumers.  Since users are being addressed by traditional print and TV ads from past years, they wish to access something that not only excites them, but also helps them to connect emotionally.

Most of the top firms are adopting digital marketing initiatives to bring specific revenue outcomes. They are making a shift from their traditional branding approach to modern marketing techniques like AR and VR to engage better with users.

With AR and VR, a totally new (and highly effective) medium, it emerges to create an indelible impression on the user. Some of the ways in which AR and VR can help marketing campaigns on social media are how it –

• Can be used to demonstrate product features, functionalities, and USPs
• Helps organizations to communicate the brand’s mission with great ease
• Delivers branded entertainment experience and adds excitement to create hype about a particular brand or product/service
• Keeps consumers informed about varied products available in the same domain to provide utmost satisfaction
• Adds an immersive dimension to traditional print, web and video story-telling advertisements that makes for a memorable social media experience.

Will brands embrace this new technology?

Making a switch from traditional media channels to new age platforms like AR and VR has redrawn marketing budgets and strategies. This has, in turn, resulted in empowering the digital world with newer ads, content, and promotional stuff that can impress users at large and aid in creating favorable brand recall value.

We are hopeful that brands would embrace this new technology in 2017, but the level of success is something that we would need to closely watch as the year progresses.

Before the emergence of Augmented Reality or AR, most of the world didn’t know that real-world experiences can be so stunning, engaging, and compelling! Although AR has been there for quite some time, it’s the widespread use of Smartphones that have popularized it even more.

According to market reports, 2015 marked the unsurpassed popularity of AR and celebrated its emergence into the tech arena. In the latter half of 2016, users can expect this innovation to gain traction thus transforming real-life experiences in a unique manner.

Let’s turn to statistics, shall we, for tracking down the interconnections between the Smartphone and AR technology.

Stats state

If market reports are anything to go by, a whopping 72% of grownups in the US operate on Smartphones. With such widespread use of Smartphones in the country, there’s simply no denying the bright future of AR. When it comes to creating opportunities and user experiences in real world, AR pleasantly surprises its users and audience. Here are some of the latest trends accompanying Augmented Reality in 2016. Take a look!

Checking out latest trends in AR

Before taking a look at the trends, it’s imperative to understand what Augmented Reality truly stands for. According to the formal definition, the AR technology represents the overlay of virtual information onto real world experiences. Simply put, users can look at objects in the real world and gain virtual experiences.

The unique nature of Augmented Reality creates ample opportunities for numerous sectors. Here are some of the trends worth drooling over!

1.      Revolutionizing the gaming world

Games or gaming applications such as Pokemon Go and Ingress bring great news for the gaming world. With ‘Ingress’ introducing the concept of sponsored portals, gamers transformed into productive and paying consumers thus adding to the company’s revenues.

With gamers and participants having the opportunity to earn special gifts with unique passcodes, foot-traffic to the company shot up by quite a few notches.

2.      On-time information, right at your chosen place

Perhaps, the time is here when individuals will have access to even the tiniest of information. With market biggies such as BMW and Jaguar leveraging the ‘smart windshields’ technology, driving will turn out to be an exceptional experience. Augmented Reality is playing a highly crucial role in this context thus presenting GPS data-based information.

Innovations such as ‘Place Tips’ help shoppers get virtual insights into real-world offers and price deals, thus preparing the ground for a new era of science fiction.

3.      AR-enhanced sampling

With the AR technology, consumers will have the chance to try on dresses, outfits, and even makeup before buying it. You can now apply a selected shade of eye-shadow without performing the act in reality. Quite naturally, users can get a glimpse of their appearance without having to use makeup products in reality and wipe them off.

Parting thoughts

With these unique highlights and trends, the AR technology seems to be buzz word in the tech arena. Let’s see whether it stirs up revolutions in the future too.

There is no denying the significance of tech innovations and advancements in the business arena. New discoveries lead to improved operations and processes, thus creating endless opportunities for your business. Amongst some of the amazing tech developments, AR or Augmented Reality deserves a special mention. AR has what it takes to revamp business operations. From day-to-day tasks to special collaborations, there’s nothing you can’t do with Augmented Reality.

On that note, let’s take a look at how AR is revolutionizing processes across the business landscape. A quick look at Augmented Reality applications and use cases will help you dive deep into the topic.

AR business applications

Although AR and VR are two of the latest and most innovative discoveries, they are miles apart when it comes to functionality. While VR creates virtual environments, AR offers graphical integrations and enhancements to your physical and real environments.

With AR turning out to be ubiquitous within a short period, quite a few creative use cases and applications might be in the pipeline. Let’s find out the various business applications of the AR technology.

Identifying the crucial applications

From the retail and medical to industrial training sectors, AR has worked wonders for all of them. Especially, those wishing to incorporate enterprise mobility will have the best opportunity to do so with AR. That brings us to a crucial point in the discussion.

1.      Promoting remote collaborations

When it comes to promoting collaborations between your remote workforces, none other than the AR technology offers the best assistance. With the business arena increasingly warming up to enterprise mobility, effective collaborations happen to be the need of the hour.

Employees located in different places will have the opportunity to work in collaborative environments. AR particularly helps in the creation of virtual environments during business meetings. Remote employees feel engaged and engrossed, thus making valuable contributions to the company.

2.      Education and training

Apart from facilitating employee participations, AR also plays a vital role in creating unique opportunities in the education sector. Augmented Reality technology creates a highly interactive, immersive, and engaging experience for new employees.

Trainers will have the opportunity to explain complex processes and operations with highly interactive graphics and images. That will not only help trainers impart in-depth training but also speed up the entire training procedure.

3.      Industrial applications

Augmented Reality also revolutionizes processes in the industrial sectors. When it boils down to repairs and maintenance, AR can extend the best support. Augmented Reality overlays create virtual illustrations of the entire repair process. As the result, repairers and workers will have the perfect opportunity to perform repairs with ease.

4.      Product launch and descriptions

Ecommerce owners need to showcase their products in the best ways. The emergence of the AR technology makes it happen. Apart from the store owners, AR will also offer amazing 3-dimensional product views to customers.

Simply put, AR empowers the customers along with reducing possibilities of returns. That surely brings about dual benefits.

Parting thoughts

The possibilities for the AR technology don’t end here. With the emergence of augmented processes and office spaces, there’s more in store for business owners.