Emerging tech in 2017 part two: Smart Systems and Connected Objects
Sam Battams, Head of Technology Innovation at Manning Gottlieb OMD concludes a fortnightly, two-part deep dive into the emerging tech trends in 2017, and what they mean for agencies and brands. Read the first part here.
Smart Systems
Why AI, Machine Learning, and Bots are a big opportunity
Along with Virtual Reality, last year saw the re-emergence of another technology that has been touted for decades: Artificial Intelligence. AI, which in my view needs a bit of a rebrand to shake it’s ’90s connotations (hence the trend of ‘Smart Systems’), is now supported by enough computing power and memory to flex its muscles and experiment with a particular strand of AI that is responsible for much of the fresh excitement around it. That strand is Machine Learning.
It was no surprise that Google were at the centre of the most headline-grabbing achievement for AI and Machine Learning last year when it’s subsidiary DeepMind tested it’s AI skills against the world’s top Go players, and won. Elsewhere, self-driving cars — a mixture of AI software, sensors, and of course mechanical parts — received plenty of attention last year, and kicked off this year with more of the same as CES. But what does all of this big thinking meaning for brands?
Well there is certainly a huge, ongoing story around improved efficiency — and the changes this efficiency will lead to — brought on by AI. This was again highlighted by a DeepMind achievement — this time by significantly improving energy efficiency at Google’s huge data centres. The behind-the-scenes benefits of AI are already being used in-particular by many tech companies and will cross-over to businesses of all shape and size. This probably sits in the realm of operations rather than marketing however.
In the marketing world, current conversations around ‘customer-facing’ AI quickly get round to ‘bots’. Bots, or chatbots, are AI-powered conversational software capable of conducting human-like conversations with customers, most likely, but not exclusively, using text. This software has been around for a few years but the big news as of late-2016 is that they are available on, and being supported by, Facebook Messenger, a platform with 32 million monthly users in the UK alone. This fusion of technology and platform presents a fascinating opportunity for brands to have meaningful ongoing dialogue with customers on a platform that many users have migrated to for everyday communication.
To capitalise on this opportunity, I believe brands need to think about something I discussed on a previous post: how to deliver a customer experience that is quicker, better, or different (in a positive way of course) to the communications channels already open for customers to interact with brands. Ultimately, customers have little to no interest in the technicalities of how a brand service — in this case a form of customer service — works, however ‘smart’ it is. Their concern is for the output; the experience they have. The challenge for brand bots then is to provide a useful, even delightful, experience for the customer that is somehow better than (or augments) what is already on offer, whether that’s face-to-face conversations in a store, an enquiry on the phone, or via email or online chat. All of these options are interfaces to have dialogue with real people, who yes, can be useless sometimes, but at other times can be pretty damn fantastic. My best, and most memorable, customer service experience last year was a ten-email long conversation with a customer services assistant at a US-based clothing company who showed astounding understanding, empathy, enthusiasm, and patience, as I faced the common annual challenge of getting my partner’s Christmas present spot-on. A bot would have struggled to help me in the same manner.
Whilst for me the real value in bots will therefore be found in these quicker, better, and always-on (or always-available) experiences, there is value to be had for brands in first dipping their toe in the water with bots that are perhaps at first a little less ambitious. Maybe this is a bot with a very single-minded function, or one that takes existing functionality (perhaps within a brand’s app) into the conversational environment of Messenger. This is what I mean by a bot being ‘different’ — taking something that can be achieved elsewhere, such as making a hotel booking, into the messenger environment — which in turn, should aim to make the process both ‘quicker’ and ‘better’ for the customer. For the brand, this bit-by-bit approach will both get them into the messenger environment, where so many users now are, and will give them a chance to tackle one of the challenges of this opportunity: finding their conversational voice in an environment where users’ wants and needs may be articulated in many different ways.
What should agencies do this year?
● Understand if/how the clients they work with are using machine learning and consider how this may affect everything across those businesses, from operations to product.
● Encourage clients to test the Messenger platform with a single-minded bot, paying careful attention to design a user experience fit for the medium.
● Start working with clients to design new, better customer experiences that are powered or augmented by conversational bots.
Connected Objects
Is the Echo a breakthrough for connected devices and ‘Virtual Personal Assistants’?
Whilst VR, AR, and AI seemed to dominate tech headlines for much of last year, it was an in-home connected device that ‘won’ Christmas and was the standout story at CES even though the device in question — the Amazon Echo — wasn’t even present at the event. The Echo is one of an increasing number of similar devices available to the public, all a physical embodiment of the AI that powers them. Each mix voice receivers, speakers, and software that some would call a ‘virtual assistant’ (which for many devices is currently Amazon’s software, Alexa) and has also accurately been described as an ‘operating system’. Similar to wearable technology devices, such as the FitBit or Apple Watch, and smart in-car software (which increasingly includes the very same virtual assistants seen in other devices), this in-home hardware is embedded into people’s everyday lives, physically close to the user and always available.
Compared to a technology like Virtual Reality, something like the Echo certainly shows the potential to be in the homes of something more like the mainstream. Amazon doesn’t publish finite sales figures, but an announcement of a 9x increase in Echo device sales this Christmas compared to last, along with estimates of around 5 million Echos sold globally last year, show that this is the case. Of course, one must consider the price point (£50 for the cheapest Echo device) and for me, more than anything, Amazon’s astronomical power to sell to the masses (their post-Christmas press release was one of the most astounding things in the world of tech and business that I read last year). Amazon gave the Echo headline billing on their homepage in the lead up to Christmas, when their customers were ready and Primed (sorry) for shiny new things as gifts to others or to their home — even if they didn’t quite know what they did. If Amazon had pushed a VR headset in the same way that retailed at under a £100, I wonder how many of those they would have shifted? This is not to put down the Echo, but a comment on the power of Amazon as a retailer, something that Google, Apple, Microsoft, et al., do not have. Perhaps this will come to count for more as emerging tech of different kinds crosses into the mainstream.
Even if customers receiving an Echo for Christmas perhaps found limited uses for the device, there are plenty of ‘Skills’ being developed by third-parties for the device, and this growing addressable market will no doubt see an explosion in development of voice-activated applications this year. It is tricky to mark the immediate opportunity for brands here without thinking about the bigger issue of the mid to long term implications for customers’ shopping habits and brand choices. For some brands the opportunity to create a Skill of their own is an exciting one if they have genuinely useful functionality to offer device users. With this comes an interesting challenge here around designing experiences for voice. Not dissimilar to designing chatbots, brands will need to carefully think about how their brand sounds and acts, using only voice. I’d say it makes sense for agencies and brands to think about these new forms — voice and text — in tandem if they’re seeking a consistent experience.
But it’s hard to imagine a world where brands each have their own apps or Skills for these in-home devices that people use over the main operating system, and perhaps a select few dominant apps that emerge (yes, it’s like mobile Apps again). This brings me onto the overriding mid to long term implication of people using virtual assistants, in fact whether that’s activated by voice or otherwise. Virtual assistants are all about making things easier for the user, and voice in particular isn’t good for browsing. This leads to a place where users allow the ‘operating system’, whether that’s Amazon, Google, or otherwise, to make their decisions for them. What to watch, where to go, what to buy. As we have seen with search, the power of the operating system increases, ‘the top link’ (chosen by said operating system) often wins out, the first place gets stronger. It’s a case of winner takes all when the virtual assistant defaults to what it thinks is the best answer and the user usually goes with it. There is plenty of uncertainty about where this will go, but it makes sense for brands to learn the lessons of SEO by getting their digital houses in order in preparation, rather than pay the price later.
What should agencies do this year?
● Carefully consider whether it would be relevant for the brands you work on to develop their own ‘Skill’ (Skill discovery and adoption is already a challenge on the Echo).
● Start thinking about how your clients’ brands are going to behave in a world of automated conversational dialogue — both using voice and, in the case of bots, within messenger applications.
● Begin preparations for a near future of virtual assistants making brand choices for people: once you’ve calmed down, consider that all the rules of a solid SEO strategy are likely to apply.
