Photo Source: Digital Trends
Emerging technology is transforming the world economy and disrupting established business models. Speech, the Internet of Things, Augmented and Mixed Reality, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are the primary emerging technologies responsible. Customer experience is rapidly becoming one of the main differentiators for companies in the digitally driven economy. CX disruption is inevitably connected to the digital economy, and accelerated by the transformation of technology continuously impacting consumer expectations and behavior. Consumers demand frictionless experiences, they are empowered by disruptive technologies and devices that immerse them in a world of digital connectivity. Customer expectations are driven by the digital experiences they enjoy and expect everywhere. Consumers evaluate these experiences following precise standards, regardless of the industry; all businesses compete against each other to establish a satisfying relationship with customers through a compelling digital experience. According to market research firm Gartner, 89% of companies will be competing on the basis of customer experience.
Digital technology is transitioning more rapidly from the research lab to practical application and market adoption. Human interaction with progressively more engaging technology is a key factor in transforming expectations of the customer experience. Over the past ten years, mobile technology has been very disruptive to business models by transforming personal computing to anytime and anywhere. Over the next decade, digital technology will transition more rapidly away from touch-based interfaces on mobile devices as the primary method of interaction to a combination of several emerging technologies with more engaging human-to-technology interaction methods. We will transition from the screen-centric interfaces of today to typing with our eyes on virtual keyboards. Our voices and gestures will control self-driving cars, robots and the Internet of Things.
During the transition from desktop to mobile, one thing has not changed: the existence of a screen. In 2017, the customer experience will increasingly support interactions without screens. We will install fewer apps on our devices and use more integrated services with voice-based conversational experiences. Our interactions are becoming more fragmented as the digital ecosystem of touchpoints expands across multiple services. Customer channel and interaction touchpoint options are expanding and evolving – rapidly adding artificially intelligent virtual digital assistants. This transition provides voice interaction as one of the primary customer experiences instead of our eyes. Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, Google’s Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa are competing to become the preferred voice-based intelligent virtual digital assistant. The power of conversational interfaces are just entering the mainstream adoption cycle, and voice-enabled virtual assistants built into hands-free speakers like the Amazon Echo, Google Home, and other smart devices are becoming increasingly intelligent, affordable, and accessible. These new forms of interaction provide a more frictionless experience as services share data and functionality creating an aggregated, engaging, and innovative customer experience that drives the digital economy. We can ask Alexa to order a pizza on our Echo Dot, check the order status on our Apple Watch, split the cost with our friends through a Facebook Messenger Bot and rate the experience on our smartphone. Voice-based conversational experiences are creating new levels of customer experience and interaction.
“Alexa, ask KAYAK how much to fly to New York”
In our next post, we will talk about how the Internet of Things, Augmented and Mixed Reality, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are transforming the Customer Experience in 2017.
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