Rachel
Lowenstein
Manager,
Strategic Innovation
Life+
North America
Background
Austin’s SXSWi festival just wrapped: There
were panels, interactive activations and galleries dedicated to the ever
changing world of digital. From marketers to developers, publishers to
neuroscientists, the festival had a diverse group of attendees. Below is our
highlights.
Details and Implications:
Humanization
of autonomous living was a huge theme, through VR, AR, AI and new tech. The
view of a cognitive future where technology can better anticipate human needs
was everywhere. Instead of technology interrupting the status-quo, SXSWi proved
to be about technology enhancing lives, propelling rather than interjecting.
This notion was not specific to one industry or technology. Rather, it was
prevalent across emerging technology discussions.
One session
outlined nine principles for developing AR (augmented reality) systems. Gamification
and entertainment aside, the message was that brands should take mixed reality
experiences through the lens of utility
and value building first and make them shared. More, ‘grab an augmented
remote to rent a movie from Amazon then watch with your family on TV’ vs. ‘wearing
a headset, rent a movie in a VR app store, and watch the movie alone. The
commentary was that VR isolates us from human interaction while AR can deepen
connections.
AI was
promoted as the connective tissue of autonomous living that will predict what we
want and need. From chatbots providing new forms of customer service, ecommerce
and messaging, AI will drive a cognitive future across interfaces. The real
question being asked here is what human interaction is this replacing and how
does that drive value? Through efficiency, service or exclusivity? The
interfaces we can build for bots are endless but brands need to make sure that
bots have human touches to ensure they are well received and used.
New
interactive surfaces were presented as another way that the digital world is enhancing
the human one. Sony and dozens of start-ups in the trade show showed off
projections with sensors that users could engage without having additional
screens in front of them. Health-tech start-ups are doing away with wearables,
instead offering tattoos to monitor robust health metrics. In the long run,
we’ll see hardware getting smaller or disappearing entirely as we infuse
interfaces with anatomy and real objects, meaning brands will need to adjust
social media, digital, and connected device strategies as screens shift to
actual physical environments.
Summary:
SXSWi remains a huge melting pot of inspiration, innovation, parties and
BBQ. It is quite unlike any conference you will attend elsewhere (and that is
without attending the film, music and comedy versions of the event, some of
which run concurrently). In previous years VR, AR and AI have all taken centre
stage, whereas this year we saw them coming together to create a vision of what
our future lives could look like. For more insights and in depth coverage from SXSWi,
please go to MindshareInTheLoop.com for the team’s daily recaps.
