The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) celebrated its 50th anniversary in Las Vegas, Nevada this year for another eventful show filled with would-be future technology. Yet, many attendees found the usual smartphone, camera and drone updates to be somewhat weak in comparison to previous years. In fact, these technologies have largely stepped aside to make room for a new kind mania – namely, anything revolving around artificial intelligence and and cognitive technologies.
Voice-Controlled Smart Homes
Amazon’s Alexa made quite an appearance at CES this year, infiltrating cars, refrigerators and even washing machines. Amazon wants consumers to be able to operate everything in their homes, from ordering a new gallon of milk, to transferring loads of laundry between cycles, by simply calling Alexa’s name. Voice integration into some major home appliance brands is set to become the norm, with Samsung, LG and Whirlpool as some of the first appliances to feature cognitive technologies. Voice-controlled smart homes will create more conversational queries, forcing brands to target more longtail keywords and claim relevant categories to be found in voice-directed queries.
AI-Guided Vehicles
Creating a hands-free driving experience will take on a new meaning, as many brands race to integrate AI-powered personal assistants behind the wheel of users’ vehicles. Voice-controlled vehicles will allow drivers to quickly and easily ask for nearby places and navigate directions to that location without ever touching a mobile device or having to remove their hands from the steering wheel. MBW and Ford demoed in-car integrations with Alexa and Cortana, while Hyundai and Chrysler exhibited Google Assistant integration.
Bot-Powered Personal Assistants
Cognitive technologies may lead the future, but users still prefer humanistic interactions. Robots were another large part of of CES this year, with Pepper, Kuri and LG’s Hub Robot designed for both in-home and business-related purposes. Whether you need someone to keep an eye on your home while you are out of town or your brand needs a customer service representative that never sleeps, these robots hope to become everything a human personal assistant can be, plus more. And while we may still be a long way off from true robot equality, the emphasis on their productivity at CES demonstrates both the expectation and demand for cognisant business technologies.
Data-Driven Consumer Insights
With so many new and improved ways of connecting with consumers throughout all aspects of their lives, brands are becoming empowered with data in ways like never before. Yet, as Manish Patel, Brandify’s CEO and Founder covered at CES, many enterprise marketers find it difficult to adequately utilize and capitalize on this data to create more unique, custom-built experiences for consumers. With so many different touchpoints available, customers expects brands to interpret and predict their shopping and purchase habits. Consumers demand contextually relevant, locally-targeted ads that predict their intentions before they can explicitly state them.
Brandify Founder and CEO, Manish Patel, explains:
“Brands are losing access to who their customers are, which is why more and more brands are coming up with their own payment applications. In order for brands to get access to their customer data, they need to know how to provide contextual offers that are so irresistible that their customers are willing to give up their personal data in order to gain access to exclusive deals and offers.”
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Topics: Voice Search, Artificial Intelligence
Content writer @ Brandify.
