The battle to stay at the forefront of the technological revolution is on. For businesses everywhere, there is the twin need to maximise what they are doing in the present, while always keeping one eye on what is coming down the line. But knowing which trends will make an impact and which will merely become faded is not an easy thing to get right. So, here are 4 technology trends for businesses that we think will become part of everyday life and ones we believe businesses should be focusing on in 2019.
Immersive experiences
It has never been harder to cut through the noise and reach your customers with impactful messaging. We fast forward TV commercials, we ignore billboards, we have our nose in our phones and we have a lingering suspicion of anything that is advertising to us.
To make that impact, the key is to create experiences; to build moments that your audience won’t forget. Let’s take retail. The clear trend is for online retail, so when customers do enter your shop you need to give them a reason to come back. Immersive experiences and experiential marketing is helping to do just that. By using this new technology, you can deliver something that stops people in their tracks and creates word of mouth publicity and that will be critical in 2019.
Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality is the next major computing platform, according to Mark Zuckerberg. This technology involves using the camera on your smartphone to add a layer of information or animation to the real world. So, one example might be way-finding. The new Google Maps app has a feature that allows you to plan your route and then push the AR button which translates the route information into your camera. The user then holds up their camera to the real world and arrows appear telling them how to find their destination.
Moreover, AR has a multitude of uses, across all sectors of business and industry. It has the potential to transform advertising and product information and all businesses should be thinking about how they can make the most of this incredible technology.
Read Also:
- Google Duplex: An Artificial intelligence that talks like a man, is this ethical?
- Four Ways to Incorporate VR Into Your Website
Artificial Intelligence
Companies such as Amazon are revolutionary when it comes to using technology. Artificial Intelligence is very much part of their plan; with 45,000 robots already in use at fulfilment centres around the world. The rise of artificial intelligence is already well underway, and all businesses should be planning for how and why it might impact the way they work. AI, as it is known, is essentially about building machines that can work and act like human beings, using some very clever computer science. We are already seeing machines taking on tasks such as speech recognition, but as technology improves the uses will become more obvious. This is the future, whatever you think of it.
Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality, or VR as it is also known, is a form of technology that transports the user to another place using an immersive headset. VR has been around, in one form or another, for many years, but with the likes of Facebook, Google and Sony throwing their collective might behind it, VR has been given new momentum.
The technology is proving extremely popular in fields such as health and medicine, and it’s increasingly cutting through in education too. Imagine being a schoolchild, and instead of looking at pictures of the pyramids in Egypt you could put on a headset and be standing there in Cairo looking up at one, understanding and really appreciating the sheer scale of what was built. VR like this would certainly make learning more effective and impactful!
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