#VIRTUALITY Trend Rising in the World of Personal Scheduling
This year is all about being in the here and now, everything needs to happen immediately, any small inconvenience is seen as disastrous. We at Baba are closely watching the #VIRTUALITY trend as it continues to rise in new markets every day.
The #VIRTUALITY trend is starting to reveal itself in the realm of personal assistants through Google’s latest innovation. Recently, Google showcased their newest technology, which has a robot, call service retailers to set up appointments on behalf of consumers. The service creates realistic sounding calls with the robot utilizing small quips that would happen in a conversation; such as when a reservation time is rejected the robot would audibly sound as if it is contemplating while it is waiting for consumers new time. The interesting thing about the robot is inherently that the person on the other end of the line may not know that they are actually speaking to a robot. The service comes out of this year’s constant trend of companies utilizing automated intelligence to make offer greater convenience to the consumer.
As we have detailed in our #THENOWAGE report, consumers have become obsessed with having services in the moment and are gradually losing their will to wait. This presents a problem to businesses as they now must innovate to keep up with the consumers instant demands. This idea of innovation has more recently come in the form of automated intelligence like Google is doing currently. While efficient, automated intelligence takes away the human component of services and continually steps closer to humans losing their sense of reality. This is the core of our #VIRTUALITY trend, consumers are losing themselves to robotic intelligence as it gives them an outlet to remove themselves from any human interactions.
Google’s reservation robot makes almost every restaurant operate on the same values that the application OpenTable does. OpenTable is an application that allows for the consumer to book a table reservation at a restaurant without ever interacting with anyone from the restaurant itself. The app is extremely popular but evidently does have some issues in more rural areas where restaurants may not have the money or will to put themselves onto the it. Google’s innovation does away with that issue as it is physically having the conversation with the restaurant confirming the reservation.
The news of automated intelligence making its way into the world of everyday tasks is nothing new, in fact it has been rising fairly steadily. Recently an automated locking company, titled August, partnered with popular home renting service Airbnb to offer hosts a way to give their renters access to their homes without ever meeting them. The lock service works via an app which makes the renters own smartphone the key to the home, pushing the idea of reducing human interactions in favor of a more automated process.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/home/what-is-google-duplex/
https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/26/august-can-now-generate-smart-entry-codes-for-airbnb-guests/
Who’s Really In Front of the Camera?
The VIRTUALITY trend (see our #THENOWAGE 2018-19 Forecast) is becoming more prevalent in the social media realm with the idea of influencers being one that encapsulates virtual avatars. These virtual avatars are used on the social media platform Instagram to promote fashion brands and some cases advocate for social issues. The influencers are digitally designed, with real humans behind the scenes. Virtual influencers is a trend in the social media posts. Traditionally social media is a concept that we all use as a tool for human beings, to share our emotions and feelings through pictures or posts.
The idea of a virtual entity posting its opinions and emotions to social media is one that most likely frightens a lot of people. When you post to an issue or promote a product it is much easier for the viewers to pin the opinions to the person to the post. Digital avatars blur the line of responsibility for the opinion
In terms of the influencing itself, they can be used in any of the clothes the animator desires. This allows companies to easily collaborate with them without having to set up.
While this concept excites, we are interested in the social media world. Human beings are all different and as a result only certain influencers can wear certain brands, whereas animations can be changed to fit any aesthetic desired by the brands .
http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20180402-the-fascinating-world-of-instagrams-virtual-celebrities
IS OUR FOOD REAL?
VIRTUALITY trend (see our #THENOWAGE 2018-18 Forecast) is impressively rising to feed the empowerment expectations of the “Unlimited” target.
Virtual Reality has been conventionally thought to be used in the market of video games; but it is now going into the territory. Fortune Magazine showcases its virtual realities limitless possibilities for implementation and reports that consumers are all for it – in fact – they’re eating it up.
Virtual Reality As A Trend
The Virtual Reality trend is one that we at Baba are watching closely closely for the 2018-2019 year. With its widespread integration into myriads of different markets, it is a crucial concept for businesses to consider in their new investments for advertising. As well as in social media scenes where consumers are using the technology to post their respective platforms. From an advertising standpoint, virtual reality is an investment that should be quickly considered.
http://fortune.com/2018/05/15/virtual-food-is-coming-to-a-menu-near-you/
WE HAVE ENTERED #THE NOW AGE
On February 8th at Accenture Customer Innovation Center in Milan, our CEO Giulia Ceriani has introduced the main trends for 2018-19, matched by Accenture Interactive with social personas.
If you want to know more click here for the sum up or head to baba@babaconsulting.com
SAVE THE DATE – Feb. 8th 5 pm c/o ACIN, Piazza Gae Aulenti 8, Milan
#BCM17 – GIULIA CERIANI ABOUT BIG DATA AND GOOGLE TRENDS
#BCM17 – GIULIA CERIANI ABOUT BIG DATA AND GOOGLE TRENDS
Google is twenty years old: how our life and the future are changing as a result
Take part to the new book presentation: “Nella rete di Google”. Strategie e dispositivi del motore di ricerca che cambiato la nostra vita”, and listen to the Giulia Ceriani contribution, baba CEO, together with Isabella Pezzini, Vincenza Del Marco, Giovanni Boccia Artieri, Ruggero Eugeni, Federico Gennari Santori
Friday Nov. 17th 6.30 pm at Book City Milan, Museo della Scienza Tinkering Lab, Via San Vittore 21
Fashion for people, not for boys or girls
We live in a society where gender differences are no longer so marked. Starting now from very tender ages: John Lewis department store (UK) has just launched a gender neutral production dedicated to kids. A trend talking about an idea of sex neutrality that drives another way to think body, love, and socialization under the umbrella of digital world. Giulia Ceriani (baba CEO) has dealt with this topic on D_Repubblica pages. Here the link to her comments.
Are we ready for Robotic couture?
Maybe we are about to find out the answer to this question. On September 21st, Anouk Wipprecht will be at “Meet the Media Guru” and we will be there too to hear about her experience. Her work mix Fashion with IoT and wearable technology. A new way to think about fashion is coming, and we are seriously considering its implications. Can clothes be a support in people’s daily life supplying, for example, handicaps and physical problems? Fashion is no longer only an esthetical fact.
#inversion by Zygmunt Bauman
After the age of utopias of tomorrow and the one that denies any utopia, today we live the era of the utopia of the past. This is the main theory in “Retrotopia” the latest book by Zygmunt Bauman (in bookstores since September 7th, Italian edition by Laterza).
SHALL WE BE ABLE TO CEASE OUR ROUTED TECH OBSESSION ON VACATIONS?
Not such an easy-going attitude to be adopted, apparently. Tech dominance does not hold the grip, and we are all compliant with that mood. Have a look to a few and not even unexpected cues about what our suitcases full of tech gadgets consist of. No inversion on going on tech addiction.
See more at: https://www.lonelyplanet.com/news/2017/07/28/gadget-obsessed-travellers-suitcases-full-of-technology
