Trends that will define 2019: Pratik Hatankar

Authored by Pratik Hatankar, Head - Innovations and New Initiatives, Tonic Worldwide

Throughout 2018, cultural shifts and consumer behaviors have been rapidly evolving. As consumer trends shift, innovation will need to be a real innovation – which generates great value for the business & its stakeholders. This could be a new product or service, a new business process, or a change in the way people and resources  are managed

Here are some innovation trend predictions that will pave the path to effective transitions in Business and eventually shape 2019

How Artificial Intelligence will boost Sales.

For consumers in future, the key development in the coming years would be humanized technology, manufacturing services you'll communicate with through a microphone and even have a face-to-face speech communication and act with.

Wait, let’s dump “the coming years”! Already few months ago, world’s 1st AI news anchor was introduced in China.

In Sales, this type of technology could put an end to the barrier between the customer or prospect and the company. Could an AI become your new colleague?

Here is one example of how  AI can help Brands improve their sales.

Making a sales pitch is all connecting with a client on a private level, and AI will facilitate to power those personal connections by providing sales groups with key data they have to strike up a conversation.

It can make predictions based on how similar leads have acted and by tapping into big data, and a lot of the power of machine learning comes from the fact that it gets better and better over time.

VR and AR will bring shift from User experience (UX) to Customer experience (CX)

Today’s user needs primarily 2 things: to be engaged and to be an energetic participant within the brand’s communication. Augmented and Virtual Realities  (AR and VR) will fulfill each of those wants, providing brands tremendous opportunities within the field of customer experience 

Brands are already embracing the power of this new emerging technology in selling individual products. IKEA, for example, has been using VR gaming technology since 2016. With its shopping app, IKEA VR Experience, its customers’ can try out different IKEA solutions before buying them. Other big players that have experimented with AR include Nivea, Starbucks and Volkswagen

The rise of visual Search

The old saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words” pretty much sums up why.

An increasing number of consumers are using visual search – the process of using an image as a search term (instead of keywords) to find out more information, or to discover similar images.

The benefits of visual search for customers are clear. When it comes to fashion or home décor and customers have a picture of something they want, it is easier to search for matching products using the image, and the shopper is more likely to find specifically what they are looking for.

Forever 21 is an innovative fashion brand that is applying visual search in a way that allows customers to choose clothing attributes that would otherwise take a ridiculously long time to categorize (a task that would never be complete, as new items continuously go on sale).

In few months, It could be the same case with cars, holiday destinations, cooking utensils, you name it. The search criteria will only expand.

Internet of Things (IOT) will change the Business world

The Internet of things (IoT) uses sensor technology which connects objects to their virtual representations. The Internet of things is constantly expanding and Intel predicts that there will be about 200 billion devices on the Internet of things by the year 2020. The Internet of things will proliferate year after year and objects like cards, key chains, locks, coffee makers, ceiling fans will all be connected to the internet. Thus the future of digital marketing will not lie in creating ads that are viewable on smartphones, tablets, TVs etc. It will be contextual to the types of new products and smart devices like refrigerators, bicycles, wearable technology devices (Google Glass) that fuel ad marketing

2019 will be about better customer experience with personalization, automation and AI-powered technology, so to stay ahead of the curve and increase conversions in the coming year