10.10.17
Trains, Planes, And Driverless Automobiles
We spend a lot of time thinking about how to anticipate trends, rather than react to them. What forces are influencing our work? In this bi-weekly series, T3 strategists, Kaitlyn Hieb and Anna Gilligan, share the trends and tidbits we’re paying attention to.
Transportation and Delivery:
While Amazon has transformed the retail industry, they are still relying on third-party delivery partners like UPS and FedEx for the last mile. This may be changing. Amazon is testing a new service that would open up more space in their warehouses and provide two day shipping on more products.
Walmart Making Moves: Walmart has acquired Parcel, a logistics startup, to begin launching same-day delivery in New York City.
More Drones: DelivAir is a service that is able to deliver products directly to consumers’ hands with the help of GPS and drones, no address necessary.
Not Ready: Pew Research Center has quantified what we all knew – people are more worried than excited over robotics and self driving vehicles. “In fact, nearly six in 10 said they would not want to ride in a driverless vehicle, citing lack of trust, a fear of losing control and/or general safety concerns as the main reasons for not wanting to use this technology.”
Sounds Familiar: Cubic, a San Diego based technology company, is testing a “fastrack gateless gateline” concept that allows commuters to pay for their train transportation via facial recognition.
Chariot: Ford-owned shuttle service, Chariot, is launching its first crowdsourced routes in New York City in which customers can petition custom routes.
Things we have our eye on:
Shorter is Better?: P&G is trying its hand at two-second ads, which is a huge deviation from the current trend of the 6 second ad. The idea is that consumers will register these ads similar to how they process billboards.
Edible Trash: One solution to minimizing consumer goods waste is to make the packaging edible. At least that’s what this waffle vendor is doing with packaging that is made out of seaweed.
#AR
Must-Have: AR has been deemed a “must-have” in retail after a report by DigitalBridge showed that 20% of consumers expect retailers to have an AR tool, and 49% of consumers expect retailers to launch AR features within the next six months.
AR Takes on a Classic: ‘Parker‘ is the world’s first AR teddy bear set to be sold at Apple stores in select countries. Parker is a normal teddy bear, but what sets him apart is the AR-fueled app counterpart that allows kids to interact with him in new, technologically exciting, ways.
#PlatformUpdates
ICYMI: You’ve probably heard that Google announced a ton of new stuff this week, but if you missed the details, you can read a summary of everything they released, here.
End of an Era: AIM is set to die on Dec. 15th and we can’t think of a worse way for a service to celebrate its 20th birthday. RIP to all of our angsty away messages.
#AI
7 Deadly Sins of AI: AI is causing a lot of predictions about the future both of technology and of society in general. This article helps breakdown exactly how to keep those predictions in check.
Interesting: DeepMind, a UK AI company, has just unveiled an ethics research lab to study how AI influences, and is influenced by, the following six themes: privacy, transparency, fairness, economic impact, inclusion, and equality.
Great Read: This interview with IBM’s CEO, Ginni Rometty, focuses on the future of AI at IBM and how it will impact the future of programming.
Related Thinking
11.14.18
Make It Right – Faster
The push to ‘add value faster’ means we often skip some critical thinking steps early on that ensure we’re solving the right problem. New methods have been introduced to quickly learn about customers, test concepts, and gain insight, yet we still resist proper discovery because of time and agility considerations.
11.06.18
Candy Converters, Mindful Scrolling, and Micro-Drones
We spend a lot of time thinking about how to anticipate trends, rather than react to them. What forces are influencing our work? In this bi-weekly series, T3 strategists, Kaitlyn Hieb and Anna Gilligan, share the trends and tidbits we’re paying attention to.
07.09.18
Behind the Curtain: How Algorithms Impact Performance
T3 strategist, Anna Gilligan, recaps her panel discussion on AI-driven technologies with Dallas Fort Worth Interactive Marketing Association. Anna explores how artificial intelligence can shape teamwork, when to use it, and how to incorporate it into business goals.