Category: Conversational Experiences

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Harnessing the Power of GPT for CPG & Retail

From 2016 onward, I have frequently discussed the accelerated development of artificial intelligence (AI) and its pivotal role in revolutionizing sectors like pharmaceuticals. Today, our focus shifts to leveraging the capabilities of GPT, or Generative Pre-Trained Transformer, in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) and retail domains. In this post, we will delve into the ways GPT can transform customer interactions and redefine the playing field for CPG and retail brands.

My AI avatar has thoughts about which of the 8 points listed below is the most relevant.
  1. Personalized Communication at Scale

The strength of GPT lies in its ability to understand and generate human-like text. This capability allows CPG and retail brands to create highly personalized messaging for their customers. By leveraging AI-powered language models, marketers can craft tailored content for different segments, demographics, and even individual customers, ensuring that every interaction feels unique and genuine. This level of personalization can lead to improved customer loyalty, higher conversion rates, and increased overall brand value.

  1. Enhanced Customer Support

Customer service plays a critical role in the success of CPG and retail businesses. GPT can be utilized to augment customer support teams by providing instant and accurate responses to common inquiries, reducing wait times, and freeing up human agents to focus on more complex issues. Furthermore, with continuous learning and improvement, GPT can adapt and fine-tune its responses to provide an increasingly seamless customer experience over time. Especially if an organization enhances GPT with 1st party data through transfer learning and ring-fencing via an API.

  1. Streamlined Content Creation

Creating high-quality content can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. GPT has the potential to streamline this process by generating product descriptions, promotional materials, and even social media posts, all while maintaining brand voice and consistency. By automating content creation, brands can achieve significant cost savings, improve efficiency, and allocate resources more effectively, especially with the release of GPT-4 and its multi-modal capabilities.

  1. AI-driven Insights and Decision-Making

GPT can analyze vast amounts of data and extract valuable insights that inform marketing strategies and decision-making processes. By understanding customer preferences, sentiment, and trends, CPG and retail brands can make data-driven decisions, optimize their product offerings, and uncover new growth opportunities. With GPT’s natural language understanding capabilities, these insights can be communicated in a way that is easily digestible for decision-makers.

  1. Revolutionizing Analytics for Deeper Customer Understanding

In the age of data-driven marketing, understanding customer behavior and preferences has never been more critical. GPT’s powerful natural language processing capabilities can be harnessed to enhance analytics by interpreting unstructured data, such as customer reviews, social media interactions, and online discussions.

By analyzing this information, GPT can uncover patterns, trends, and insights that were previously hidden, providing a more holistic view of the customer journey. This deeper understanding empowers CPG and retail brands to create highly targeted marketing campaigns via predictive CRM, optimize product assortments, and deliver more relevant, engaging experiences to their customers.

By combining GPT’s advanced analytics with traditional data sources, brands can unlock new levels of customer intelligence and drive strategic decision-making across the organization.

  1. Boosting Voice Assistant Integration for Frictionless Shopping Experiences

As voice assistants become increasingly popular, their integration into CPG and retail experiences has emerged as a crucial factor for success. GPT’s exceptional language generation capabilities can be leveraged to enhance voice interactions, creating more natural, fluid, and engaging conversations with customers.

By developing AI-driven voice applications, CPG and retail brands can provide frictionless shopping experiences, making it easier for customers to discover, research, and purchase products using their preferred voice assistant devices. This level of convenience and ease-of-use not only contributes to customer satisfaction but also drives customer loyalty and repeat business, positioning brands at the forefront of the ever-evolving retail landscape.

  1. Empowering In-Store Experiences with Augmented Reality and GPT

The integration of AI-powered technologies like GPT and Augmented Reality (AR) can elevate in-store experiences for customers, creating a seamless blend of the physical and digital. GPT can be utilized to generate contextually relevant content that enhances AR applications, offering product information, personalized recommendations, and promotional offers to customers as they navigate through the store. This combination of technologies provides an immersive, interactive experience that not only improves customer engagement but also drives sales and increases brand loyalty.

  1. Enhancing Customer Engagement with Digital Humans and GPT

The fusion of digital human avatars with GPT’s advanced language capabilities can create a new paradigm for CPG and retail customer engagement. By combining realistic, emotionally expressive avatars with GPT’s ability to generate natural, human-like conversation, brands can deliver truly immersive and personalized interactions that resonate with customers on a deeper level.

These digital avatars can serve as virtual brand ambassadors, customer service representatives, or even personal shopping assistants, catering to customer needs and preferences with a human touch. The marriage of digital human avatars and GPT’s conversational AI helps bridge the gap between technology and human connection, fostering stronger relationships with customers and elevating the overall brand experience in the CPG and retail space.

By embracing GPT and other AI-driven technologies, CPG and retail brands can unlock a world of opportunities for enhancing existing data, customer engagement, streamlining operations, and staying ahead of the competition. As we continue to witness the convergence of marketing and technology, it is essential for forward-thinking businesses to invest in these innovations and capitalize on the transformative potential they offer.

Follow Tom across social platforms @BlackFin360

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Generative AI & ChatGPT


I have been working on and speaking about the topic of AI since 2016. Over the years, I have researched across generational cohorts, and what is consistent across every age is the primary behavioral driver for why individuals will adopt and engage with intelligent systems, which is ease & convenience.

Generative AI, or artificial intelligence capable of creating new content and ideas, is one of the most rapidly growing technologies today. It has already made waves in the world of literature, art, music, and more. But what impact will it have on our future?

Generative AI has the potential to completely revolutionize how we create content. In its simplest form, it can be used to generate new stories or lyrics based on existing themes. The possibilities are far-reaching when it comes to creating entirely original works that would never been conceived without generative AI.

In this video, I discuss the rise of Generative AI and its implications for pharmaceutical marketing, creativity, prompt engineering, and key considerations tied to visual and text-based large language models DALL-E, GPT, and OpenAI’s chatbot, ChatGPT.

Other topics include insight about ChatGPT Professional, Google vs. Microsoft, and discuss ethics, bias, and other key points to consider when thinking about the application of ChatGPT and other transformer models for business.

It’s clear that generative AI holds a great deal of promise for humanity and its future—but only if used responsibly and ethically. With powerful technologies like these come big responsibilities.

Follow Tom Edwards across social @BlackFin360

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10 Takeaways from CES 2023

It was great to be back at the Las Vegas Convention Center for CES 2023. This is one of my favorite events of the year, as it provides a near-future preview of technology that will further empower end-users, augment intelligence and experiences through intelligent algorithms and allow us to transport versions of ourselves into digital realms. Here are my ten top takeaways from CES 2023.

Reality, Augmented – The shift to an entirely seamless reality that fuses digital and physical will require a convergence of technology, behavioral modifications, access, and adoption. At CES 2023, the path toward augmented virtuality consisted of advancements from wearables that create haptic feedback in the form of ITRI’s Imeta washable shirt to Sony’s Mocopi motion capture kit that allows for easy and affordable VTuber motion tracking to quickly port your movement into virtual experiences. The latest advancements in augmented and mixed reality glasses have increased the field of view, more processing power, and seamlessly integrated video and audio, all with a smaller form factor.

Discuss Smart glass advancement via Vuzix & Magic Leap
ITRI IMeta Haptic T-Shirt

Shifting Modalities – Our world today is primarily mobile-centric and desktop for productivity. CES shows a time very soon when we must think about multi-modal experiences. Voice, Vision, and Touch all become a part of a new canvas that we, as marketers, will have available to weave narratives that bridge physical and digital experiences. One of the highlights of the show was OVR technology. They integrate smell into digital and immersive experiences. Another great example was from Microsoft and their partner Touchcast with an immersive store of the future concept.

OVR Technology overview – Scent to immersive experience
Example from Microsoft and Touchcast – Store of the Future

Empowering Accessibility – The initial wave of technology brings hype and a rush to create relevant use cases. The same was accurate when it came to augmenting reality and immersive experiences. This year, there was a directed focus on creating experiences that empower accessibility.

Example of accessible immersive experience sans headset
Xander Glasses Convert Speech to Visual Text in Real Time!

Beam Me Anywhere – Holograms were core elements of science fiction for decades. Star Trek and Star Wars popularized the concept of weaving holograms into a part of an ongoing narrative. At CES 2023, holograms took significant leaps forward. From photo-realistic, fully interactive experiences that create the illusion of presence anywhere in the world via Proto and ARTH Media to Hypervsn’s ever-evolving open-air hologram systems. Holograms are no longer just for science fiction.

ARTH Hologram Overview
Proto Hologram Private Demo
Demo of HypervsnSmartV Product Configurator Solution

AI Everywhere < AI Enhanced – Pre-pandemic, AI was everywhere at CES, and It was more of a label with actual AI models in nascent forms or simply as a marketing ploy for foot traffic. In 2023, AI was indeed the foundation from product innovation to enhanced experiences, focused on delivering ease and convenience via intelligent algorithms.

CES 2023 – AI OVERVIEW

What is Human? – One of the hottest trends in the pharma space to close out 2022 was the introduction and experimentation of Digital Humans. From medical education to extending the reach and accessibility of field reps, creating digital opinion leaders, scalable HCP communication, and dynamic patient-centric experiences connected to conversational AI. The ability to mix human and digital experiences to extend and scale through digital humans is a crucial trend for 2023.

CES 2023 – DeepBrain AI – Concierge

Digital Doppelgänger – A doppelgänger is a double of a living person. At CES 2023, the ability to create a digital replica took many forms. From quickly scanning your physical appearance for virtual experiences via Copresence, to capturing your likeness and memories via StoryFile, to creating digital reflections of your brain, heart, and eyes by Dassault Systèmes to enhance medical treatment. The role of digitally doubling oneself will be a pivotal on-ramp to future multi-modal experiences.

Dassault Systèmes Virtual Twin
StoryFile – Conversational AI built on Human narratives
CoPresence – Rapid Scanning & Real-Time Animation
DeepBrain AI – Digital Twin Celebrity Example

Empowered Wellness – In previous CES recaps, I have discussed the empowered consumer and a behaviorally driven expectation of control and personalization. In 2023, the focus has shifted towards empowered wellness. Many products, from wearables to gamified health experiences, tap into various personalized data sets that offer customized approaches to counteract fatigue, passively monitor glucose levels without needles, and deploy deep learning AI algorithms that combine computer vision and trend analysis to provide personalized nutrition plans via nail imaging analysis. Each entry in this category is focused on creating relevant, personalized experiences that enhance overall wellness.

Lotte Healthcare – Cazzle Personalization Engine

Care Anywhere – This year at CES 2023, digital health and therapeutic solutions were front and center. From technology that empowers a patient to direct control of treatment via light therapy to advanced remote care monitoring via AI-enabled wearables and sensors that can passively detect abnormalities tied to various disease states to predict health declines. Preventative care, at-home testing, portable clinical devices, passive adherence tracking, and more will continue to bridge the gap between at-home convenience and FDA-approved digital therapeutics.

Care Wear – LED Light Therapy
Counted Passive Pill Tracking

Robotic Companions – For me personally, physical robots have been a highlight for me at CES. I always seek out the latest robotic advancements, from toy-form factors, to utility-centric robots, to humanoid robots, as I look for the next evolution of emotive robotics. I view robotics as a core aspect of what I call the five levels of autonomy, and they will complement conversational AI as well as digital humans on the path toward a Westworld-like future. At CES 2023, one robot in particular bridged robotics with mental wellness and elder care. This robot provides emotional care services, serves as a companion, and offers various activities. The key point is that in addition to the hype around digital experiences, physical robots will also become proxies for customers, patients, and caregivers.

Robot-Based Emotional Care Services

There are many more takeaways from the show. There were trends tied to sustainability, new advancements in the automotive industry, and many more start-ups out of Eureka Park that are early stage but are providing a view into next year’s show. The role of digital health across CES, SXSW, and other shows will continue to rise as health and wellness are at the forefront of industry post pandemic.

Stay tuned for more trend and event recaps. Follow Tom @BlackFin360 across social channels.

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2023 Trend Report

Over the last decade, BlackFin360 has consistently focused on trend forecasting. As we venture into 2023, the rapid convergence of technology takes center stage in both the business world and our everyday lives.

Our growing reliance on technology has been embraced, as it provides ease and convenience in return. We are now poised to advance to the next level of intelligence augmentation through various AI forms, revolutionizing internal processes, customer experiences, and the way we work, learn, and sift through the ever-increasing volume of content we consume daily.

The boundaries between the physical and digital realms are becoming increasingly indistinct as we reshape our understanding of reality, whether it be fully immersive, spatially cognizant, or via lifelike holograms. As the excitement surrounding the metaverse transitions into practical applications beyond mere entertainment, I envision a path towards genuine value creation.

Moreover, the past few years have seen significant behavioral changes. Emerging from a pandemic, our yearning for connection and our demand for personalization, engagement, and control infuse a human touch into a digital world dominated by ones and zeros.

Lastly, the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries are on the verge of profound transformation. The surge in patient-focused advertisements encouraging patients to influence prescribers’ decisions signifies this shift. As a result, the healthcare landscape is evolving to meet expectations of accessible care and the creation of experiences that enable multi-faceted storytelling.

All of this leads to the two foundational elements for the 2023 trend report. Human / Experience. (Message me for the key to view the full Trend Report).

THE HUMAN LAYER

The Human layer dives into all facets of control and empowerment of consumers, patients, caregivers, and HCPs with key examples and organizations enabling ease and convenience.

1 – Consumer Control – As humans, our behaviors are increasingly being shaped by technology, leading us to expect greater control. This section delves profoundly into the world of user-generated content and the emergence of algorithms centered on affinity and personal preferences.

2 – Community Engagement – In the aftermath of the pandemic, we’ve experienced a revitalized appreciation for belonging and community, spanning both digital and physical realms. This section explores the concepts of blended connections, online communities, genuine interactions, and inclusiveness.

3 – Care Anywhere – The notion of point of care is expanding to encompass any location with a camera and an internet connection. This section delves into intelligent devices, ranging from health-monitoring wearable tattoos to smartwatches that track Parkinson’s symptoms. There has been a considerable shift in FDA approvals and investments towards digital therapeutics (DTX). These digital-focused experiences provide patients with medical interventions through clinically evaluated, evidence-based software applications.

4 – Customizable Avatars – Avatars are evolving into representations of ourselves, whether they are photorealistic or stylized. Our capacity to personalize digital embodiments that effortlessly interact across diverse experiences is becoming the standard. This development, coupled with advancements in volumetric video capture, enables connection points that were previously unattainable for integrating oneself into digital surroundings.

5 – Decentralization & Transparency – The convergence of consumers’ quest for control and the inherent decentralization of Web 3.0 is paving the way for new approaches to brand loyalty and adherence programs. With an increased emphasis on data privacy and targeted content, consumers will seek mutually beneficial data exchanges that satisfy both parties’ needs.

THE EXPERIENCE LAYER

Here is a video walking through the Experience Layer portion of the 2023 trends.

The Experience layer blurs the lines between physical and digital reality with key examples and organizations ushering us into a digitally enhanced world.

6 – Extending Reality – Despite the relatively slow growth in consumer interest, augmented, virtual, and mixed reality technologies persist in their development. This section delves into the latest innovations in gaming, enterprise metaverse solutions such as Mytaverse, medical metaverse newcomers, and smart lens applications.

7 – Digital Humans – Synthetic humans are steadily supplanting conventional videos and chatbots. In the pharmaceutical industry, Digital Humans emerged as the top trend in presentations at the end of 2022. They offer the capability to expand a field sales force and establish an emotionally engaging starting point for navigating intricate patient journeys with key opinion leaders (KOLs). The potential to create connection points and avatar-focused content on a large scale is expected to further gather momentum in 2023.

8 – Holograms – The concept of establishing a presence without physical attendance is gaining traction, thanks to companies like Proto and ARHT Media. These firms enable multiple presenters to appear live before audiences as realistic holograms and engage in full interaction, creating a sense of connection even when not physically present.

9 – Scaling with AI – Artificial Intelligence is set to enable hyper-personalization and automation on a massive scale. This section examines the AI technologies that have influenced Hollywood and will shape the way we create experiences in 2023. It delves into the realm of generative AI, providing a comprehensive understanding of the role and workings of a prompt engineer.

10 – Hyper Realism – Hyperrealistic design is increasingly obscuring the boundaries between our digital and physical environments. This section explores its applications in retail experiences and cutting-edge healthcare technology, such as Level Ex, showcasing how these innovations are reshaping various industries.

The complete trend report is 70+ pages of examples of key concepts and the companies that are setting the stage for the next iteration of experiences we will begin to incorporate to transform all aspects of business incrementally.

View the full 2023 Human Experience Trend Report.
(Message me for the key to view the full Trend Report)

A very special thank you Adam Housley for your support in this endeavor.

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NAPSL 2022 KEYNOTE

NAPSL – EVOLUTION OF EXPERIENCE (KEYNOTE) – Indianapolis (July 2022) I had the pleasure of delivering my innovation to reality keynote for the National American Association of State and Provincial Lottery’s annual conference.

The keynote has been revamped, and I have evolved the core format of Empower, Exponential, and Enhanced by also adding Experience. All with the same trademark of infusing pop culture as a lead-in to understanding complex topics. From Star Wars, Fortnite, Roblox, Pixar, The Matrix, Stranger Things, Minority Report, West World, and so much more.


Empower is all about understanding that consumers are in control. Their expectations are radically transforming how business is done. This section covers all facets of GenZ, gaming, introduction to the Metaverse, Ethereum, NFTs, POAPs, the evolving role of the camera, how to identify a fad vs. trend, and the rise of private messaging, and how the camera is a bridge to intelligence.

Exponential is all about ease and convenience as the core motivation for adopting intelligent systems. This section covers the basics of AI, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, understanding algorithms, why we are in the golden age of AI, predictive decisioning, generative models, five levels of autonomy, digital humans, virtual assistants, and the rise of the proxy web.

Enhanced is all about perception between physical and digital and how and when technology will adapt to us vs. us adapting to it. This section dives deeper into the Metaverse, the role of computer vision, digital synths, multi-modal interfaces, digital twins, holograms, synthetic reality, and my prediction of when we will see multi-modal at scale.

Experience is an entirely new section that helps the audience understand how to think about emerging trend territories and how it applies to their business, from understanding how digital channels and behaviors have evolved to how they can personally take steps to better understand the world around them. This section ends with a practical how-to section that provides deeper introductions to the topics of the Metaverse, Ethereum, NFTs, AI, Digital Humans, and Emerging Tech.

I am excited to be back on stage and the future is crystalizing before our eyes. It’s an exciting time and I love educating and inspiring through technology.

A special thank you to the NAPSL team for a great event!

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Blending Reality As An AI Avatar

It’s been an incredible experience collaborating with Synthesia. They’ve created a remarkable AI video platform that enables organizations to produce videos featuring AI avatars. Simply select a template, choose an avatar, input your text, add visuals, and presto! A fully-formed video is generated.

I recently had the privilege of being recorded and turned into an AI avatar. The concept of merging the physical and digital worlds has always fascinated me, and now, with my digital twin, we’re making significant strides towards realizing that vision.

The transformation is taking place in the photos above and below.

Here is an example of the finished product.

Follow Tom @BlackFin360

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2022 Evolution of Experience Live Keynote

This week I had an opportunity to travel to Maui, Hawaii, to deliver the newly revamped Evolution of Experience keynote. Besides the amazing setting next to the beautiful Maui shoreline, the crowd was fantastic as we dove into some of the latest trends redefining consumer expectations for all industries.


The keynote has been revamped, and I have evolved the core format of Empower, Exponential, and Enhanced by also adding Experience. All with the same trademark of infusing pop culture as a lead-in to understanding complex topics. From Star Wars, Fortnite, Roblox, Pixar, The Matrix, Stranger Things, Minority Report, West World, and so much more.


Empower is all about understanding that consumers are in control. Their expectations are radically transforming how business is done. This section covers all facets of GenZ, gaming, introduction to the Metaverse, Ethereum, NFTs, POAPs, the evolving role of the camera, how to identify a fad vs. trend, and the rise of private messaging, and how the camera is a bridge to intelligence.

Exponential is all about ease and convenience as the core motivation for adopting intelligent systems. This section covers the basics of AI, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, understanding algorithms, why we are in the golden age of AI, predictive decisioning, generative models, five levels of autonomy, digital humans, virtual assistants, and the rise of the proxy web.

Enhanced is all about perception between physical and digital and how and when technology will adapt to us vs. us adapting to it. This section dives deeper into the Metaverse, the role of computer vision, digital synths, multi-modal interfaces, digital twins, holograms, synthetic reality, and my prediction of when we will see multi-modal at scale.

Experience is an entirely new section that helps the audience understand how to think about emerging trend territories and how it applies to their business, from understanding how digital channels and behaviors have evolved to how they can personally take steps to better understand the world around them. This section ends with a practical how-to section that provides deeper introductions to the topics of the Metaverse, Ethereum, NFTs, AI, Digital Humans, and Emerging Tech.

I am excited to be back on stage and the future is crystalizing before our eyes. It’s an exciting time and I love educating and inspiring through technology.

A special thank you to the WSADA team for a great event!

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Evolution of Experience Keynote – NextPharma

I recently had the opportunity to deliver the opening keynote for the Vii Health Next Pharma Summit AI & Personalization Masterclass event.

I presented the full evolution of experience and how to shift towards an experience mindset keynote. The talk highlighted how emerging technology and consumer behavior blur the line between physical and digital reality and will end on how you and your organization can prepare for accelerated change.

Here is the fully produced talk.

Previews of the event.

Follow Tom Edwards across social platforms @BlackFin360

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OMC Hive Podcast

This is my second stint with Omnicom. The people, culture, and data platform Omni are a big reason why I came back. I sit down with the OMC Hive Podcast to discuss why Omnicom, what’s Omni Health, the future of tech, and fun things like mascots, #gaming, the military, and more.

In this episode, Tom Edwards, Chief Digital Officer of Omnicom Health group, talks about his background, the launch of Omni Health and what it means for our people and clients, and what exactly brought him back to Omnicom.

You’d be hard-pressed to put Tom into a box. From launching some of the first in-game content tied to the web to jumping out of planes in the Army, he’s finally landed at Omnicom Health Group.

But his diverse career trajectory is serving him well, as his background across industries and from his first stint at Omnicom at The Marketing Arm allow him to weave together data, creative, and a little bit of fun.

Plus, hear the stories behind these awesome photos and learn what to look out for when you’re predicting the next big thing in tech.

Follow Tom @BlackFin360 via Twitter, Instagram, Youtube

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2020 Digital Marketing Professional Award

I was incredibly humbled to be recognized as the 2020 Digital Marketing Professional of the Year during the recent CX Digital Summit. When I receive recognition such as this I am very thankful for the support of my wife, family, teammates, and everyone in my network.

2020 CX Digital Summit

Next up are the 2021 OnCon Icon Awards in January where a number of you voted and I am incredibly appreciative of your support. Beyond that I am also being recognized by MADCON in 2021 and hopeful we can get back to in-person events by mid-2021.

I am thankful for the recognition and excited to close out a chaotic 2020 and look forward to 2021 and what’s possible!

2020 Digital Marketing Professional of the Year (Global) – Recognized during the 2020 India CX Digital Summit as the Digital Marketing Professional of the Year.

A full list of industry awards and over 100+ recommendations are available here.

Follow Tom Edwards @BlackFin360 via Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, & Twitch.

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2020 CX Digital Summit

I recently had the opportunity to speak to an amazing Indian audience during the 2020 CX Digital Summit. I delivered an updated version of the Innovation To Reality Keynote focusing on CX and how consumer behavior drives engagement.

The talk focused on the impact of Gen Z consumer behavior and their expectations tied to the camera as a bridge to intelligence. Then, we discussed what I consider the five levels of autonomy and how CX experiences will evolve at each stage. Finally, we dive into the behavioral drivers that will create the shift from mobile being the primary way we interact with technology to our environment adapting to us.

It’s fun to deliver keynotes at 1 am! It’s worth the lack of sleep to engage with audiences across the globe!

Follow Tom Edwards @BlackFin360 via Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, & Twitch.

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Virtually Speaking Episode #24

I have enjoyed working with Cal Entertainment founder Chris Lee for years as I am an exclusive speaker for Cal Entertainment. We sit down for a fun discussion that covers a lot of ground. We talk about trends across data, AI, gaming, spatial computing, new form factors beyond mobile, as well as some fun with Funko Pops.

1:48 – Introduction and opening statements tied to trends.
3:05 – Creating experiences that go beyond desktop and mobile.
4:10 – Tour of Matrix-inspired office.
4:42 – Awards & BlackFin360.
7:12 – Voice ecosystem and thoughts on Google, Amazon, and Apple.
8:24 – Discuss virtual proxies & how assistants will evolve.
12:00 – How should business leaders think about integrating tech and trends into their existing business with a focus on value creation.
12:50 – The new 4 Ps to consider for marketers.
14:50 – What about small business owners? What do they need to look at?
18:36 – How to apply AI & Machine learning to understand affinities and behaviors.
19:44 – Thoughts on ownership of data.
20:17 – The role of AI & it’s not the enemy via the Pixar Theory
24:15 – Digital Simulation.
25:50 – What about search beyond desktop & mobile? The role of the Google knowledge graph.
27:06 – Moving beyond mobile devices & the rise of smart glasses.
28:14 – Smart contacts are the future.
30:10 – The rise of gaming & how to align with business.
31:55 – What brands should be in gaming?
35:00 – Creating authentic connections.
37:48 – Digital twins & the proxy twin hypothesis.
41:08 – Forecasting trends.
42:18 – Data, experiences, ethics.
45:20 – Blockchain & Industries like Healthcare, Financial Services.
46:55 – Digital rights management
47:30 – Closing thoughts

If you are interested in having Tom speak at your next event, please book with Chris Lee via chris@calentertainment.com or call 877-300-1888 ext. 101.

Follow Tom Edwards @BlackFin360 via Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, & Twitch.

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Innovation To Reality Recap

Leo Clifford of the Telco Global Forum wrote a recap of my recent Innovation To Reality talk here it is reposted below.

Empower. Exponential. Enhanced. These are the three words that Tom Edwards of Blackfin360 – a data-driven digitally centric marketing technology executive and professional futurist speaker – uses to describe the evolution of experience as the innovation scene evolves. He calls it ‘innovation to reality.’ Tom recently spoke at the Telco Global Forum event. In his talk, he mentions them as elements that can help drive business and digital transformation.

“Empower is all about consumer behavior influencing technology. Exponential is all about the role that intelligence systems are going to play. And Enhance is all about simulation. These are the foundational elements to align consumer behavior and emerging technology and its impact on business and digital transformation.”

– Tom Edwards

Understanding consumer behavior and how that impacts experiences

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For Tom, it starts with understanding consumer behavior and how it affects technology. He estimates that 40 percent of the consumer market consists of Generation Z – the demographic of people born between the years 1996 and 2010. “They are the first mobile-first generation. They learn to swipe before they learn to speak. Businesses must understand that affinity and behavior and how it affects technology.” He says.

Today, we are heading to an age of emerging technologies that these consumers will interface with daily, and it is vital to understand how to connect with them at these various points. One popular emerging technology is the voice assistant technology installed on phones.

Alexa, Google, etc. are the first stage of autonomy in intelligent systems. From the research Tom has done across generations, one particular thing is consistent about why people will adopt intelligence systems into their everyday lives. “That is ease and convenience,” he says. These systems serve as delegates onto which people can delegate simple tasks. So they serve as a bridge between consumers and businesses such that ultimately, the mobile device will no longer be the primary means of interacting with technology. Therefore, organizations need to examine these systems and figure out how to communicate and have conversational experiences with them. 

Tom expects that an increase of these proxy-like systems will “require understanding how to provoke emotions from systems” as it is quite different from humans because we will be moving from a human consumer-centric way of marketing to one that is system-based.

How to prepare and what to expect 

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Businesses have data assets they possess and manage internally. The first step is understanding these assets. However, that is not enough. According to Tom, “90% of the information around consumers is unstructured”. They are found on the open web and in conversations online. Artificial intelligence can play a role in expediting the understanding of what is happening. Lastly, businesses want to understand intent signals. These are indicators that identify users who are actively reaching their line of products, and it is tied to search history. Ultimately, businesses want to make sure that they structure data in such a way that they are consequential across not only traditional search but voice ecosystems and spatial computing. All of these things are interconnected. Therefore, it is vital to have a thorough understanding of what information is available, what is usable, and why. 

The role data and intelligent systems will play in the near future

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In the voice assistance technology sector, Google wants to make the assistant in such a way that tasks are set up as real-life scenes, thus turning the whole delegation activity into a seamless experience for the user. An example of this is Google Duplex – a new technology woven into the Google Assistant – that reserved an appointment and rented a car! Tom postulates that with systems like these evolving, what we will begin to see is a virtual assistant acting as preference centers.

With the ever-present connectivity that the emergence of 5G networks will provide, edge computing – i.e., location of information processing where people produce or consume that information – in the form of building smart cities that can process data locally and instantaneously will become a reality. While the focus has been on the disruption happening in various industries as a result of these different technologies, it will move to the convergence of these intelligent systems, which will be powered by artificial intelligence that is fuelled by data. That data is what is going to enhance the experiences as they evolve. Training the machine learning models that drive these technologies will involve tons of data so that they can further improve user experiences. 

Prepare to make the shift from mobile devices

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Eventually, it is not going to be enough to create experiences for traditional desktop and mobile in digital marketing. Voice, vision, and touch are the new modalities that will drive the future of experience, and these are what businesses will need to pay attention to succeed. 

In light of these new modalities that are poised to drive the future of experience and digital marketing in businesses, how do you adopt these emerging technologies in your organization? “I follow a 70 to 20 to 10 kind of approach,” Tom advises. Seventy percent of your investment should be on tried and tested technologies that are going to stimulate business and digital transformation, 20 percent for technologies that are novel but you can prove some type of return based on the core objective you are trying to apply and 10 percent or less for technologies you are making educated guesses. 

“It is incredibly important to have a three-year road map,” he adds. In addition to the traditional four Ps – Product, Price, Place, and Promotion – of marketing strategy, he includes four additional Ps, namely, Plan, Predictive, Proxy, and Pervasive. Plan refers to your data strategy. Predictive involves knowing that data is going to drive a lot of predictive decision making that will get to a point where it can predict human behavior and subsequently lead to the third P, Proxy. Proxy involves understanding that virtual assistants will become proxies or deputies, communicating, and interacting with each other on our behalf, scheduling, and handling tasks. Lastly, Pervasive, you want to understand that you are designing experiences — pervasive experiences — namely touch, vision, and voice that will go beyond traditional desktop and mobile.

In summary, it is about doing what is working today. Next, examine the future experiences that are going to influence behavior and drive business and digital transformation that this article has discussed. Look out for use cases in other industries that you can apply to your business based on your objective and experiment. Finally, review what the 90 percent of your investment has accomplished, what is ultimately coming, and make educated bets on other technologies you want to explore.

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Tom’s Innovation to Reality talk is available here at the Telco Global Forum.

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If you’d like to contact Tom Edwards directly you can find him Here at Blackfin360 or linkedin.com/in/tedwards

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Business Access Podcast Episode 15

I recently had the opportunity to join Thiago Desouza on his Business Access Podcast. We had an incredibly in-depth conversation across a variety of topics. From passions that have driven my career, technology, and marketing impact post-pandemic, gaming, GenZ, generational gaps, and the future of consumer experience. Timestamps and topics below.

Episode 15 of Business Access

1:25 – Tom Edwards Career Overview 

  • Smooth Fusion (Microsoft)
  • Telligent (Electronic Arts)
  • INgage Networks (Chief Marketing Officer) 
  • Omnicom (Strategy Leader – Red Urban, The Marketing Arm)
  • Epsilon (Chief Digital & Innovation Officer) 
  • Tripleclix (Chief Marketing Officer)

2:50 – Discussing Core Passions

  • Star Wars & the droids and how the technology-enabled the adventures
  • Gaming in the 1980s 
  • 90’s Computer Hardware 
  • Marketing, Technology, Gaming are core passions

4:10 – Where are we today technology wise compared to Star Wars? 

  • No longer disruption as a new normal
  • All about convergence, AI, predictive decisioning, virtual assistant proxies, simulation at scale

6:15 – How does it feel when you create a pathway to success for a client? 

  • Love to align technology + consumer experience hits a cultural inflection point
  • EA Skate example. The first instance of in-game content posted to the web in the mid-2000s
  • Discuss Data & AI work while at Epsilon
  • Goes well beyond a transaction, it’s about creating value as a partner

8:30 – Discuss Professional Speaking & Innovation to Reality

  • How technology will evolve and how we will move from the mobile device to our environment adapting to us through the lens of pop-culture
  • Empower – technology that enables consumers
  • Exponential – intelligent systems
  • Enhance – proxies to full simulation 
  • Discuss GenZ, gaming, expectations of technology and how experiences are evolving

11:00 – How do you feel technology is going to advance post COVID pandemic? 

  • Less about a single use case and application, and more about how technology enables work that isn’t in a physical location
  • New consumer decision journey… Disruption, Acceptance, What’s next
  • Acceleration of work from anywhere, have worked remotely for over 5 years
  • Sparks of inspiration occur at different times of the day. 

14:33 – What can businesses do and where should they focus post pandemic? 

  • Focus on core consumer needs 
  • Reflect & reset corporate strategy, especially digitally
  • The role that data plays
  • Developing new capabilities 
  • Forecast demand by geography & audience segments 
  • Discuss the cycle of demand 
  • What’s next… How does physical retail compete with online? 

18:00 – Communication, Communication, Communication is vital… 

  • Maintaining communication and connection is key
  • 71% of consumers stated if brands put profit over people they would lose faith in the brand forever 
  • It’s important to communicate, but also how are you easing disruption
  • Content strategy, building it around how creating value, balance selling vs. supporting 
  • Reacting vs. strategically planning

21:30 – How have international businesses been responding? 

  • US quantity based
  • Bolivia case study/hand sanitizer example

23:00 – Across industries, what techniques and methods work well broadly? 

  • Mapped career against the rising flow of technology & culture
    • Mid 2000’s social computing
    • Then consumer social strategy
    • Data & AI 
    • Next is gaming…

26:15 – Generational Gap & Gaming

29:00 – Experiences like Pokémon Go prep future adoption

  • Training a generation 
  • GenZ expectations of technology & behaviors such as mixing reality is becoming second nature 

30:30 – What happened to Google Glass? What’s next? 

  • Was an early adopter
  • When it initially launched we weren’t in the midst of a creator society
  • It was also about form factor… looking at patents and future tech, look and feel will be extensions of style
  • Apple, Samsung, and others will move us towards a smart contact
  • Ubiquitous tech + constant connectivity via 5G will drive adoption of new form factors 

33:30 – If a client/business asks how can I make it happen? 

  • Not enough time spent on the behavioral side
  • Single persona vs. affinity iterations & personality types 
  • How does that come together and finding the right levers to connect with individuals in a meaningful way
  • Easier to look at it from a media perspective vs. using AI as a driver to truly differentiate the experience via structured & unstructured data
  • Esports sponsorship… “Marketing with to games is fine, but connecting authentically is a different approach” – Chris Erb. 

36:55 – The role of personal branding 

  • The accelerator of success was my blog… 600 posts later, how you think, what you have done, and having a content repository is key 

Follow Tom via YouTube, Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram, and Twitch.

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Tom Edwards Q&A with EDgage Magazine

I recently had an opportunity to sit down with EDgage Magazine to discuss emerging technology trends tied to the technology landscape today, how technology will evolve, the role of gaming and esports, tech impact on higher education, marketing and the future of technology, and 2020 trends.

This is a repost of the full interview.

Give us a snapshot of the technology landscape today (as it relates to marketing).

(Tom Edwards) We live in an amazing time. Technology is culture and culture is technology. So much of the focus the past few years has been about real-time, contextual and personalization at scale. Data’s role in driving decisioning, especially leveraging machine learning to derive themes, perceptions, and occasions, is revolutionizing how we derive affinity and intent signals from consumers. We can now return in time and process millions of conversations to understand unbiased consumer behavior and have the ability to align that with evolving consumer experiences.

Technology and experience will continue to evolve. Technology will expand the boundaries of higher education.

(TE) The other major shift is we are quickly moving from desktop and mobile-centric experiences toward multi-modal at scale. This includes voice, vision, and touch. The rise and adoption of virtual assistants, advancements in computer vision and democratization of augmented reality experiences, and the rise of gesture-based experiences make it a great time to be a consumer and marketer.

How will technology continue to impact the higher ed space?

(TE) Technology and experience will continue to evolve. I used to talk about how disruption was the new normal, and how a single technology could have a transformational impact. Now, it’s less about disruption and more about exponential acceleration through intelligent systems. Technology will expand the boundaries of higher education. With the rollout of 5G connectivity across campuses, we will see responsive and immersive augmented reality, high quality streaming for on-demand and live casting of classes, 5G-enabled edge computing/analytics to optimize the on-campus experience, and making IoT more accessible to close the gap between context and awareness.

What role will technologies like AI continue to have on today’s campuses and universities?

(TE) AI will have a significant impact moving forward—from organizational efficiency, enhancing student experiences and redefining coursework, to shift toward critical thinking in support of intelligence augmentation.

Universities can leverage AI to streamline the admissions process, quickly access the sentiment and areas of interest of their student and faculty population, use AI to drive fundraising and create personalized experiences for alumni.

AI will also enhance students’ capabilities to learn—from leveraging visual search and computer vision-enabled experiences to shifting coursework to focus more on critical and strategic thinking and using data and analytics to fuel experiences.

What are things higher ed marketers should think about when it comes to technology?

(TE) I’ve been involved with higher education at varying levels for the past 15 years. I have instructed thousands of students, and most recently lectured at SMU in Dallas. I am also a part of its Big Data advisory council.

For me, it is an evolution of the traditional 4P’s of marketing. Since the ’60s, it has been about product, price, place, and promotion. With the rise of intelligent systems, it is less about the traditional 4P’s and more about the new 4P’s: Plan, Predictive, Proxy and Pervasive.

Plan is having a plan for the use and data: how it is captured, structured, cleansed, analyzed and fed into intelligent systems, as data is oil for AI. Predictive is leveraging data and machine learning to drive predictive decisioning. Proxy is all about virtual assistants becoming personal proxies for individuals. The data plus predictive decisioning capability combined with virtual proxies will give rise to the proxy web where our virtual assistants represent our preferences and interface with other proxies. Finally, pervasive is about designing for multi-modal interfaces at a time when the mobile device will no longer be our primary device but our environment adapts to us.

What should every higher ed professional know about technology?

(TE) Understand that behaviors and expectations of students is evolving. Students are empowered to control experiences. Accessibility has led to ubiquity and Gen Z and Generation Alpha are quickly shifting traditional behaviors.

From expectations of on-demand content, gaming, and eSports to expectations tied to immersive and low-lag experiences. Universities have to evolve their infrastructure toward a 5G future and higher ed professionals will need to rethink curriculum toward data, analytics, and multi-modal experiences.

What kind of trends should they be looking at heading into 2020?

(TE) In 2020, we will continue to see virtual assistants shift toward the center of the operating system. With the rollout of 5G connectivity, we will see a path toward simulation through low latency augmented reality at scale.

We will continue to see the camera used as a bridge to intelligence through a combination of computer vision and virtual assistants and we will continue to see the rise of the proxy web where virtual assistants continue to evolve to the point where we are no longer marketing just to consumers, but also to algorithms and intelligent systems.

Finally, we will continue to see AI-enhanced digital avatars become more mainstream. First in the form of customer support and slowly expanding to more use cases by industry.

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Futurithmic Podcast – Tom Edwards

Futurithmic – ( Podcast Interview) – Experiential Computing, 5G, AI & more. Tech titan Tom Edwards of BlackFin360 talks about how the blurring of the lines between technology and culture is only going to grow as AI, AR, and 5G become embedded in our physical spaces to replace our smartphones.

Tom Edwards – Futurithmic Episode 10

Connecting the dots of the technology of today with the future of tomorrow. Here are the timestamps for key topics discussed.

1:38 – Tech Titan Advocacy Award
2:01 – Experience Driven Culture
2:55 – Shift Towards Multi-modal & Enhancing Mobility
4:05 – Ambient Computing
4:50 – GenZs Impact on Emerging Technology
5:50 – Expectations of Technology & Adoption of AI
8:05 – Virtual Assistant as a Preference Center, Rise of the Proxy Web
10:15 – Consumer Choice vs. Ease & Convenience
11:30 – Smart Glasses Adoption
13:00 – Benefits of 5G Connectivity
15:15 – Use cases for combining 5G + AI + AR = Proxy Twin Hypothesis
17:45 – Volumetric Capture
19:40 – 5G & Artificial Intelligence = Edge Computing & Edge Analytics
23:40 – 3 Types of AI
24:30 – Intelligence Augmentation & Predictive Decisioning
26:30 – The Future… Privacy, Presence, Commerce, Enhancing Experiences
29:15 – Gaming, Esports, & Technology Adoption, Interaction Economy

Follow Tom Edwards @BlackFin360 via YouTube, Twitter, Instagram or connect via Linkedin

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Path To Purchase Expo 2019 Keynote

I had the opportunity to provide a keynote on tech innovation for the 2019 Path to Purchase Expo in Chicago yesterday. It was a great crowd, high energy, and with a 30-minute timeslot, we had to cover a lot of ground! 

The focus of the talk was discussing the coming waves of technology and how that will impact consumer behavior along the path to purchase. This is the latest version of the InnovationToReality talk series covering all facets of consumer behavior and emerging technology.

We discussed how Star Wars, Fortnite, Pixar Movies, & The Matrix highlight how emerging technology and consumer behavior will shift in the near future. We also discussed:

  • the role of esports
  • the camera as a bridge to intelligence
  • the role of virtual assistants and commerce
  • the rise of the proxy web
  • the 5 levels of autonomy
  • how the new 4P’s will enhance future strategy
  • the role and importance of 5G in the transition towards ubiquitous simulation.

Here is a link to the final presentation. Book Tom for your event today

Follow Tom @BlackFin360 on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube & connect via Linkedin.

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Mobile World Congress 2019 Trend Recap

I recently had the opportunity to partner with Nokia to cover Mobile World Congress 2019. From highlighting key elements of their brand messaging around 5G, amplifying content from analyst meetings to on-camera work on the show floor. I really enjoyed partnering with Nokia.

Today, my full #MWC19 recap was posted on Futurithmic.com the recap views trends from MWC through the Innovation to Reality™ lens of Empower, Exponential, and Enhanced. The article covers all facets of experience and 5G. From Devices, AI, Gaming, Live Entertainment, and so much more. You can read the full article here.

Tom Edwards Mobile World Congress 2019 Recap

I was also engaged as a technology influencer to create cross channel social content, highlight Nokia & their 5G efforts during a recent keynote, as well as on-camera work during #MWC19. When it’s all said and done the content should drive north of 100,000 highly targeted views that will have boosted Nokia’s message during a very crowded MWC19.

  • DFWIMA 2019

Thanks again to Marianne and the entire @Nokia team.

Follow Tom @BlackFin360 on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube

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DFWIMA Headliner Keynote

I recently had the opportunity to provide the opening keynote for the Dallas Fort Worth Interactive Marketing Association discussing trends tied to evolving consumer experiences. This is the latest version of the InnovationToReality talk series covering all facets of consumer behavior and emerging technology.

It was a fun and highly interactive keynote session! We discussed how Star Wars, Fortnite, Pixar Movies, & The Matrix highlight how emerging technology and consumer behavior will shift in the near future. We talked about how the 5 levels of autonomy and the new 4P’s will impact industry 4.0. Finally, the role and importance of 5G in the transition towards ubiquitous simulation.

Here is a link to the final presentation. Book Tom for your event today

Follow Tom @BlackFin360 on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube & connect via Linkedin.

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Headliner Keynote – Industry 4.0

I recently had the opportunity to provide the opening keynote for the University of Alabama EMBA Alumni Network Summit discussing trends tied to Industry 4.0. This is the latest version of the InnovationToReality talk series covering all facets of consumer behavior and emerging technology.

It was a fun and highly interactive keynote session! We discussed how Star Wars, Fortnite, Pixar Movies, & The Matrix highlight how emerging technology and consumer behavior will shift in the near future. We talked about how the 5 levels of autonomy and the new 4P’s will impact industry 4.0. Finally the role and importance of 5G in the transition towards ubiquitous simulation.

Here is a link to download the full presentation.

Follow Tom @BlackFin360 on YouTube, Twitter, or Instagram

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2019 Tech Titans Technology Advocate Award

Last night my wife and I attended the 2019 Tech Titans Awards Gala. I was a finalist for the Technology Advocate award. This award recognizes a technology advocate/champion for their outstanding leadership in assisting, advancing or accelerating the performance of technology companies and/or the technology community.

It was a really fun night. The Tech Titans awards are like the Oscars for the Dallas technology community. After settling into a delicious dinner and some fun commentary from the Gala committee it was time for the awards presentations to start.

When my category was up for the next presentation the head of North American Customer Marketing & Communications for Nokia, Marianne Strobel did a great job setting up the category and announcing the winner…

After the initial shock of the win, it was time for photos, a great conversation with Marianne of Nokia about their 5G work and more innovations on the way, networking with sponsors and attendees and fun times with my wife Cherlyn from chomping M&M’s pre-event to celebrating post-event Texas-style with Whataburger.

  • Tech Titans 2019
  • 2019 Tech Titans Technology Advocate Award
  • Tech Titans 2019
  • Tech Titans 2019
  • Post Event

Thank you to the Tech Titans organization, sponsors, judges, thank you to Marianne Strobel for the warm welcome from Nokia, the Dallas Business Journal for their coverage and support of the event and finally to the other deserving finalists.

Follow Tom Edwards @BlackFin360 via YouTube, Instagram, Twitter

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Dallas Business Journal Tech Titan Interview

I was recently interviewed by the Dallas Business Journal for the upcoming 2019 Tech Titans awards show. I am a finalist in the technology advocate category and looking forward to the event! Here is a link to the full interview.

Here is a repost of the full article

Tom Edwards of BlackFin360 is a finalist in the Technology Advocate Award category for the 2019 Tech Titan Awards. Category winners will be announced at an awards event on Friday, Aug. 23. For more information about the awards event, click here.

As founder of BlackFin360, which covers marketing and emerging tech trends, Tom Edwards has been recognized as a marketing technology trailblazer as well as a leading futurist and speaker.

“I focus on helping organizations understand how consumer behavior is shaping emerging technology and vice versa as technology is culture and culture is technology,” Edwards said.

What started as a technology blog back in 2007 BlackFin360 now serves as a “a repository of emerging technology” thought leadership. As a keynote speaker and technology advocate, Edwards says he helps organizations understand the connection between consumer behavior and emerging technology — from the integration of artificial intelligence, spatial computing and the rise of multi-modal interfaces.

Edwards was also Chief Digital/Innovation Officer for Epsilon where he said he “became fully immersed in all facets of data, AI and technology integration.”

We asked Edwards additional questions about technology. The questions have been edited for length, grammar and clarity.

What is the biggest challenge facing your organization in 2019?

TOM – The biggest challenge is less about my organization and what I see across the Fortune 1000 organizations that I have the opportunity to speak to. There are three primary areas that I consistently see. They are: data puddles, ignoring AI, lack of innovation focus.

  • Data puddles refers to a comment I heard at one of the world’s largest consumer beverage companies. Most organizations strive for data lakes and data is key to unlocking personalization and connecting with consumers. The reality is most organizations don’t have a consolidated approach to leveraging various forms of data, be it consumer centric data of culture, data of identity and data of intent. Having a strategy for how to consolidate and action data vs. simply collecting is key.
  • The second challenge is the lack of preparation and consideration of the impact of artificial intelligence on the workplace. This goes beyond system integration, and has to do with impact on culture and how to build a culture around the idea of intelligence augmentation vs. disruption.
  • The third is a lack of aligning innovation initiatives with core goals of the organization. It’s incredibly important to not just focus on short term revenue, but also generating ideas and empowering the organization to bring innovative ideas forward. 

What is something people aren’t thinking about that will change technology in the next few years?

TOM – To me the biggest shift, especially for marketers is that we will be moving from consumer-centric marketing technology to system and algorithm-based solutions. We will see virtual assistants continue to move to the center of the operating system and we will see the rise of multi-modal computing at scale. This includes voice, vision and touch, where our environment adapts to us versus us adapting to it.

Can you recall the moment you decided what you wanted to do professionally?

TOM – My first memory is of the original Star Wars movie. All of my friends wanted to be Han Solo and Luke Skywalker. I liked those characters, but I was enamored with the droids R2-D2 and C3PO and how they and the rest of the sentient tech characters seemed to enable the main cast every step of the way. The technology seamlessly folded into their everyday journeys and that stuck with me all throughout childhood and into early adulthood. When the technology revolution hit with the rise of personal computers, mobile phones and software, I knew that is where I wanted to take my career. 

Who is your technology hero?

TOM – My technology hero is Hal Brierley. Hal is the CEO of the Brierley Group. He has served as President and CEO of Epsilon, was the founder of e-Rewards, Inc, and the Executive Chairman of Brierley & Partners and he currently serves on the board of an AI start-up (Oculus360) that has been an outstanding strategic partner. I admire that work and career of Hal, his impact to Dallas via job creation and his approach to business is something to be admired. 

What should we be teaching children about technology in school right now that we aren’t?

TOM – The future is going to be about augmented intelligence and preparing children, not just how to code, but also how to use various aspects of machine learning to solve problems. Instead of teaching simple math, it’s important to understand specific computing models and concepts for how systems learn. Now, these are reserved for Computer Science courses on the college level, but the sooner we can prepare children for the coming shift of intelligent systems the better.

Follow Tom Edwards @BlackFin360 via YouTube, Twitter, Instagram

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Algorithms, Affinity & Advertising in the 2020s

Recently, I was on-site at one of the worlds largest manufacturers discussing the convergence of experiences and delivering 2 sets of my Innovation to Reality talk. This session sparked a number of questions from privacy, data and how advertising will look in the 2020s and that is the basis of the commentary below.

My personal position is that over the next decade consumers will “own” their data, essentially through some type of blockchain-powered open ledger technology where ultimately the consumer becomes the trading desk.

This will be managed by their AI proxies via their virtual assistant of choice. The proxy will become the management hub of personal data and consumers via their proxy will approve who/what/when/where the data to be shared. This is why affinity data in the near future will be so incredibly important.

By understanding a passion area, take Star Wars, for example, a retailer can still customize a digital augmented/enhanced overlay experience for you without needing your PII (Personally Identifiable Information) to serve experiences to you. I talk a lot about the concept of the proxy digital twin hypothesis here.

Your personal algorithms will seek out other “affinity links” through the “Proxy web” to make the connection to the appropriate simulation experience.  Advertising in the near future will be algorithmically curated through a consumer AI proxy to align the most relevant products and “situational advertising” will become the new normal.

Your proxy will manage situational products & services through your calendar and past purchase history. Here is an example, you and the family are going to the beach, the proxy will curate a list of items from your previous purchases and point out possible “situational” items that make the most sense based on your trip. 

It will be less about random products that are loosely based on regression models and past behavior. It will be predictive by nature and built more inside out from the consumer, where the AI proxy becomes the predictive “situational” preference center with the goal of ease, convenience for the end-user.

Be sure to follow Tom @BlackFin360 via Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

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Disruption Preparing for Tomorrow Book Release

In honor of Amazon Prime Day, I wanted to highlight a book that I recently contributed to called Disruption, Preparing for Tomorrow.

I recently had the opportunity to deliver the opening keynote at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC during the Innova-con conference.

  • Innova-con 2019
  • Innova-con 2019
  • Innova-con 2019

I provided a tour of tomorrow and highlighted the coming waves of technology based on consumer behavior. The talk discussed disruption and adaptation with concepts, implications, and success strategies based on my Innovation to Reality content series.

All of the conference content was then edited into the Disruption – Preparing for Tomorrow Book Release. Copies are available via my Amazon Storefront.

  • Disruption – Innova-Con
  • Tom Edwards – Disruption

Follow Tom @BlackFin360 on Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube

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Print Innovation Exchange Headliner Keynote

I recently had the opportunity to headline the 2019 Print Innovation Exchange in Minneapolis, MN. It was a fun and highly interactive keynote session! We discussed how Star Wars, Fortnite, Pixar Movies & The Matrix highlight how emerging technology & and behavior will shift in the near future and how the 5 levels of autonomy and the new 4P’s will impact the print industry. 

  • Print Innovation Exchange 2019
  • Print Innovation Exchange 2019
  • Print Innovation Exchange 2019
  • Print Innovation Exchange 2019
  • Print Innovation Exchange 2019

The full Evolution of Experience Keynote is available below.

Thank you and please follow @BlackFin360 across social platforms for various updates and a little bit of fun.

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Google I/O 2019 Trends & Analysis

Here is a quick reaction & recap video with highlights from today’s Google I/O 2019 event. Google continues to build towards an ambient future. The most exciting announcements were tied to the consolidation of augmented reality, computer vision and 3D experiences directly into search results, the next iteration of Google Duplex for the web that is a direct push towards proxy assistants for all, the evolution of Google Assistant moving towards the center of the operating system and how to prepare content for multimodal discovery and so much more.

Google I/O 2019 Trend & Analysis

Follow Tom @BlackFin360

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FB Messenger & Evolving CRM Strategy

I recently attended Facebook’s F8 developer conference. One of the more compelling sessions discussed Facebook Messenger’s role in lead generation, consideration, and re-engagement.

This video is my assessment and analysis of the content presented and additional perspective for marketers looking to capitalize on Facebook Messenger’s shift towards the center of the Facebook product suite. These changes will result in the ability to reach potentially 2 Billion users across platforms and the globe.

Facebook Messenger & Evolving CRM Strategy

Follow Tom Edwards @BlackFin360

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In The News: AdAge & Spotify Voice Ads

I was recently asked my opinion by Advertising Age about Spotify’s recently announced voice-enabled audio ad experience. The user could receive a voice-enabled audio ad promoting a playlist or podcast while listening on the mobile app. The ad encourages new content that can be accessed by saying “Play Now” Here is the recently published article.

Here is my full commentary below.

(Advertising Age) In a sentence or two, what is your initial reaction to the news?

(TOM) I was excited when I heard the news. I am a big believer in designing multi-modal experiences and further extending the mobile experience via voice is a smart move, especially for an audio focused experience like Spotify.

What sort of hurdles, if any, do you see with technology such as this?

(TOM) The hurdles are less about the technology and more about ensuring that the user is setup to have a seamless and successful launch of the experience. With the user microphone permission being an additional step it may cause some to skip or miss the experience.

Do you believe this is something consumers want? Why or why not?

(TOM) Consumers want ease, convenience and while listening to Spotify to be entertained. If the voice ads are relevant and based on the affinity of the listener then this could be seen as a value ad, but some education or step by step instructions may be required for some users, especially if they have to adjust settings on their device. For most, it will not be an issue, but preparing for all user scenarios and a frictionless path for consumers will be critical to driving engagement.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

(TOM) There is an opportunity for a voice-based advertising experience. Smart Speaker experiences have been very deliberate not to integrate voice as the focus has been on user adoption. There is a precedent for the Spotify “play now” experience with Siri Shortcuts and how they extend native applications via voice. Consumers can set their own intents via Siri to activate a specific action within an app. The Spotify experience adds a monetization angle to the experience.

Follow Tom Edwards @BlackFin360

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In The News: AdExchanger & F8

I was recently asked by Ad Exchanger to provide my thoughts tied to announcements made at Facebook’s 2019 F8 developer conference. Here is a link to the published Ad Exchanger article.

My full commentary is outlined below:

(Ad Exchanger) Does this “privacy vision” feel sincere or is Facebook cleverly positioning its shift?

(TOM) I feel the shift from Facebook to “the Future is Private” was necessary as the shift reflects how consumers have been interacting since 2016 when social messaging surpassed open social in terms of usage behavior. 

The company went through a similar shift in 2014 with the myopic focus on becoming “Mobile First” with 100% focus and resource allocation supporting the vision. I see the same focus here with privacy. It makes sense that this was the macro theme for F8 and a rallying cry to adjust the product suites. The focus on interoperability and encryption as well as shifting messenger to be the new connection point for friends and families is a smart move. 

Separately, how much of an impact will the privacy vision have on how Facebook will be able to monetize?

How this impacts advertising will be interesting. While the focus on reduced permanence and the statements around privacy and encryption are good tent pole statements, item #6 in the privacy manifesto was Secure Data Storage. There will also be the consolation around Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp to create a new advertising network connected to 2 billion people. How data will be used to support the targeting is TBD but the infrastructure to create new avenues of reach and the new consumer acquisition ad units that drive to Messenger will be a key part of their strategy putting the onus on the consumer to share data, as outlined by the new consumer acquisition ad types for Messenger. 

And lastly, how will marketers need to change their Facebook strategy as engagement moves invariably away from the feed and more into Stories, messaging, etc.

(TOM) As marketers it’s important to understand the shift away from content marketing and focus on enabling creativity, utility and entertainment through Messenger and Instagram. Leaning into the ability to co-view video, utility through integration of various API’s, understanding the new payment and commerce capabilities and supporting the creation of AR experiences. Also understanding how to navigate the shift with FB5 towards groups and the role that marketers can play to create new types of connections. 

There is a lot to unpack and as Facebook continues to shift towards fast, reliable and private experiences, it will be interesting to see how the platforms actually evolve and where new opportunities to drive monetization will come from. 

Follow Tom Edwards @BlackFin360

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Facebook F8 Recap & Reaction

A quick reaction & recap video with highlights from today’s Facebook F8 event. The macro theme was the future is private and it was all about Facebook’s approach to privacy and it’s product suite.

Messenger is going to play a starring role, advances with Instagram and commerce, further maturing of Facebook’s AR toolset, new and exciting VR announcements, a preview of how CRM will evolve via Messenger and what was missing from today’s show. This and more in today’s video.

Full recap & analysis of Facebook’s F8 Developer Conference

Follow Tom @BlackFin360

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TripleClix Gaming/Marketing Podcast

I was recently in LA and sat down with Chris Erb, founder of TripleClix, an amazing boutique video game marketing agency. I have known Chris for almost a decade and we have collaborated on a lot of fun programs over the years.

When Chris asked me to be guest #1 on his new podcast I jumped at the chance. We talk about the gaming industry and what it means for marketers, the future of gaming and consumer experience and a healthy debate about the Seattle Supersonics leaving for Oklahoma City. That and so much more. Enjoy!

Listen via Spotify

Be sure to save to your Spotify Library

Listen via Apple

Be sure to subscribe and download!

Follow Tom @BlackFin360 & Follow Chris @ChrisErb

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ZDNet Interview: 2019 Trends

I recently had the opportunity to be a guest on the Tonya Hall show. Tonya is a contributor to CBS Interactive properties such as ZDNet and Tech Republic.

Our discussion touches upon a number of currently trending topics such as artificial intelligence, spatial computing, voice assistants, proxy marketing, digital twin, 8K and much more.

Here is the full interview.

Full Interview at: https://www.zdnet.com/video/10-macro-trends-from-ces-2019/
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Innova-con Keynote

I recently had the opportunity to deliver the opening keynote at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC during the Innova-con conference.

I provided a tour of tomorrow and highlighted the coming waves of technology based on consumer behavior. The talk discussed disruption and adaptation with concepts, implications, and success strategies based on my Innovation to Reality content series.

Book Tom for an event here.

Follow Tom @BlackFin360

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Carnegie Dartlet Keynote

What a great week! From the OnCon Icon Awards to delivering a keynote during the 2019 Carnegie Dartlet Conference, it was a great week in Orlando!

What was great about #CarnegieConf, besides the fact that it was hosted at Walt Disney World, was the amazing audience of higher education professionals. They were highly engaged both during the talk and via social.

Carnegie Dartlet
Carnegie Dartlet
Carnegie Dartlet
Carnegie Dartlet
Carnegie Dartlet
Carnegie Dartlet
Carnegie Dartlet

The talk centered around how technology will adapt to us vs. us adapting to it. From the role the camera will play as a bridge to intelligence, why the Pixar Theory explains AI adoption, and how spatial computing combined with virtual assistant proxies will change our view of reality.

Time to leave Disney but can’t wait to be back!

Book Tom for an event here.

Follow Tom @BlackFin360

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2019 Trends Digital Twins & Spatial Computing


One of the bigger trends in 2019 will be tied to Digital Twins… but why? Here is a full video breakdown. 

WHAT ARE DIGITAL TWINS

A digital twin refers to a digital replica or model of a physical asset (physical twin), processes, people, places, systems and devices that can be used for various purposes such as simulation of performance.

So It’s Primarily For FACTORIES COOL? WHY SHOULD I CARE? 

The primary use cases are tied to Industrial IOT scenarios.The Digital Twin serves as a bridge between physical and digital. The physical asset has IOT sensors that constantly collect various forms of data and feed the information to the digital twin to analyze and run predictive simulations. The findings from the virtual models can then be applied to the physical asset.

MY HYPOTHESIS – APPLICATION TO CONSUMERS 

There is a possible connection to consumer experience use cases tied to physical sensor data and virtual assistant proxy simulations.

What’s going to enable the use of consumer experience digital twin experiences at scale will be 5G connectivity. 5G will fuel connection of IOT frameworks as well as edge computing to reduce potential latency and the ability to process information as close to the source as possible.

This will allow connectivity and enhanced data transfer capabilities of the 20 billion IOT devices that exist today. 

ROLE OF THE PROXY WEB

2019 will also see the accelerated adoption and dependence on virtual assistants. There are now over 1 billion devices that provide voice assistant access today.

90 Million use voice assistants on smartphones and 45 million use them on smart speakers per month.

Digital assistants are an on ramp to further usage of AI and robotics. As virtual assistants move towards the center of the operating experience we will continue to move towards what I call, the Proxy Web.

PROXY WEB

This is where our virtual assistants begin managing certain aspects of our lives behind the scenes.

Our proxy will be able to communicate with other proxies and align preferences to map where to eat for dinner with a friend, it knows our food preferences and schedule.

This preference ownership and ability to communicate with other proxies and nodes in systems could be the key to unlocking spatial computing simulation at scale.

DYNAMIC SPATIAL COMPUTING EXPERIENCES 

One of the key areas of focus in 2019 will be the further melding of physical and digital experiences. We have seen the rapid democratization of various forms of spatial computing.

Spatial Computing is using the physical space around us as a medium to interact with technology.

This includes AR, VR, Mixed Reality, Hyper Reality and more. The goal with my digital twin hypothesis is to not only deliver a one size fits all experience but creating personalization at scale through spatial computing.

Digital Twin type simulations may be the key to connect custom reality overlays based on preferences driven by our virtual assistants. 

IDEA in Action…

I am a Star Wars fan…. the retailer Target normally goes big with Star Wars in-store promotions when there is a major film release. With the digital twin simulation concept, based on my personal preferences, my virtual assistant knows that I have a strong affinity for Star Wars based on my behavior, this includes voice queries, watching Star Wars Theory videos via YouTube, my past purchases of Funko Pops,etc…

Instead of plastering the store with physical Star Wars promotional material, Target could have pre-mapped various spatial computing “experiences” that are triggered based preferences discoverable via my virtual assistant.

An in-store sensor network could feed previous trip information of me and other guests with a similar affinity and allow for the Star Wars focused simulation to be adjusted in real-time to get me to a specific area of the store or special offers on say retail specific Funko Pops.

The Digital Twin becomes the intelligence engine to enhance the base physical store experience and create a personalized experience based on predictive digital simulation. 

The ultimate goal being to have the environment and experience personalized to me based on multiple simulations and a connection to my preferences.

Questions? Tweet to Tom Edwards @BlackFin360

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United Airlines & Executive Perspective Interview

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Jeffrey Hayzlett of C-Suite TV to kick off season 7 of Executive Perspectives. We discussed digital disruption, conversational experiences, artificial intelligence and best practices for leveraging data to connect with consumers.

screenshot-2016-12-15-13-34-43

Now, I have heard from multiple sources that the interview is available On-demand on domestic and international United Airlines flights.

C-Suite & United On Demand
C-Suite & United On Demand
C-Suite & United On Demand
C-Suite & United On Demand
C-Suite & United On Demand
C-Suite & United On Demand

Here is a transcript of the full interview.

Follow Tom Edwards @BlackFin360

 

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Evanta CMO Summit Keynote

I recently had the privilege to deliver the Evolution of Experience keynote at the 2018 Evanta CMO Summit in Dallas, Texas.

For this event, I tailored the Evolution of Experience, E^3 talk tied to  Empower, Exponential and Enhanced to focus on the camera as a platform, artificial intelligence, multi-modal, the New 4 P’s of AI marketing and new themes introduced by the Apple WWDC 2018 that happened earlier in the day.

Evanta CMO Summit
Evanta CMO Summit
Evanta CMO Summit
Evanta CMO Summit
Evanta CMO Summit

Empower is looking at how accessibility to mobile technology has led to consumers being empowered to create, amplify and influence across generations. Specifically looking at the behaviors of Gen Z and the evolving role of the camera.

Exponential is all about acceleration through intelligent systems. This looks at the role of data for AI as well as the rise of virtual assistants and the ability to predict consumer needs ultimately becoming a proxy for the individual that will split decision journeys between consumers and algorithms.

Enhanced is all about the bridging of physical and digital reality and how immersive computing, augmented reality, computer vision and the intelligent camera will forever redefine our version of reality.

The talk ends with an explanation of how we will evolve from a mobile-centric world to the new normal of voice, vision and touch experiences powered by artificial intelligence. This includes a date when project it will all converge as well as 4 new P’s of marketing.

It was an awesome crowd of CMO’s and I really enjoyed the hour long session + Q&A.

If you are interested in having Tom speak at your event please contact here.

Tom Edwards Speaker Bio

Follow Tom @BlackFin360

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Frito-Lay Boundless Marketing Summit Keynote

I recently had the privilege to deliver the Evolution of Experience keynote at the 2018 Frito-Lay Boundless Marketing Summit in Nashville, Tennessee.

For this event, I tailored the Evolution of Experience, E^3 talk tied to  Empower, Exponential and Enhanced to focus on the camera as a platform, artificial intelligence, multi-modal and the New 4 P’s of AI marketing.

Frito-Lay Summit
Frito-Lay Summit
Frito-Lay Summit

Empower is looking at how accessibility to mobile technology has led to consumers being empowered to create, amplify and influence across generations. Specifically looking at the behaviors of Gen Z and the evolving role of the camera.

Exponential is all about acceleration through intelligent systems. This looks at the role of data for AI as well as the rise of virtual assistants and the ability to predict consumer needs ultimately becoming a proxy for the individual that will split decision journeys between consumers and algorithms.

Enhanced is all about the bridging of physical and digital reality and how immersive computing, augmented reality, computer vision and the intelligent camera will forever redefine our version of reality.

The talk ends with an explanation of how we will evolve from a mobile-centric world to the new normal of voice, vision and touch experiences powered by artificial intelligence. This includes a date when project it will all converge as well as 4 new P’s of marketing.

It was an awesome crowd and I really enjoyed the 30 minute session + Q&A.

If you are interested in having Tom speak at your event please contact here.

Tom Edwards Speaker Bio

Follow Tom @BlackFin360

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Financial Brand Forum Tom Edwards Keynote

I recently had the privilege to deliver the Evolution of Experience keynote at the 2018 Financial Brand Forum.

Financial Forum 2018
Financial Forum 2018

For this event, I tailored the Evolution of Experience, E^3 talk tied to  Empower, Exponential and Enhanced to focus on Data, Artificial Intelligence, Multi-Modal and the New 4 P’s of AI marketing,  and much more.

Financial Brand Forum
Financial Brand Forum
Financial Brand Forum
Financial Brand Forum
Financial Brand Forum

Empower is looking at how accessibility to mobile technology has led to consumers being empowered to create, amplify and influence across generations. Specifically looking at the behaviors of Gen Z and the evolving role of the camera.

Exponential is all about acceleration through intelligent systems. This looks at the role of data for AI as well as the rise of virtual assistants and the ability to predict consumer needs and ultimately become a proxy for the individual that will split decision journeys between consumers and algorithms.

Enhanced is all about the bridging of physical and digital and how immersive computing, AR, VR, computer vision will make the user’s camera intelligent and forever our version of reality.

The talk ends with an explanation of how we will evolve from a mobile-centric world to the new normal of voice, vision and touch experiences powered by AI including a date when it will all converge as well as 4 new P’s of marketing to consider building future state strategy around.

It was a good crowd and I really enjoyed the 45 minute session + Q&A.

If you are interested in having Tom speak at your event please contact here.

Tom Edwards Speaker Bio

Follow Tom @BlackFin360

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MarTech Conference Tom Edwards Keynote

I recently had the privilege to deliver the Evolution of Experience keynote at MarTech West 2018.

For this event, I tailored the Evolution of Experience, E^3 talk tied to  Empower, Exponential and Enhance to focus on Gen Z & Computer Vision, The evolution of the camera from capture to communication and much more.

Tom Edwards MarTech
MarTech
MarTech 2018
MarTech 2018

Empower is looking at how accessibility to mobile technology has led to consumers being empowered to create, amplify and influence across generations.

Exponential is all about acceleration through intelligent systems. This looks at the rise of virtual assistants and the ability to predict consumer needs and ultimately become a proxy for the individual that will split decision journeys between consumers and algorithms.

Enhanced is all about the bridging of physical and digital and how immersive computing, AR, VR, computer vision will make the user’s camera intelligent and forever our version of reality.

The talk ends with an explanation of how we will evolve from a mobile-centric world to the new normal of voice, vision and touch experiences powered by AI including a date when it will all converge.

It was a good crowd and I really enjoyed the 45 minute session + Q&A.

If you are interested in having Tom speak at your event please contact here.

Tom Edwards Speaker Bio

Follow Tom @BlackFin360

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Dr. Pepper Media Masters Keynote

I had the privilege of presenting to the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group marketing organization today via a Keynote format on the topics of data & the evolution of experience during their Media Masters event.

The first half of the hour-long talk explored how Epsilon Agency approaches data and data design. Highlighting our work with structured data, our view on the alignment of actioning of data through mapping attributes to dimensions and then highlighting multiple case studies tied to our unstructured data work and machine learning approach.


Then the presentation shifted into the full Evolution of Experience, E^3 talk tied to  Empower, Exponential and Enhance and discussed how we will evolve from us inputting into technology, to our environment adapting to us.

Dr. Pepper Media Masters

Empower is looking at how accessibility to mobile technology has led to consumers being empowered to create, amplify and influence across generations.

Exponential is all about acceleration through intelligent systems. This looks at the rise of virtual assistants and the ability to predict consumer needs and ultimately become a proxy for the individual that will forever alter the path to purchase.

Enhanced is all about the bridging of physical and digital and how immersive computing, AR, VR, computer vision will make the user’s camera intelligent and forever changing the retail experience.

The talk ends with an explanation of how we will evolve from a mobile-centric world to the new normal of voice, vision and touch experiences powered by AI including a date when it will all converge.

It was a great crowd and I really enjoyed the hour with such a highly engaged and interactive group.

If you are interested in having Tom speak at your event please contact here.

Tom Edwards Speaker Bio

Follow Tom @BlackFin360

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Viva Fresh Expo Tom Edwards Keynote

I recently had the opportunity to deliver a version of the Evolution of Experience talk as a keynote during the Viva Fresh Expo in San Antonio, Texas.

The first half of the talk explored the rise of Amazon and it impacts on consumer behavior and retail experiences. Then the presentation shifted into the full Evolution of Experience through the E^3 Framework of  Empower, Exponential and Enhance and discussed how we will evolve from us inputting into technology, to our environment adapting to us.

VivaFresh Expo

Empower is looking at how accessibility to mobile technology has led to consumers being empowered to create, amplify and influence across generations.

Exponential is all about acceleration through intelligent systems. This looks at the rise of virtual assistants and the ability to predict consumer needs and ultimately become a proxy of the individual that will forever alter the path to purchase.

Enhanced is all about the bridging of physical and digital and how immersive computing, AR, VR, computer vision will make the user’s camera intelligent and forever changing the retail experience.

The talk ends with an explanation of how we will evolve from a mobile-centric world to the new normal of voice, vision and touch experiences powered by AI including a date when it will all converge.

It was a great crowd and I really enjoyed the hour with such a highly engaged and interactive group.

If you are interested in having Tom speak at your event please contact here.

Tom Edwards Speaker Bio

Follow Tom @BlackFin360

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The Innovation Playoffs

Over the past 18 years, the first three months of the year always seem to stand out in terms of analyzing the alignment of emerging technology and consumer behavior that impacts trend analysis for the remainder of the year.

2018 was no different. I often joke that the “playoffs” for emerging technology happens between January and March each year. We immediately kick off the new year with CES, the consumer electronics show. CES is all about the latest technology and covering multiple football fields of tech in addition to all of the sessions and announcements culminating in a trend recap and analysis.

February is all about infrastructure and the underlying technology that will power the next iteration of multi-modal computing (voice, vision & touch) through Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The discussions here highlight key tech tied to the upcoming rise of 5G connectivity and edge computing that will connect our world like never before. Find out what these trends mean for your business.

March then caps the three-month sprint with SXSW. The first fifteen days of March 2018 were especially accelerated from discussing machine learning, blockchain and humanizing artificial intelligence with ZD Net to previewing SXSW with Ad Age and Adweek

Tom Edwards SXSW.jpg

South by Southwest Interactive focused on experiences that build on technology and infrastructure to provide the consumer perspective for how the technology will further adapt to us vs. us inputing into technology. I spoke about our approach to artificial intelligence actioning data during SXSW with John Dubois of Oculus 360. And you can watch our Epsilon Agency SXSW recap video here.

The final leg of the innovation sprint culminated in delivering a TEDx talk on March 17th. Tom Ewdards TEDx Professional photo3TEDx is about sharing “ideas worth spreading”. Since 2009, TEDx talks have garnered over a billion views. I had the opportunity to speak at TEDx Oaklawn in Dallas, Texas on the evolution of experience. I focused on when the mobile device will no longer be the primary way we interface with technology as we shift from desktop and mobile to incorporate voice, vision and touch powered by intelligent systems that will ultimately enhance our reality.

The full TEDx video will be available within the next few weeks.

I look forward to sharing more throughout the year. For more, follow me @BlackFin360

This is a repost from the Epsilon corporate blog

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MarTechSeries Interview

I was recently interviewed by MarTechSeries in advance of my speaking engagement for MarTech West on April 24th in San Jose, California.

The full interview covers topics such as my role with Epsilon, advice for B2B marketers dealing with evolving technology, start-ups I am working with, how to prepare for the impact of AI, apps and tools I use, productivity hacks and much more.

Here are some excerpts from the full interview: 

Follow Tom Edwards @BlackFin360

 

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SXSW 2018 Artificial Intelligence Event

During SXSW 2018 I had the opportunity to discuss “How Artificial Intelligence is Transforming Marketing“.

The session was in partnership with Oculus360 & their CEO, John Dubois. John and I discussed our collaborations with machine learning applied to various categories, including eSports and how to align unstructured & structured data.

SXSW 2018

Here is a recorded webinar that we recorded February 28th, 2018 that we reprised during SXSW.

Follow Tom @BlackFin360

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SXSW 2018 Sony Wow Studio

Over the past few years, one of the most consistent brands across trade shows (CES, MWC, SXSW) has been Sony.

I have been impressed with their strategy to evolve experience interfaces beyond mobile through voice, vision and touch.

At SXSW 2018, Sony’s experience is a showcase of multi-modal interfaces. From interactive projectors, AR & VR experiences, Robotic assistant Xperia Hello!, CES 2018 Star Aibo, and one of the weirdest yet immersive experiences I have been a part of at SXSW.

The Wow Studio is a preview of what’s to come as our environment becomes more of an interface and technology begins to adapt to us vs. us adapting to the technology.

I have experienced the Xperia Hello! At previous shows. The Xperia Hello! Is Sony’s version of a robotic assistant. Think of an echo style form factor with a 4.55 inch screen. The robot assistant responds to voice, gesture and facial expressions and one of the primary use cases I personally tried was tied to Skype and F2F communication.

One of the most unique experiences was the Sonic Surf VR experience. This was a fully immersive experience that did not require a headset. This is a new technology that will allow creators to make sound appear to move on its own. See below for a sample of the experience.

Audio as an extension of Enhanced Reality (AI + AR/VR/MR) is one of the key themes I have observed so far.

One of the final experiences was upon exit of the Wow Studio. This section featured a digital message/graffiti wall. The unique aspect is that the experience was driven by an interactive projector light based interface to create the experience.

Here is the evolving digital artwork.

Sony continues to provide a preview for how consumer centric experiences will continue to evolve. From AI & Robotics to gesture and touch based interfaces to the rise of enhanced audio in support of spatial experiences tying physical and digital together. Sony delivered on the promise of the “Wow Studio”.

On to the next experience…. Westworld

Follow Tom Edwards @BlackFin360

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In The News: AdAge SXSW 2018 Preview

I was recently asked by Advertising Age to provide my thoughts on a number of topics related to SXSW of years past and what to expect in 2018.

Here is the commentary that was included in the digital and print version:

Here is the full commentary I provided to AdAge:

AdAge – How many times have you attended SXSW?

I have attended SXSW a dozen times over the past 18 years. I am definitely a SXSW veteran. I used to attend SXSW to look for the “next big thing”. From Twitter, Foursquare, Highlight, and Meerkat, SXSW used to be the launching pad for consumer-centric platforms that held the promise for new ways to connect with consumers.

Now in 2018, it’s less about apps and more about intelligent systems and the ever-evolving ways we interface with technology. That and of course SXSW is one of a handful of events where most of the industry converges on a single location.

AdAge – What do you think will be different this year versus last?

SXSW used to be about the spectacle of brand installations from a 56 foot tall Doritos Vending Machine and a 20-foot tall TIE-fighter, celebrating the launch of The Force Awakens Blu-Ray, now it’s shifted to more about the “off-cesar chavez” events held by partners that are just as entertaining and enlighting if not more-so than some of the official programming and experiences.

AdAge – What will people be talking about, or are there any trends you expect to take over?

I am very interested to see the progression of AI-based topics heading into 2018. In 2017, there was a lot of discussion around intelligence augmentation, leveraging machine learning and exploring emotive robotics.

This year, I am looking for interesting use cases of Computer vision, signals leading to the proxy web (virtual assistants as agents to consumers) as well as new ways to develop tangible user interfaces, new methods, and platforms to action against large datasets.Finally, I am looking for new and compelling marketing use cases for blockchain (similar to Kodak at CES and Unilever/IBM’s new blockchain media product).

AdAge – Are there any events you’re excited to see?

SXSW AI, IOT, BOTS AND BREW on March 11th, 2018.

AdAge – Do you think there is SXSW fatigue this year? Why or why not?

My reason for attending and my view of SXSW has changed over the years. Before I would seek out the brand installations and attend partner events (Facebook, Twitter, etc…) for behind the scenes access to how platforms and marketing solutions are evolving.

Now I primarily attend to gauge how the trends I track over the course of the year manifest themselves in a more consumer-focused way. CES is all about the technology and SXSW is more about the application of technology with a focus on consumer experiences and that is where there is still value for me as a marketer.

It’s not as overt as in years past but you can begin to see broader shifts in technology and emerging technology that is going to impact marketing and advertising. It’s less about the next big app and more about connecting the dots between new ways to connect with services and consumers through intelligent systems.

AdAge – How will you be dressed?

The SXSW uniform – Skinny jeans, trendy shoes & frames, some sort of sweater jacket and a light “man bag” for minimal swag.

AdAge – Any survival tips?

Can’t understate it enough, pack light for mobility, drink plenty of water, carry battery backups and a very portable umbrella as it’s rained on and off the past few years.

Follow Tom Edwards @BlackFin360

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