BlackFin360 – Innovation To Reality
Tom Edwards is a professional futurist and keynote marketing technology speaker covering data, digital, artificial intelligence, marketing technology and emerging media trends
Recently, both Entrepreneur.com and C-Suite Network featured my engaging conversation with Jeffrey Hayzlett. In the interview, we explored the delicate act of balancing present-day marketing strategies while keeping an eye on the future, as well as the potential impact of emerging technologies.
Click the image below for the full interview.
Follow Tom Edwards @BlackFin360
I recently had the opportunity to join Eric Hanes on his Words of Mass Disruption podcast. We discussed artificial intelligence for everyday conversation.
My goal was to help those who may not be familiar with artificial intelligence to develop a perspective on the topic. We talked about AI, Machine Learning, IOT and digital assistants.
Thanks in advance for listening! It was a fun conversation.
Words of Mass Disruption Podcast: EP 119 Tom Edwards on Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
Follow Tom Edwards @BlackFin360
Follow Eric Hanes @WordsDisruption
It’s my favorite time of year. No, I am not talking about Santa & reindeer, I am talking about predictions!
Here is a full analysis of potential trends to consider heading into 2018 via a non-linear or choose your own adventure video format just click the image below.
This video starts with a brief intro, then you will have the option to select a specific section of interest or watch it straight through from beginning to end.
In 2017 I spoke a lot about the evolution of experience through the E^3 Innovation To Reality series. 2018 will bring us closer to a convergence of technology that empowers, intelligent systems that enhance, and the line between physical and digital reality will continue to blur.
EMPOWER – Highlighting everything from camera as a platform, virtual reality gets social, evolution of social messaging, physical experiences that enhance digital, immersive eSports, expansion of contextual commerce and more, this section dives into technology that empowers consumers.
ENHANCE – How AI & intelligent systems are accelerating the evolution of experience. From the democratization of AI, device based machine learning, blockchain put to use, visual discovery, voice + visual conversational experiences, and personalized audio.
ENVIRONMENT – How our world is shifting towards synthetic reality with the convergence of location, computer vision and mixed reality that will reshape how we interact with the physical world. This section includes pervasive robotics, biometric security, augmented art, mixing reality, connected intelligence, and brain controlled interfaces.
EXPERIENCE – This section highlights the convergence of empower, enhance and environment. With topics discussed such as Gen Z = enhance vs. create, system based marketing, mobile disruption, ambient computing, and synthetic reality.
Download the complete 2018 trends presentation.
Follow The Epsilon Agency Innovation Team:
Tom Edwards @BlackFin360
Steve Harries @Steve_Harries22
Ian Beacraft @IanBcraft
Jeremy Olken @JeremyOlken
I have written articles and commented quite a bit about Amazon Alexa and voice based conversational experiences in the media over the past 12 months.
To date there are over 10 million Alexa powered devices in consumer homes and that number is about to increase significantly with Alexa Voice Services integrating in everything from cars such as Ford Sync 3 system to mobile handsets.
Here is an example of Alexa integrated into the Ford Sync 3 system rolling out in various Ford models this fall.
Regarding Alexa skills, skills are to Alexa like apps are to mobile, when I first met with the Amazon Alexa partner team a year ago there were barely 1,000 skills published. As of today there are over 10,000 with that number continuing to increase.
In addition to skills the shift towards voice based experiences has already begun. In 2014, voice search traffic was negligible. Today it exceeds 10% of all search traffic and virtual assistants exceed 50B voice searches per month.
That number is going to continue to accelerate as it’s projected by 2020 to be over 200 billion searches per month will be done with voice. Quickly voice will be a key horizontal channel and central to a converged user experience.
What most don’t realize though is that while most experiences today are zero UI/voice only experiences, the next evolution of voice based systems will be voice + paired visual experiences.
This will ultimately be driven by new hardware that integrates screens, but initially will be driven by responsive web experiences that are powered by Alexa and hands free.
Soon virtual assistants such as the Sony XPERIA Agent shown here at MWC 2017 will have integrated screens to enhance voice + visual.
Voice based skills will be able to showcase information visually by aligning the voice intents with visual queues to create a voice controlled experience that is seamless and enhances the experience.
From highlighting dynamic content to video content, an Alexa skill can easily answer a query and showcase solutions that highlight complex solutions or highly visual elements such as what a recipe should actually look like vs. having to visualize it in ones mind.
Visual queues on the page can also enhance what a user can do with Alexa such as highlighting other related intents such as repeat, help, next steps etc… via a responsive web experience.
This is one of the challenges with pure voice experiences as the user doesn’t always know what their options are to to further engage different aspects of a given skill.
Voice + Visual can also enhance long term engagement which is currently the biggest barrier of Alexa experiences. By considering visual + voice content it is feasible to extend into more entertainment mediums that can be controlled and enhanced via voice.
Voice + Visual also has an impact on the type of data that can be gleaned from progressive profiling and opens up new ways to deploy existing content assets into a system based/virtual assistant driven journey.
I have literally seen the future through a first of it’s kind example of voice (Alexa) + visual (Responsive web) and it is mind blowing. I can’t show it publicly yet but it will reframe your approach to voice based strategy.
Will update this post once the 1st voice + paired visual experience skill is published shortly with visuals.
Follow Tom Edwards @BlackFin360
Here is a video recap shot live from the floor of SXSW Interactive 2017 on day 1 on the opening of the tradeshow floor.
The video outlines emerging technology and trends tied to Connection, Cognition and Immersion and touches on key territories such as:
Follow Tom Edwards @BlackFin360
Here is a video recap shot live from the floor of Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona.
The video outlines emerging technology and trends tied to Connection, Cognition and Immersion and touches on key territories such as:
Follow Tom Edwards @BlackFin360
I recently sat down with Jeffrey Hayzlett of C-suite TV for the first episode of season 7 for Executive Perspectives live.
He recently wrote a piece for Entrepreneur.com outlining 5 business trends that will take off in 2017. Jeffrey referenced our conversation regarding automation of conversational experiences through artificial intelligence.
The infusion of voice-based technology into consumer products, and the ways in which brands are shifting from social media to social messaging strategies were the subject I addressed with Epsilon Chief Digital Officer Tom Edwards, during a recent interview. Edwards told me how “disruption is the new normal” and how chatbots are the next thing chief marketing officers will have to deal with as technologies keep evolving.
For more insight from the discussion here is a link to the full interview.
Follow Tom Edwards @BlackFin360
Technology is now essential to our daily lives. Accessibility and empowerment has transformed how we connect and communicate. This has led to new forms of user interaction that will usher in the business models of the future.
2017 will be comprised of new types of conversational experiences to connect with consumers. It will see the continued evolution of artificial intelligence and connected systems as well as the rapid rise of third-party ecosystems supporting virtual, augmented and mixed reality.
The following trend deck outlines the evolution of marketing in 2017 through the consumer centric filters of connection, cognition and immersion and is now available for download.
How we consume and interact via digital channels is about to be absorbed and redefined. We believe that 2017 will begin the convergence of connection, cognition and immersion toward an ambient computing future built on new data types that will simplify complex tasks and predict need states vs reacting.
Download the 2017 Trend Predictions Today!
Follow Tom Edwards @BlackFin360