AI has long since arrived in our reality - bringing exponential change through exponential growth. The new era of the digital universe is just beginning, hybrid intelligence will transform our lives. This means we are facing major developments for our society, our humanity and our communication. But the economy and the way we do business will also change. What does this mean for marketing as we know it today?
In the world of tomorrow, artificial intelligence will not only have a massive impact on our lives, but will become a part of everyday life: whether it's shopping fridges and talking vacuums, autonomous driving or digital assistants for diagnoses in medicine, AI brings all kinds of conveniences and thus change. It is set to revolutionize many areas of our lives, from mobility to living and working environments to the way we think, act and communicate in a global world. Artificial intelligence is set to explode, as not only the data available, but also the computing power of supercomputers and ultimately the number of AI researchers will skyrocket.
However, the developments go far beyond smart everyday helpers and intelligent work support. With Metaverse, a digital, three-dimensional world of experience is being created as an extension of the real world, which aims to reshape our daily communication. In the future, people will be able to interact and communicate there digitally via avatars, without being physically present. A digital space for new encounters and adventures that can be experienced with the help of technical gadgets such as gloves, headsets or glasses. This creates an expansive space that offers endless potential for new business fields - and for marketing.
Virtual spaces make it possible to convey digital content in a very real way and to experience it directly. This is where augmented and virtual reality technologies come into play to convey content and realities in a captivating way in real time. It creates new communities, enables new buying experiences and achieves a whole new kind of customer loyalty.
Events, concerts, shopping, trade fairs and showrooms can take place in new dimensions and break the boundaries of previous customer experiences while opening new opportunities for brand identification. Virtual viewing also unlocks completely new possibilities for the design and planning of sales and exhibition areas, without having to plan teams on site, for example.
It will be all about creating sensational 3D experiences that thrill!
Immersive customer experiences are changing the way we interact with consumers and are becoming the key criteria for differentiating ourselves from the competition. This means completely new approaches for advertising: from virtual advertising posters for interactive games to fashion for avatars to digital merchandise via NFTs, there are no real limits to creativity. It will be all about creating sensational 3D experiences that thrill! New technologies such as eye-tracking will also enable the collection of innovative data that will provide more insights into target groups and new data-driven strategies for personalized, creative marketing.
New ways of interaction create new ways for marketing.
A study by the Capgemini Research Institute, one of the world's leading consultancies for technology services and digital transformation, shows what benefits companies and consumers see in immersive experiences. Most companies see them as an important application to differentiate themselves from the market, especially with regard to the customer journey. Almost two-thirds of the consumers surveyed expect them to influence the way they interact with people, brands and services.
It can therefore be stated that the much-vaunted immersive technologies have great potential that companies can take advantage of. Sargon Korkis, Head of Digital Experience Services at Capgemini in Germany, explains: "The potential of the metaverse goes beyond the transformative: it is ushering in a humanistic renaissance in digitalization, using the virtual-spatial proximity of the so-called embodied internet to do so." According to the study, consumers are fascinated by the possibilities of immersive experiences and particularly want to improve their shopping experience for products such as cars, which have a high experiential value. Potential is also offered by the new technologies for improving operational efficiencies such as training of skilled personnel or digital prototyping in the automotive industry.
In addition to the technically fascinating possibilities of AI, we can also expect developments in the future that will intervene so massively in our lives that researchers are thinking about ethical questions in their discipline. According to AI expert Catriona Campbell, for example, social interactions will be completely reformatted. Virtual babies, which grow up in the metaverse parallel to our real lives and can be ordered like a Netflix subscription, will be part of our reality by 2070, according to the Briton. A new form of parenthood that wants to convey the feeling of swaddling or holding a real baby and can reduce overpopulation.
Currently, Chinese scientists have already developed a system that grows human embryos in an artificial womb, which are monitored and controlled by AI during their development. The fusion of living organisms and technology is also demonstrated by xenobots, biological micro-robots made from frog cells. American researchers have designed the first living robots from living organisms with the help of a supercomputer. And recently they announced that they reproduce themselves, i.e. create themselves. "These are completely new living machines," as robotics expert Josh Bongard of the University of Vermont explains: "They are neither a classic robot nor a known species of animal. It's an entirely new species: a living, programmable organism."
It is said that AI is only as good as its data sources. But what data is being fed in, and in whose interests are algorithms evaluating that data? And what if a system takes on a life of its own? Raymond Kurzweil, futurist and head of technical development at Google, predicts singularity for the year 2045 when the computing power of AI surpasses humans. What will be in store for us then? Visions can grow into realities years later; ambitious goals drive these visions. Some of these visions seem very strange and exist only as theoretical concepts, at least at present.
For example, Strong AI which is clearly distinguished from Weak AI because the latter only concentrates on the execution of certain tasks. The Planning Office of the German Armed Forces explains the following about Strong AI: "The so-called Strong AI, which has so far remained visionary, aims to create an intelligence that, like humans, can think creatively and solve problems, that develops self-awareness and that has the ability to express emotions". And IBM informs, "Another AI theory has emerged known as artificial superintelligence. This type of AI still surpasses Strong AI in human intelligence and human capabilities. However, Super AI is still purely speculative as there are no examples of Strong AI yet."
Technological progress enables once unthinkable real-world scenarios and opens a promising space of limitless possibilities. With the help of AI, we will be able to overcome our biological limitations. But if technology overtakes itself, the total networking up to the fusion of man and machine also has darker downsides. How big is the step from intelligence enhancement to digital surveillance and loss of control? Will AI develop a world to which we must adapt unconditionally?
Because AI brings us many conveniences, but also presents us with new challenges ...
Skepticism is side by side with technology euphoria as machines perform human skills and impulses and evolve themselves, and human realities are reshaped by AI. Ideally, the euphoria for technical feasibility should be accompanied by a conscious, constructive approach. Because AI brings us many conveniences, but also presents us with new challenges: To become aware of our values, to formulate them clearly and to actively bring them into this new world of hybrid intelligence. And to prevent irresponsible behavior with a value-oriented design.
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