The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas is the world’s largest and most important technology gathering. The show envelops the city, filling the convention center’s 3 million square feet and spilling out into the cavernous conference halls of The Venetian, The Sands, and The Aria as well. Be it in casinos, restaurants, sidewalks, or bars (definitely bars), the yellow ribbons affixed to the lanyards of the nearly 200,000 attendees dominate the view—no easy feat in a town so dedicated to visual titillation.
For those familiar with the show, its ubiquity can border on the routine—this was the 50th CES, and for many here (attendees, journalists, pundits, celebrities) it is both a working weekend and a reunion, with executives brokering deals in lounges and restaurants, and others less connected hustling to get on lists of sponsored parties.
The star of the four days is the show, though, and for newcomers, tech fans, and gamers, it’s an eclectic mix of astounding and absurd, imagination and disbelief. For every virtual reality headset that transports you to another world or promises sight for the blind, there’s a pair of shoes that double as a vacuum and a wearable for your dog to improve your canine relationship. Technologists are rushing to market with innovations to help/replace mere humans in all aspects—from cooking and cleaning to basic childcare and education—your personal assistant in the cloud.
Brands both expected (IBM, Samsung) and un- (Under Armour, Carnival Cruise Lines) join advertising agencies, publishers, and cable networks with massive installations and hours of expert panels predicting the future, discussing trends, and evaluating this year’s batch of gadgets. And for good reason—the show portends the coming year in consumer tech, the reach of which continues to infiltrate more and more sectors. And retail in general has reached a historical pivot, with American stalwarts like Macy’s, Sears, and Kmart closing hundreds of stores while e-commerce giants gobble up increasing market share.
Accordingly, engineers from Germany spend upward of $400,000 to erect 60×30 rectangles of netting to demonstrate and sell drones and gear heads from New Zealand hawk digital transmission boxes for audiophiles next to Chinese entrepreneurs selling iPhone cases, WiFi-connected LED light bulbs and the latest innovations in massage chairs and electro-stimulation handheld devices to relieve the tension built up from hours of hunching over laptops.
The show is so large and sprawling that “experts” offer curated tours for $1,000, to share their views on the most important innovations, the coolest gizmos, and the most creative displays. So, free of charge, and with the obvious caveats that all is subjective and no one person can summarize the show (or the industry), here is a glimpse at six trends to watch for 2017 and beyond.
1. Everywhere and nowhere
We (Siegel+Gale) talk a lot about “invisible technology”—creating frictionless experiences where the technology is unseen and you simply get what you need— when and where you need it. It’s like our expectation that WiFi is everywhere. But the application of neural network learning to Artificial Intelligence and voice and gesture commands is sooner rather than later going to change much of your daily existence.
In the early days of machine learning, a database was filled with as much information as possible—imagine feeding an encyclopedia into your computer so that you could have immediate factual recall to answer exam questions. Neural networks rely on speed and volume more than accuracy—instead of “if-then” programming (if wet nose + four legs + wagging tail, then = dog), imagine filling the machine instead with every possible image and incarnation of a dog so that it learns “dogness.” It’s like ask the audience lifeline—if you can get 10 million immediate responses, even if 2 million are wrong, you’ll quickly get to the correct answer.
It’s the same technology that drives Alexa, and the usual suspects are leading the charge to audibly automate your life—from restaurant reservations and heating controls for your hotel room to product reviews and trivia. Just ask out loud and the answers appear. The technology will be both invisible and omnipresent.
2. The Singularity is closer than you imagine
It may not be a true synthesis of (wo)man and machine, but “emotion learning” and “sense-hacking” are gaining popularity quickly as we all compete for jobs, likes, and popularity. Cars of tomorrow will sense your mood and adapt the lighting and music to quell road rage (if in fact you’re driving) , and there are utensils that can alter the flavor of your food. If you’ve tried Bullet Proof Coffee or Nootropics you know that chemists and biologists and futurists and life-hackers and even immunotherapy researchers are looking to exploit and magnify your natural chemistry to its fullest, and technology is no different. Circadia is an app that observes you sleeping and learns your patterns. It’s partnered with a light bar that sits at your desk and beams you with random bursts of different frequency light during the workday to correct for sleep and jet lag. Your makeup mirror can now analyze the weather, your skin tone, and the day’s calendar, and coordinate your outfits and your blush.
3. Big Data is getting bigger but necessarily smarter
As Tim Armstrong of AOL/Verizon/Yahoo! put it in a closed-door session, we are drowning in data yet bereft of knowledge. If you need a good example, look no further than the recent elections in the UK and the US. Pollsters had all the data they could crunch and predicted the fall of Brexit and Trump, both of which emerged triumphant. If that’s the case, how well do brands truly know consumer tastes? Devices like OK Google, your browser, and your phone are continually collecting data—location, tastes, searches—but it will be the brands/companies/organizations that can both intelligently glean knowledge from the data AND use it to simply express the learning that will win.
4. Every company is a tech company
When I told my mom I was going to CES she said “Oh yeah, the computer show.” There was a time when that was true, but today technology is revolutionizing products in surprising and unexpected ways—how and if they advance civilization is up to you. Foldimate is a robotic laundry folder that can spritz your clothes with fresheners, and there are “smart” sets of kitchen appliances (ladle, kettle) to let you know things like temperature. There’s even a set of smart socks to “help prevent amputations,” which if really needed may portend a larger problem for the wearer.
Snark aside, for bankers and branders alike, the application of technology to unexpected services and products will create opportunities, and coming regulatory changes could mean a massive influx of corporate dollars long-parked overseas. The M+A markets may well surge, and organizations buying companies for their engineers and innovation will need help in synthesizing employees, culture, and technology.
5. Automation nation
The connected home and the driverless car were dominant themes this year, with the changes to the home predicted to be implemented sooner than those on the road. One aspect of The Internet of Things is how your oven will talk to your cabinets will talk to your list-making app. It won’t be long before your fridge orders your groceries, which will be delivered by drone, unpacked by your robot, and prepared by your smart cooker. Home security, too, was at the fore—not surprising considering the geo-political trends of 2016. One company offered drones which, when detecting footsteps on your lawn, will hover outside and beam video images of your visitors (or intruders) directly to your phone.
The opportunity to own, brand, and control driverless cars is a little further out on the horizon, but the rewards are bigger, and technology stalwarts like Google, Uber and Apple are battling with traditional Detroit automakers for domination, with big money spent on innovation and acquisition (like Google buying Waze and GM buying Cruise Automation). And while there’s been plenty written about the truck-drivers who will lose their jobs, there’s been less consideration about what sort of new jobs will surface or how cities will be reinvented—what will become of parking garages? And what (expanded) role(s) will brands play if commute time means more time to stare at your phone).
And automation isn’t just going to affect drivers. A recent McKinsey study estimates that while only about 5% of current jobs can be fully automated (think warehouse stockers and legal analysts), a full 49% of work in general is ripe for automation. The shift in the next five years will be profound.
6. Fake news isn’t just for politicians
To fully explain the nuances of programmatic advertising, ad networks, and their implications for brands and consumers would require both more space and intelligence than is available to the author. But to put it very simply, brands pay agencies to plan and place advertisements on the websites of content publishers. The whole system is automated, fast, and fallible. Recent revelations show that fake sites are just as rampant as fake news, and while small groups of Romanian hackers may be able to impact Facebook feeds and drive US citizens to shoot up pizza parlors, they too are able to create fake publishers, costing advertisers upwards of $5 million a day.
But that’s not the only implication for brands and advertisers. When Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi said in conversation that some employees were crying after the US elections, fake news proliferated stories of Nooyi telling Trump supporters to take their business elsewhere, resulting in organized boycotts of the company. In roughly 20 years we’ve gone from brands (or organizations or governments) controlling the conversation, to a dialogue, and finally to a cacophony of voices that value speed and volume over truth or validation. For a brand whose goodwill is long developed and hard-earned, that’s a very real threat.
Zachary Dominitz is VP of business development at Siegel+Gale. Follow him on Twitter: @Zachdom