As economic and social trends shift, and as technologies and customer expectations evolve, businesses stand a higher risk of falling behind. Gone are the days when delivering digital experiences was only possible if you were a “tech” enterprise. Today, all businesses have to be tech businesses, which means that all businesses must embrace digital tools and technologies as a way to offer better experiences to their customers and to streamline their day-to-day operations.
According to Daniel Sun, a VP analyst at Gartner, these are the biggest trends that businesses should be watching out for in 2020:
#1 Multi-experience
Think multiple devices, multiple apps and multiple ways for brands to interact with their customers. In 2020, your customers’ digital journey must take place across various touch points. It shouldn’t matter what devices or new modes of interaction a customer is using, the experience has to be consistent across all channels and at all times.
#2 Zero-touch user interfaces
On-machine controls and traditional interface models are being abandoned in favour of apps that run on a customers’ mobile device, this includes voice, gestures, facial recognition and other biometrics. This digital trend sees brands embracing larger screens, higher resolutions and rich device APIs in order to deliver an experience that exceeds what can be achieved with on-machine interfaces.
#3 Agent interfaces
In 2020, new agent interfaces will be designed to enable and support human-computer interaction. For example, conversational UIs (or chatbots) reduce the number of steps required to provide a single command. Using artificial intelligence (AI), it is possible to predict what a user intends to do based on data from previous interactions. All of this will help your customer care representatives to provide better assistance to you customers.
#4 Facial recognition payment
Accompanying the rise of facial recognition payments we will experience an increase the use of QR code payments and a decrease in the use of cards and cash. But providers need to earn customer trust before this becomes mainstream. In China, for example, where their mobile payment systems are some of the most advanced in the world, customers have already linked a photograph of themselves to their bank accounts and are using this technology to pose and pay at facial recognition enabled till points.
#5 Inclusive design
Ultimately, technology should be created to serve the requirements of broader society, with special consideration needing to be paid for groups who are often ignored. In 2020, inclusive design will be a big tech trend as designers are pushed to consider all potential users of the products and services they create. To understand different demographics, it is critical that the data used to frame their design efforts is not too narrow or non inclusive.
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