As AI accelerates, we are asking some bigger questions about the role of technology in augmenting our humanity. How can technology extend our capacities and connections? What role can it play in shaping desirable futures?

This trend manifests in multiple ways from using AI as a partner to liberate our imaginations to bridging the “digital” vs “physical” gap through touch, haptics, and gesture to the maturation of digital avatars to augment our friendships.

In 2024 and beyond, businesses will need to assess the role of the human touch—literally and figuratively, in the development of products and services.

AIMAGINATION

2023 has been the year audiences across the board have curiously embraced Gen-AI. Whether it's prompting ChatGPT to draft copy or igniting Midjourney to ideate town plans there is an inherent awe in the technology, what might it make possible? That curiosity earned ChatGPT a million users in 5 days.Mayk.it is a virtual AI music studio for amateurs combining sound engineering, composing, and mixing in one app with some creators already signed to labels. 

Artist Sir Peter Blake, aged 91, is using AI-powered robots to convert photographic images to portraits in mere minutes. The technique combines traditional Chinese calligraphy techniques with innovation; as Blake says “It’s a kind of magic, isn’t it?”

Alongside pure play creativity, in 2024 we will see use cases that enhance the customer experience in more practical ways by leveraging Gen-AI. Dentsu Creative partnered with Skip the Dishes, a Canadian food delivery brand to develop The Inflation Cookbook, an AI-assisted app that tracks volatile grocery prices and generates recipes in response to real-time pricing data.

Over 150M people have already used myAI, Snapchat’s Gen AI chatbot, for everything from design inspiration to skincare. In Japan AI is being positioned as a kind of “spiritual partner for the elderly” creating an always-available companion that will not show signs of boredom or frustration.

IN TOUCH WITH HUMANITY

Even in a climate of immersive digital technologies, there is an unmatched emotional resonance in physical and sensorial stimulation.
Innovations are coming to market that engage additional senses. Chinese electronics giant TCL's Gesture Ring software is embedded on selected TV sets inviting consumers to use palm and fist gestures to control content. Its Movie Mood Explorer function senses the viewer's mood from their gestures and uses AI to make recommendations.

Also in China, we see the younger generation evolve traditional rituals into digital experiences. A Chinese Wooden Fish, traditionally used as a prayer charm has been translated into an app that has been downloaded over 600,000 times.

Meanwhile, Amazon plans to expand its Amazon One pay-by-palm technology to all Whole Foods stores in the US by  the end of the year. Users connect their palm with a stored credit card and then can pay with a simple wave of their hand.

Dentsu Creative's groundbreaking work for Eurofarma, “Scrolling Therapy” used facial recognition and social content to help Parkinson's patients combat one of the saddest symptoms of the disease—an inability to express emotion through facial expressions. By matching some of the most common interactions on social media—like, scroll and play—with facial expressions, patients could browse their feeds using their faces, and at the same time complete their facial exercises, formerly an unpleasant and time-consuming chore.

BORDERLESS COMMERCE

AR, AI, and commerce continue to blend and embed in our lives in increasingly sophisticated ways to enhance the consumer experience. This is creating exciting new possibilities that blur the boundaries between online and offline commerce, making every moment and interaction a shoppable one.

Dentsu Creative China created the KFC Re:Store virtual store experience for a young generation of Chinese consumers, 50% of whom claim to spend more time hanging out with friends in gaming environments than in the “real world,” with 70% of Gen Z users tending to socialize online.

Alongside custom avatar apparel and “Chicken Coin” currency that they can exchange for virtual goods, users are able to order in the metaverse and have their order delivered to a physical destination.

AR continues to offer an element of enchantment to real-world interactions for both adults and children alike. One such example is The Haribo Happiness Hunt, an AR treasure hunt tasking families to hunt for 3D candy hidden in the scene.

Innovations in AI are also transforming search, creating concierge-like commerce experiences. Multisearch in Google Lens can help users design and track down the perfect item; enabling users to search by images customized to their needs. Shopify is enabling every merchant to create a 3D AR model in under 20 minutes in line with the release of IOS17.

Meanwhile, image recognition is transforming sectors from healthcare to skincare to agriculture. Drones powered by image recognition technology can assess the ripeness of fruit and pick it from the tree when ready.

ALL PLAYERS WELCOME

The All Players Welcome project from Dentsu Lab Tokyo was established to develop tools that will create a world where anyone, including those with physical disabilities, can express themselves. With their first project, the team gave paralyzed DJ, Masatane Muto, the ability to mix music through eye-movement technology, and more recently they made it possible for Masatane to operate an avatar using ‘Electromyography Signals’ in ‘Project Humanity’.

In partnership with ‘Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation’ and ‘WITH ALS’, an organization established to support people living with the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) by Masatane, ‘Project Humanity’ detects electrical signals transmitted from the brain to move muscles with electromyography sensors.

Working with Masatane to develop the prototype, and using NTT's tech, the DJ is now able to express himself ‘physically’ in real-time when he performs to his fans in the Metaverse or on a digital screen using signals controlled from six sensors on his neck, arms, and legs.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR BRANDS & BUSINESSES…

EMBRACE EVERYWHERE COMMERCE

The idea of online vs offline commerce feels obsolete in a world where a shoppable digital layer surrounds so many of our real-world interactions and technologies. Design instead for a world where any encounter can be a shoppable one.

KEEP IN TOUCH

As more and more of our brand experiences are digitally enabled, interfaces such as gesture, touch and image recognition will ensure that those experiences are genuinely brand building, distinctive and delightful.

IMAGINE THE IMPOSSIBLE

Generative AI lets us imagine entirely new sights, sounds and possibilities. The only limit is our collective imagination. Yet a world of unlimited possibilities can be as alarming as it's inspiring. 2023 was the year when governments around the world began in earnest to think about how to balance safety and innovation in AI; expect 2024 to see much soul searching in this space.

Visit our global website to discover more about Dentsu Creative Trends Report 2024: The Futures Less Traveled.

www.dentsucreative.com/news/dentsu-creative-trends-2024

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