Time, trust and truth

Analytical Material

What you are about to read:

• Templosion
• The combination of VR, AI, and XR technologies
• Time, trust, and truth: new luxury market
• Influence as a new currency
• How to make your business future-proof

Experiencing the future is like skydiving. The speed might be terrifying, but having a parachute offers some control. This comparison is made by futurist Erica Orange, a guest at Tomorrow. In sharing her experience and what she has learned, she raises a fundamental question: do we need to future-proof what we do. How? Understanding time, trust, and truth as the new luxury market is a good start.

Knowing how to experience the future means being comfortable with the idea that it goes not only in one direction but multiple directions. So, our ability to adapt quickly along the way is crucial. Living through great transformations is in humanity's DNA. The novelty lies in the speed with which change happens. Not for nothing do we feel that time is melting away, that it is getting shorter.

Templosion

We define luxury goods as those for which demand is high, and supply is short. Following this logic, think about your daily life: what is the most luxurious article today? Time! We try to expand, control, manipulate, and make the most of time. But it is not only a new luxury item; it is also a value proposition.

Erica suggests that we need to create our own lexicon to understand the future since traditional vocabulary cannot express new concepts. For the idea of time compression, she came up with the term templosion - the implosion of the period between great innovations and transformations. When we think of the economy, we remain in the agricultural era for tens of thousands of years. Hundreds of years more in the industrial age until the time spent in each new phase gets shorter.

"The defining factor of this new economy we have been thrown into is the absence of limits and boundaries," says Erica. Borders and boundaries are beginning to fade. For example, the real and the virtual, the tangible and the intangible, the analog and the digital, the technological and the biological. This process raises questions such as what is true and what is false. From the perspective of the individual, we can have different personas in the real and digital worlds. According to the futurist, we are multiple consumers and live in multiple realities. Hence the lack of clear boundaries between time and space. For Erica, innovatively driving time will be one of the great competitive advantages.

The cybrid generation

A good example of templosion is seen in generational compression. In a templosion era, where everything is compressing, the traditional time bands of around 15 years are inadequate. Behaviors are changing so fast that we need to change the nature of current segmentation and redefine the nomenclature for generations if we want to know who consumers are. When we think about exponential technological growth, there are microgenerations separated by a difference of two or three years.

Erica calls Generation Z' cybrid,' a blend of the words cyber and hybrid, to refer to those born after 1996. They represent 29% of the global population and 20% of the Brazilian population. It is the first generation to establish a symbiotic relationship with technology. That is when we start developing different brains. This requires creating new approaches to learning, consumption, engagement, and how to get people's attention. Some characteristics of this generation: they are collaborative, participative, and entrepreneurial, financially prudent, highly pragmatic, and not so idealistic.

Automation and AI

This year, 85% of customer interaction will be managed by AI. Some estimates say the AI market is expected to be worth nearly $200 billion by 2025. For Erica, the future is about humans and machines working together. It is about increasing human intelligence because we are going to work collaboratively and symbiotically with intelligent systems. One of the benefits is that this collaboration helps identify customer needs.

"AI helps overcome static digital displays, assists in creating content that gets attention and engages the consumer." Sensors in these spaces collect consumer information to improve brand performance and create personalized advertising that generates greater entertainment and is more effective.

Entertainment will be one of the areas with the greatest growth in the future because it distracts and makes users try new things, says Erica. The out-of-home market is going to be worth $30 billion by 2022. This growth forces a rethink about long-term strategies. According to the futurist, we must capitalize on opportunities rather than commit to outdated strategies.

A mix of new technologies: virtual, augmented, and expanded reality

Erica points to business opportunities in the combination of virtual and augmented reality technologies. She says this market could be worth $1.3 trillion by 2030, up from $37 billion in 2019. The first opportunity is to capitalize on immersive experiences by allowing consumers to try products before buying them. This helps convert advertising spend into effective purchases. Another aspect is that it gives consumers an important sense of presence. Virtual reality does this with a headset, VR glasses, and mobile phones.

The technology also facilitates emotional connections with brands. With real-time information, it provides powerful, personalized, and customized experiences. In the market, there are already examples of this combination, such as Spiked Seltzer. In this example, people can activate an advertising campaign using a QR code that shows an immersive 3D experience with interactive animations.

The next step in immersive, multisensory experiences will be expanded reality. This is the fusion between the real world, virtual reality, and human interactions generated by computational and wearable technologies. The most impactful thing about XR is attracting consumers to the brand's world. It is about creating spatial content or a digital 3D environment in the real world.

Erica shows another field to explore: sensorineural advertising. The new frontiers of neuroscience combined with sensory research are influencing both our perception and our experience of reality and are offering us insights into consumer behavior and cognition.

Other luxuries: trust and truth

Erica says that other luxury goods must be considered to use these resources efficiently in the new economy: trust and truth. It is not hard to imagine why. The technologies mentioned - including biometrics and the Internet of Things - raise important issues, such as data use, privacy, and ethics.

More and more people wonder if their information is secure if out-of-home advertisements are collecting their data. This leads us to believe that consumers will be willing to pay more for trustworthy interfaces for humans. "One of the great challenges of the future will be delivering messages that people can trust."

Brands will be held accountable at a much higher level. Trust, truth, and honesty are becoming increasingly valid in a world where increased political polarization, disinformation, and bad information make it increasingly difficult to distinguish what is true and what is an illusion. In a context where technological tools can manipulate our perception, how can we know if what we are seeing, reading, or listening to is real?

Influence as a bargaining chip

Attention and time are already seen as valuable items. But, according to Erica, what is changing is how we attribute monetary value to people, specifically consumers. Going beyond attention, influencing consumers is being bought and traded, like stocks in the financial market. The futurist has called this the human stock exchange. We are using human creation and personality as currency.

Everything online and in social media is an attempt at negotiation, she explains. This is being monetized and interferes in the way we are willing to spend money. So, each consumer should be understood as an individual company. Brands and organizations are investing time and energy in the actions of these "one-person companies."

What happens today is that these personality securities have become controllable and propagable commodities for people to become financial assets. It is a whole new way of transforming the narrative, as influence used to be top-down. While brands used to spend money to influence purchasing decisions, now it is the other way around. For Erica, the way we invest in human actions will be one of the most lasting and consumer-centric economic trends.

Future proof and the power of imagination

"Considering the combination of time, trust, and truth as new currencies, new luxury items and new investment opportunities are the aspects that make us future proof," says the expert. She recalls that no organization today can afford to keep doing things the same way in a rapidly transforming world.

Since the cybrid generation puts truth and honesty on a pedestal, there must be corporate integrity. This means that companies need to start from a culture of transparency and honesty. This mantra should guide all the relationships it establishes. It should be present in every area, such as hiring, the supply chain, and advertising.

In a scenario with a strong presence of AI and automation, trustworthy relationships between humans are incredibly relevant, as is our ability to discern, our critical ability, and our authenticity coming from a place of empathy. "We need to put the human aspect back into what we do." To conclude, Erica believes the future is not just about innovation. More than ever, what the future demands of us is imagination. It is our ability to invent the reality we want.

Q&A

After the presentation, Erica answered questions from participants.

The highlights follow:

Jorge Ferreira - Estratégica: How can we build brand value and relevance in this new world?

Erica: We need to put the human aspect back into the equation. The more brands can communicate by following this principle coherently and authentically, the better. We live in a high-tech era with technologies acting as intermediaries, and at the same time, we seek more human relationships. This goes beyond the search for trust and takes in who we really are. By looking at this aspect, companies will be more relevant and more connected with the hearts and minds of consumers.

Carolina Giorgi - ALELO: What happens to those born in 1996, but who have the skills of millennials?

Erica: Micro-segmentation is important, so we don't think more in terms of baby boomers, X, Y, or Z, but in some generations with different skills and abilities. I'm optimistic about cybrids because they want a range of different experiences, and I don't see that in Millennials. This means that they will have a set of skills directed at the digital world, but an opposite trend manifests itself in the desire to slow down. They want sensory, tactile, real-world experiences. How do we facilitate this process internally in an organization? It's all about flexibility since the world they're used to involves the diffusion between the boundaries of time and space.

Bruno Divetta - ALELO: What do you think about the imaginative skills cybrids have - since they are more exposed to readymade content, that created just for contemplation? Especially concerning the future with XR and the new neural networks, it seems that they will not use their imagination to connect the dots.

Erica: The first part of the question is about the imperative of creativity and how it connects with cybrids. We must rethink the educational system. We have not yet reflected on how we can educate new minds with access to new technologies. Basically, we're educating with outdated forms. We still educate using evidence, testing, memorization, and linear thinking, which is transferred to the software. We're educating for automated jobs. We need to think about how we will train the next generation of critical thinkers who have a solid commitment to the truth. The growth of misinformation creates a vacuum of trust, and we are developing minds that do not differentiate between types of information. We need questioning minds so that they don't get caught up in the pitfalls of today's educational system and actually can create new things.

The second part of the answer is about expanded reality. These systems need human creativity. Imagination is what guides these systems. If we can create a different environment using this technology, our sensory systems, and our touch to recognize immersive virtual reality, we are using imagination. These technologies create the chance for creativity and contribute to exponential thinking.

Maria Soriano - The Walt Disney Company: Social transformations are common subjects for new generations. How can companies work to introduce technology and activism to the future?

Erica: The topic is relevant globally. I am constantly talking to my clients about diversity, equality, inclusion, and other justice issues. In addition, the theme complements the discussion about trust and truth because it exposes the flags companies and brands wave. Companies need to be the message they preach. Increasingly, the prejudice of programmers and computer engineers is exposed. In the USA, algorithms and digital platforms are programmed mainly by white men, so many of their subconscious biases are imprinted onto those platforms. But at the same time, these issues are raised by these platforms that act as amplifiers and democratizers of the voices we don't usually hear. Technology is just a tool that can be used to bring about social benefits or instrumentalized as weapons.

Thank you for participating with the people at TMRW Eletromidia inspired by KES. For the full content Erica Orange offered, go HERE.