The public perception of computing will become more conversational and personal. This change is happening right before our eyes, and soon, it’ll bring with it a new era of digital commerce in a highly competitive market. Let’s start to explore this topic so your brand can be ready.

Where We Are Now

Currently, the public sees AI as smart voices that can generate text, but soon, they’ll see it as the interaction layer between them and their computer - the AI will be driving the mouse and keyboard in apps. AI will be working at the user's direction, using the computer to create art and automatically doing work in minutes, which would have taken days. This is all incredible and technically impressive, but it boils down to computers leveraging human tools on behalf of humans, and that mindset will only take us so far.

Eventually, we’ll move past this level of basic automation and we’ll enter a space where computing interactions will be reframed entirely from the ground up. Computing will work in terms of generative user experiences that understand the whole context of what a person is actively trying to accomplish and why and provide the lowest friction path to that outcome that crosses between brands, services, and technical domains in service to a new kind of complex customer experience. The computer will stop being a tool and will become a personal assistant that can navigate the world on our behalf.

Let’s say you need to get ready for a business trip. If you're me, this means getting new clothes, a haircut, and an array of online and physical purchases. Today, I may go about this fairly organically by changing my routine a few days before my flight. Instead of getting coffee the weekend before, I’ll run to the barber shop, then the mall, and maybe I’ll go home and use a web browser to buy anything else I need. I’ll also need to check in for my flight the day before, pre-book the Uber, set up the hotel, etc. From this modern-day scenario, think of how much screen time this is and the stress and worry involved in hunching over a phone and toiling over details.

Today, I have some AI niceties from Google and Apple that have helped me in this monstrous experience. Google, for example, will see if I get an email from a hotel or an airline, and they’ll show some cards about my flight. They will generally understand and act as though I’m taking a trip. That's the current state, and it seems to work best in the Google ecosystem, where it’s a way for Google to proxy search results and raise offerings to the surface. Google’s not booking your entertainment for you yet, but it does inject itself in a way that you might use to explore entertainment options.

Moving Forward With AI

In the future, you’ll see AI agents trying to own more and more of the shopping experience. Eventually, your device will catch wind that you’re trying to go on a trip, and you’ll find that you no longer have a long list of things to sort out. With the technology heating your back pocket, it will begin to handle all the arrangements for you. Flight options will get pulled and compared to your schedule. You may even get random questions about preferences along the way.

With an enterprise organization like ours, imagine a world in a few years where my phone is registered to a Blue Acorn iCi or Infosys Employee Graph that sees that one of my colleagues booked at a specific hotel - it could get this signal from a Calendar invite, or are maybe the graph publishes details from reimbursements just for this purpose. My phone considers this option, weighing it with what it can infer from my previous travel and what it knows about my preferences.

You can review the itinerary your phone put together, look at the flight and hotel options on your handheld device, review the final prices, and see what other recommendations are on sale. The AI might be able to tell you that you’re within budget, and if any changes are needed, your phone will happily make the adjustments. Once satisfied, the system will perform all the purchases on your behalf.

Behind the scenes, you’re not just using some travel app like Expedia. Your phone will have the capability to be aware of the ecosystem of travel services in the world and navigate that landscape on your behalf. Each service will have its own travel accommodations with pricing, and the device will work out the best path forward. I even believe that the device will get these services to compete for your business; i.e., my phone tells Expedia that it has a better price somewhere else, so Expedia offers a discount - all transparent to me and happening behind the scenes.

In truth, big tech is positioning generative AI to handle all commerce and transactions end-to-end. In one stroke, it’ll negotiate hotels, travel, entertainment, food, and more. The “and more” in that sentence is important and probably the key point in all of this: Platforms see this as a marketplace they can build where players compete for consumers’ attention and money… those who make the best AI agents and services will dominate. There is every indication that it will become the next digital gold rush, almost like app stores all along the way.

Examples of Future Commerce Experiences

The experience of the future is a generated user interface that’s tailored to the context that the user is currently in. Say for example I’m washing dishes, then I’m only talking to a voice, but if I’m in front of a display then I’m seeing a representation of what I’m doing. The capabilities will be built in real time around the user’s needs and personal context. There is no “app” for the hotel or flight, just a blended commerce experience that blurs the line between brands. The future of digital experiences will be tailored specifically towards you and your constantly changing needs.

What about this haircut? I’m too lazy to schedule anything, so I’m always grasping for straws at the last minute to find someone who can cut my hair. Luckily, I always have the latest iPhone, so my device would learn my habits, predict I need a haircut before my flight, and could even go so far as to place a phone call to the barber and schedule the appointment with them directly. It can even use um’s and verbal imperfections to navigate a human conversation without throwing the person off on the other end. Your phone will ask clearly and lifelike if they have any openings and deal with them on your behalf, just like a real personal assistant.

This brings us to the future space brands will fight to control: how does AI decide which barber is best for me? What raw data will it use to make that determination, what choices will it decide to show to me, and what thoughts or concerns will I have at the moment that may sway the decision to one brand’s favor? Just like with the .com boom, having the right offering available at the right time, just when people are beginning to explore and use these emerging technologies can create juggernauts. How do you position your brand in a landscape that has yet to be defined?

Through my examples, I keep emphasizing that the phone is the one doing all of this. I mean that directly - all this will eventually be running directly on the device without leveraging some cloud AI service. It’ll reach out to web services on my behalf and generate an experience shaped around my needs and personal context. The AI device will become the overseer of all things personal finance and scheduling, the second brain for all of your interests and personal information.

What Does This Technology Shift Mean for You?

In the long term, computing will go through its next major transformation. This is like when the Apple II to the Macintosh, or the jump from Flip Phones to Smartphones, or when the internet went mainstream. Each one of these was a cultural touchstone with a bigger impact than the last. This technology shift will be no different, and with any luck, it’ll be the biggest cultural shift yet.

As with all industry shifts, consumers will be asked to effectively throw out their current understanding of how it all works and start all over from a fresher, more relatable base. Nobody knows what form this will ultimately take, but our task is to give consumers a taste of this future, build the API surfaces, and enable technologies that will keep brands engaged in this new world.

Interested in AI capabilities and want to learn more about how your brand can lead in the emerging landscape? Contact Blue Acorn iCi to learn more.