 Today's consumers want hyper contextual experiences. They want interactions to follow them as they move through the world, adjust to new conditions, and transfer seamlessly across devices. In order to execute these experiences, we need to know a lot about a consumer.
Take this experience for example: Martha has a meeting on her calendar today. Her calendar application pops up a notification on her computer at the beginning of the day reminding her of the meeting. Her calendar has a plugin that recognizes her location, monitors traffic, and notifies her when it is time to leave. She gets into her vehicle and an app in the head unit launches with turn-by-turn directions to her meeting location. Based on her buying habits, another app on the head unit recognizes Martha usually needs a caffeine boost this time of day and asks her if she would like to drive through a coffee shop on her route. She declines and continues on her way. As she gets close to her meeting location, an app in her head unit provides a list of parking options. Martha selects one and is navigated to the correct lot. When she puts her vehicle in park, the head unit app recognizes her stall number, prompts Martha to select a time increment, and then completes the transaction. She exits her vehicle and begins receiving audio directions on her smartwatch navigating the last few blocks to her meeting. Sounds really cool. To me, it also sounds a bit creepy. Martha's plans, patterns, location, personal information, payment information, and device details are shared across multiple systems. Even simple experiences - my refrigerator sends me a notification on my smartwatch to buy milk as I'm walking past my usual grocery store - can trigger that cool/creepy conflicting response in my brain. GDPR (General Data Protection Requirements), CCPA (California Consumer Protection Act), and other regulations prescribe bottom line protections and provide consumers a way to opt-out and delete their data after the fact. In most cases however, opting out results in the loss of the experience. Are there ways to use AI and predictive analytics to provide the consumer with a partial experience that still makes sense while limiting their exposure? How do we balance the desire for new and seamless experiences with privacy? Can we create engaging and compelling experiences at the cohort level rather than the individual level? How do we need to adapt as consumers redefine what they consider "private"? This will be an interesting space to watch with a lot of opportunity to get creative around designing contextual experiences.
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