An update of the 2019 research Experience 2030: The Future of Customer Experience titled “Experience 2030 Pulse Report: The Acceleration of Digital Engagement, Personalization and Trust” revealed the pandemic had caused a significant change consumer behaviour and opinions. It also caused changes in motivations that drive loyalty and approval of immersive tech.
According to Wilson Raj, global director of Customer Intelligence at SAS, the Experience 2030 global report released in late 2019, highlighted that brands are planning to invest more in CX technologies and AI-fuelled automation over the next ten years. The Pulse report also emphasised that they are still focusing on the effort and stepped up these investments because of the pandemic and coming disruptions.
In June and July last year, Futurum Research collected data from more than 600 consumers globally, executives, marketers, and technology professionals. They found out that consumers demonstrated their acceptance of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) as part of the market process over the next decade in the original report, but this was significantly accelerated in 2020.
Sixty-nine per cent of the surveyed consumers expect AR and VR to be used to sample goods in 2021, while 63 per cent of consumers are willing to visit remote locations using AR and VR, up from 56 per cent in the previous survey.
Acceptance of other technologies such as drones has also increased. Sixty per cent of consumers expect to have delivery by drones or autonomous vehicle by 2022. Meanwhile, before this, 65 per cent of customers intended to use smart assistants by 2025. But, now 70 per cent expect to use them by 2022.
On the other hand, in 2020, when seeking assistance from brands, 36 per cent of consumers expected to use chatbots. However, now the reported study suggested 54 per cent of them want to speak to a person and not a bot.
Responding to consumers’ responds, one-third of the brands surveyed have increased immersive technology investments over the next two years. These technologies are voice-based AI assistants for sales and marketing, holographic for customer support or instruction, voice-based AI assistants embedded in products or services, and AR and VR for customer instruction and support.
Six out of 10 brands say that 28 per cent of brands have been unable to change and adapt and are waiting it out before “normal” returns and cannot offer their daily goods to their consumers.
CX professionals need to have an agile mindset and the right solutions to overcome these challenges and meet tech-savvy customers’ expectations. Plus, in many more areas than immersive tech, they have had to accelerate tech development and deployment as customers seek greater digitisation to ensure security and convenience.
