1. Conversing with objects will become commonplace

Smart objects are already entering our lives in the shape of wearables for the health and fitness sector. Taking out your phone to check messages and emails, while in the company of others, is likely to become less common as companies like Samsung and Pebble popularise smart watches. New social conventions, and consequent etiquette, will form around these connected objects. There’s already animated debate about when it might not be acceptable to wear Google Glass. As our homes, cars, work, pets, children all start to connect and we adopt new forms of interaction, there are huge social pitfalls for the unwary. Think through the contextual reality of conversations with objects, whether by voice, gesture, tap or vibration. How will other humans around your target audience respond to the interaction?

2. Products will become services

Customer touchpoint opportunities are proliferating faster than brands can adapt. Brands need to consider their wider engagement with their audiences and serve a larger purpose to them. Pushing products will not be enough. A good example of this is Nespresso, a commodity sold through retailers reinvented as a lifestyle accessory sold directly to consumers. Fiat also achieved this with eco:Drive, by creating a digital platform to help drivers become more environmentally friendly. It is crucial that brands embrace and consider non-traditional coupling, hyper-smart consumption, and the new lifespan of a product that is extended through digital information and intelligence.

3. Home will become where our mobile is

With the increased use of sensors and related technology the architectural version of the quantified self is being created in our home: leveraging the ability to track and monitor our usage with appliances and infrastructure for a better home lifestyle. As start-ups and bigger tech businesses move into this sector, consumers will be able to buy services to connect up the home in order to manage security, energy use and basic household tasks. Accessible by mobile, our homes will become increasingly distributed, travelling wherever we go. Google’s recent $3.2 billion acquisition of technology company, Nest Labs, makers of Nest Protect, is a good example of this trend in action. We’ll also see other players looking beyond individual devices to conquer the entire ecosystem ruling the distributed home, by both connecting and selling devices at the same time. 

4. Telecoms and insurance companies will become interesting and useful!

Connected technology will begin to transform the telecoms and insurance industries this year as they start to use big data in ways that benefit consumers. Insurance companies will link up with health and wellness services offering lower premiums to consumers who accept health advice.  Telcos will exploit their infrastructure, data services and scale to start selling consumers a “connected-living lifestyle” in a digital world including value added services like home security monitoring personnel for the connected home and car insurance monitoring for the connected car.

5. Humans will rival screens as the interface with technology

This year will see point and click devices and screens, the physical interfaces with technology, start to make way for Natural User Interfaces (NUIs)— skin, eyes, and brains which consumers will use to get things done more intuitively.  Why use a mouse or swipe a card to pay/enter a room when you can use your fingerprint or retina? Gesture-based technology is already becoming a reality, for example,

Primesense – the company behind the Microsoft Kinect sensor - has powered over 20 million devices and has now been bought by Apple to develop a gesture-operable AppleTV. As NUIs and body gesture become commonplace, we will start to see a whole new digital language made up of movements and gestures emerge.

By Mark Curtis, Chief Client Officer, at Fjord part of Accenture Interactive.

Read the complete Fjord Trends report 2014 here or follow the conversation at #FjordTrends.