What to Watch in Tech for 2024
Artificial intelligence was indisputably the most consequential technology of 2023, and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon.
AI drove a step change in how brands operate, communicate and create while raising the stakes for consumer expectations. The public got acquainted with tools like generative AI in their own photo-taking, editing and audio activities on their computers, browsers and smartphones, while the tech sector reimagined its Web 3.0 efforts, immersive experiences and augmented reality.
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All of these moves primed the pump for 2024, which is set to unleash a firehose of initiatives that will fundamentally plunge AI even deeper into organizations. Companies are expected to double down on automations and intelligent systems to drive down cost, cover employee gaps, forecast demand ahead of supply chain woes and offer new levels of personalization for customers, among many other things.
Such initiatives have been in the works for several years, but got new life as ever-more powerful tools emerged.
Generative AI Everywhere
Generative AI, or GenAI, made its mark across advertising, customer service, communications, fashion design and other areas, and most of the major platforms — and a growing army of smaller ones — now deal in providing tools, so anyone can make the most of the tech.
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With technical terms like “large language models” entering the mainstream lexicon, brands and retailers are weighing a spate of new investments to hyper-charge their businesses with AI-created product or marketing copy, photo shoots and other images; review summaries; better customer service bots; recommendations, and more. Plenty of tech vendors, including Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services, aim to break the technical barriers to entry, making the benefits of AI and machine learning available to any customer, whether they have data science expertise or not. Meta recently launched Meta AI studio, which allows businesses to create their own AIs.
Of course, in a world ever more rife with deep fakes, learning what and who to trust will be trickier. That means marketing may matter even more, especially to convey nuances that distinguish brands and cement trust and loyalty.
The past year also saw more fashion brands experiment with AI-created fashion design. There was also a new AI Fashion Week, courtesy of partners Maison.Meta and Revolve. The industry may look back at that as a landmark event one day, notably because it marked the arrival of AI-designed fashion as products for sale on Revolve. If sales are strong and traction — at least in shopping interest, if not actual transactions — prove worthwhile, other marketplaces and brands are likely to follow this year.
Computer Vision, Powerful Cameras and Spatial Computing
Computer vision, in which machine systems can see and understand visual imagery, has taken a giant leap forward in the AI era. For consumers, the effect is most obvious in increasingly powerful cameras and features in smartphones like the Pixel 8 Pro and the iPhone 15 Pro. On a retail level, the tech is shaping experiences both online and in stores.
“Just walk out” technology, perhaps most famously instituted in places like Amazon Go stores, makes for easier shopping experiences for consumers, since they can forego checkout lines, while giving brick-and-mortar retailers valuable shopping behavior data. Now advancements in machine learning and compute power are driving the evolution forward, with less emphasis on hardware sensor installations and more reliance on machine learning and camera technology. This means better data can be gotten more easily than ever before. Given its mainly grocery store lineage, the setting may be most applicable to cosmetics environments.
E-commerce has made great use of computer vision, for things like augmented reality try-ons and photo-based searches for information or products. Expect that to accelerate even further, thanks to machine learning-worthy processor chips in smartphones, which are growing more powerful with each new generation. Apple, in particular, has a keen interest in development, with the upcoming release of its Vision Pro mixed-reality headset. Case in point: The latest iPhone camera isn’t merely more powerful overall, but as a companion to the Vision Pro, it is even capable of 3D spatial video capture. The feature draws on an area of technology dubbed “spatial computing,” which essentially allows computers to interact with the physical 3D world, whether to place images or information or to understand the real environment. Augmented reality is one version of this tech.
Immersive Retail
The metaverse isn’t dead, so say its builders in conversations with WWD throughout the past year. But even those developers would love to retire the term. In other words, “metaverse” is over (for now), but its spirit lives on.
Think, instead, of immersive experiences. This continues to animate the retail world and will do so in 2024.
The theme of “immersiveness” applies to a range of experiences, from AR, VR, mixed and extended realities from a headset, techie eyeglasses or even a desktop web browser. In retail, the idea is really to allow shoppers to view a 3D digital version of a product or environment and engage with it, almost as if it were physically in hand.
Snap Inc. gave up on bringing AR to the enterprise last year, but others, like Google, haven’t. The tech giant started by launching apparel try-ons in its main search page last summer using a range of human models and realistic digital clothing, adapted to each person and pose using AI, and it’s continuing development to enhance the virtual fashion shopping experience. This is meaningful, especially in a year when Apple and its Vision Pro put the term “spatial computing” on the public’s radar. The company also made APIs (development tools) available, so app makers can create new spatial computing features.
The momentum is poised to usher in more 3D virtual stores and immersive consumer buying experiences, in general, and perhaps categories of shopping that hinge on visuals in particular — like fashion.
A word of caution, however: According to research from CI&T, 58 percent of consumers favor e-commerce that’s more “to the point” than just “fun to browse” — although, according to Melissa Minkow, CI&T’s director of retail strategy, they still want to be inspired. It sounds contradictory, but the takeaway, she told Retail Touchpoints, is that the scenario will lead to visual search and mobile apps maturing, so that they’re more accurate, sophisticated and sensory-driven.
Rise of Human Interaction as a Premium
According to research from Foresight Factory, 44 percent of consumers in the U.S. took their business elsewhere because of poor customer service. For Millennial consumers, the share jumps to 58 percent in this group alone.
The impact has Noelle Weaver, Foresight Factory’s managing partner of North America, predicting that brands and retailers will pursue “warm human interactions” this year. It may sound like a backlash against the machines, but in fact, its data may be used to create more personalized and empathetic experiences.
That matters in retail, but particularly at the luxury end, which is often defined as much by the experience as the product. According to McKinsey research, the global fashion industry will post top-line growth of 2 to 4 percent this year, and although it predicts that the luxury segment will account for the largest share of economic profit, these companies will be challenged by a tough economic environment. “The segment is forecast to grow globally by 3 to 5 percent, compared with 5 to 7 percent in 2023, as consumers rein in spending after a postpandemic surge,” the firm wrote.
As more of retail is placed in the hands of machines, the human touch may become more of a premium. Even if, ultimately, that service is directed by data.
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