Accenture releases Fjord Trends 2017 report; looks at digital developments to watch next year

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fjord-trends-2017-1-638.jpgIf this year has taught us anything, it’s that digital technologies and hyper-connectivity are bringing user-led innovation to market faster than ever.

Successful organisations today are those that best adapt and respond to unceasing change. Against this backdrop, Accenture has released Fjord Trends 2017, its tenth and most provocative annual report examining the most significant emergent digital trends expected to disrupt organisations and society in the year ahead.

Three meta themes emerged, challenging long-held norms and assumptions. The rise of the autonomous vehicle, smart homes and digital assistants is creating new ecosystems that threaten the smartphone’s dominance as the main command centre of our lives. Storytelling takes new shape through the popularity of live stories and raw, personal content as a refashioned form of broadcast. And the rise of social experience will soon be a consideration for any organisation wanting to cut through in a post-truth world.

 

Says Bronwyn van der Merwe, group director at Fjord in Australia and New Zealand: “Last year, there was a lot of buzz in the market about ‘design thinking’. This year, our tenth annual Trends report tracks the movement beyond that phase, as our clients learn to adapt to a new kind of supercharged and immersive environment. As interfaces are becoming faster, smaller and automated, the 2017 Trends aim to foster human potential for the creation of helpful, meaningful services across an expanded array of digitised environments.”

 

Trends 2017 examines eight digital trends expected to shape the next generation of experiences:

1)    Shiny API People: Re-wiring for innovation. Organisations will need to completely re-wire to inspire creative thinking and become more people-centric. They’ll do this by upscaling the principles and practices of innovation to effect organisation-wide transformation.

2)    Hourglass Brands: Don’t get stuck in the middle. With a polarised brand landscape, brands sitting in the squeezed middle will need to change their strategies and either lean towards a clear purpose or advocate a ‘we can do anything’ voice.

3)    Blurred Reality: Beyond AR vs VR vs MR. As Mixed Reality moves towards the mainstream, organisations will turn away from single, siloed enhanced reality experiences to focus instead on harnessing and combining all types of reality – both enhanced and real.

4)    World on Wheels: Go slow to go fast. With autonomous vehicles so close to becoming part of everyday life, organisations will focus attention on the car as a connected mobile environment in which things happen via multiple devices. Leaders will explore ways to integrate experiences between car and home.

5)    Homes Without Boundaries: Domestic help finds its voice. Organisations will need to look beyond device-centric strategies to focus instead on designing and serving home experiences that better meet individual householders’ varying wants and needs.

6)    Ephemeral Stories: What’s next now that everyone’s a ‘storyteller?’ Brand content is shifting from storytelling to ‘storydoing’ – creating stories by what brands do, rather than what they tell. Brand owners will step back and make room for audiences to shape their own stories through highly personal – often, ephemeral — content.

7)    Me, Myself and A.I.: Humanising chatbots. While A.I. has evolved exponentially, in 2017 we will see a shift in organisations’ approaches to developing products and services as emotional intelligence (EQ) becomes a critical A.I. differentiator.

8)    Unintended Consequences: Customer-centric cannibals. Organisations will focus more closely not just on their customer and employee experiences, but on their social experiences to guard against unintended consequences of their activities.

 

says Michael Buckley, head of Accenture Interactive in Australia and New Zealand: “The concept of ‘sink or swim’ has never held truer for organisations, as the digitisation of everything shows no sign of slowing down. The changing landscape should be viewed as one of opportunity, but to keep pace, a complete rewiring is required. With this innovation-oriented mindset, organisations can continue to harness digital and become more people-centric.”

 

Trends 2017 draws upon the collective thinking of Fjord’s 800+ designers and developers around the world based on first-hand observations, third-party research and client work. For the full report, visit www.trends.fjordnet.com or share your comments with Fjord on Slideshare.

 

This year marks a special tenth anniversary of Fjord Trends. For a look back at the last decade of innovation, as well as our hits and misses, check out this video.