By Chuck Martin
The flood of new technology being developed and released into the market is more than consumers can handle. For the first time, more technology is being created than people can absorb and adopt. As a result, many businesses are feverishly plowing ahead unaware of what will work and when. This often leads to failure, sometimes at a massive scale. Even worse, success becomes elusive because the timing is miscalculated.
I’m working on a new book, scheduled to be published later this year, to provide businesses with guidance on how to navigate this phenomenon.
There are seven technologically driven forces hitting the market simultaneously: Sensors, Artificial Intelligence, Voice Assistants, Smart Homes, Virtual and Augmented Reality, Connected Cars, and Drones and Robots. However, there’s a gap between when advancements in any of these forces occur and when the marketplace will be ready to adopt them at the necessary scale.
The reverse is also true. There are many consumers ready for certain technological capabilities that are not being delivered by their brands. These cases are caused by other companies providing positive experiences that then change the expectation of what their other brands will deliver, which have no control over the expectations being created by others.
Our research will be focused on identifying and closing these gaps with insights on when to take it slow and when to step on the gas. It also identifies warning signs of when it’s time to get off the chosen road and pause or totally change course.
The book is being based on research and my interviews, with concrete examples showing how to get the timing just right. While the future is just around the corner, insights in this book aim to clearly identify how to approach and when precisely to turn the corner.
