Future Thinking: What is Human Acceleration? - Wndyr

Customer experience is changing. No longer do brands dictate to consumers from the top down.

While agencies still talk about above and below the line advertising, I’m questioning if there is a line at all. For me, right now, there’s only an experience. And if that experience isn’t satisfactory, your brand won’t last.

While catering to a changing marketplace requires technical skills, of course, coding and understanding the intricate functioning of computers is only part of the solution, especially when the potential of AI is brought into the picture. In an automated future, where do humans fit into the workplace? Or rather, where do they thrive?

At WNDYR, we believe in Human Acceleration. Not the kind of physical propulsion you’d associate with Usain Bolt, or the kind that Google will bring up when you search the term, but the kind that propels human beings into the future without fear.

We have the opportunity to thrive in an automated future, but it will require two core sets of skills: creativity and critical thinking.

In putting together a business idea to help humans thrive, WNDYR worked with digital sociologist Lisa Talia Moretti to investigate how important these skills are in a changing marketplace.

She’s written a white paper for us that supports our view that there needs to be a mindset shift when it comes to preparing for the future. It’s called Abundant Journeys And Fractured Futures: A Framework for Reimagining the Future of Customer Experience.

To break it down, there are four key sociological issues that come up in the interaction between brand, customers and technology: Trust, The Expectation Gap, Personalisation versus Randomness and The Understanding of Output.

These four issues are essential to consider when talking about Human Acceleration because:

1. Trust is essential: Moretti has identified twenty “trust markers”, or signs of trust that people use to identify whether information is trustworthy online. Bias and a person’s own “trust identity” also come into play here, in other words, the way they individually engage with trust in their daily lives.
2. The expectation gap is a problem: in analysing peoples’ relationships with technology, it’s clear that consumers expect a lot from businesses and not all of them can deliver the helpful, practical, personal and/or progressive experiences they are looking for.
3. People want personalised but they find random: customers expect a seamless, personalised experience but the market is fragmented
4. How people engage with digital technology is crucial: AI and Augmented Reality (AR) are going to change the way we interact in a digital space. What consequences does Virtual Reality (VR) have for the future customer experience?

With these four issues in mind, it’s clear that we need to think differently, and this is where creativity and critical thinking come in: for humans and businesses to thrive in the future (Human Acceleration), we need to change our approach.

Contact us to find out more about how we’re making this happen with our Human Acceleration School, the Human Quotient (HQ).