In collaboration with JOY creative agency, OFX stopped to review where the world is moving and discussed both technological and societal shifts that could shape the future of our industries and our world. Aaron Michie, Technology and Content Partner at JOY, shared his insights about current and future trends in our lives from our homes, cities and workplaces to our relationships and consumer experiences. This in-turn has resulted in concerns about the trust we place in our increasingly technological society, with data protection and security regulation at the forefront of discussion.

Smart living

With an enormous amount of technological capability at our fingertips, how much are we willing to give up to bring the biggest (or smallest) and best innovations?

Big players are investing heavily in this space, in a race to control our homes with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and smart technology that will change the way we engage with everyday tasks. From voice control devices, such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home, to ‘smart’ toilets and beds that track our sleep patterns, to even a Google assistant that can make dinner reservations.

But what risks are we exposing ourselves to with these developments? If we become dependent on technology to complete basic tasks, do we risk becoming too relaxed and leaving ourselves vulnerable to security breaches?

Smart cities

Many innovators are also taking advantage of these technologies for powerful causes. Taking example from Robot Lawyer LISA, this service can provide impartial legal advice to those who may not be able to access it so readily.

Further, the process of digitising what would normally require paperwork, like voting and taxes, examples from India (India Stack) and Estonia (e-Estonia) show how the world is moving to ‘e-societies’ in order to create ‘friction-less’ governance.

Relationships and AI

With the growth of online dating comes the opportunity of meeting your partner outside of your personal network, driving greater diversity in relationships. The way families are created has fundamentally shifted and it has the power to change the entire fabric of our society.

Using AI for powerful causes, like helping people who struggle to build relationships or for therapeutic purposes, is an exciting way we can use this technology to our advantage. Despite this, there are ethical concerns that come from taking this technology too far, and can we ever really replace the human experience?

Future of work

The use of AI to automate repetitive tasks and solve complex problems poses a risk to both manual and specialist roles. ‘Soft-skill’ jobs (those that require leadership, communication and problem solving, for example), will dominate the future career market.

This isn’t new information, but it shows that we are moving towards a workforce that provides fulfilling and human-oriented careers, but that will simultaneously see a loss of the industrial workforce with manual jobs becoming readily replaceable by AI.

New shopping experiences

Are we moving towards a cashless society? With greater investment in implant technology and facial recognition, it becomes a question of how this will impact the in-store experience, and potentially employment opportunities.

With such instant transfers of data so readily available, again, it presents a set of security risks that regulation and legislation may not have caught up with at the rate that these technologies are being developed.

Trust in a digital society

We’ve come to an interesting paradox in the way that we’re increasingly dependent on technology, but we’re also increasingly distrustful of it. So how do we move forward?

Perhaps the focus should be on making the digital experience safe, seamless and transparent, with the consumer expectation that companies will use our data, but also protect it. Over-delivering on the compliance and security measures to evolve the digital experience beyond convenience is crucial to ethical evolution.

With an abundance of exciting technologies now increasingly available, the future will see consumers becoming more aware of the risks that these developments pose and will expect more from the companies to ensure risk mitigation. So the way a company builds ethical and customer-focused practice into their products will ultimately impact how we decide what technologies will be a success in the future.