As we near the end of 2017, the surge in all-things-digital is showing no signs of stopping.
The inevitable boost in technology and digital marketing within the GCC has seen innovation, creativity and inspiration adapt to global advancements including Apple Pay and regional materialization of digital super-hubs like NEOM in Saudi Arabia.
Needless to say, digital disruption is screaming from the rooftops saying it’s here to stay.
Acclimating to significant changes in the digiworld, businesses in the region are steadily, but surely, embracing the idea of digital transformations and are welcoming on board an understanding of what a digital transformation truly entails.
Crediting digiculture, businesses must keep up with the rapidly changing times in order to meet the current demand, especially from millennials. Thus, leading to a wave of digitally charged products and services.
Artificial Intelligence has come to life within the community in the form of ‘Pepper’, the fun AI robot ready to serve customers at Emirates NBD banks. The introduction of enterprise apps in largescale companies are becoming popular. Installation of Smart Gates at airports reduce ques and are substantial for controlled flow of traffic within airports.
Understanding what tech advancements made their mark this year, Alexander Rauser, CEO and Founder of digital solutions agency Prototype Interactive, picks the top three trends that businesses can anticipate in 2018:
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Equipped with the ability to improve, intuitive and easily accessible, the future of AI looks bright.
From chatbots to robots that can sense emotion in tone of voice and through facial-expression recognition, developments in AI will soon begin to define how we function in unison with technology, how we derive data and apply it to our daily processes. It will completely revolutionize the way big entities interact with data on a large scale.
With our devices gaining the ability to simply ask us what we want to do, AI is also expected to lead to the extinction of keyboards.
Social Media Ad Spend Soars
With over a billion social media users around the world, Facebook and Instagram ads will see businesses push traditional marketing tactics aside as they immerse themselves in analytics of cost-per-clicks.
Ability to correctly identify and narrow down target audience, instant communication, reach and engagement, will all drive ad investment towards promoted posts and boosts.
Video
While text ads will still create an impact, trends from the past years show users leaning more and more towards video content.
Visual stimulation from videos is incomparable to that of text and is more likely to leave a lasting impression in one’s mind. Video also enables us to deliver a message more effectively than text as too much text is not always good text and shorter text may not be easily comprehensible.
The above trends are and will be subject to change with the ever-developing landscape of the digiworld. But, one thing is for certain – the tech world and its advancements will never cease to amaze.
Written by Alexander Rauser, CEO and Founder of Prototype Interactive