Goafest 2018: ‘AI will assist, not replace”

Kaleidoko’s transformation strategist, Dean Donaldson and digital futurologist, Jonathan Tavss kicked off day two of Goafest 2018 with a talk on ‘media opportunities in 2030’. 

 

Before looking ahead to those opportunities, Tavss wanted the audience to take a step back.

“Let’s go back 13-14 years ago. Who thought back then that Facebook would be the largest media company?

 

“We are always connected now. We are looking at what’s going on in India and we are fascinated. You guys are growing two (or maybe even four) times in digital with just 60 per cent penetration.”

 

What’s next?

 

The duo then spoke about the next phase in media. 

 

Tavss said, “We want to focus on people. Who knows what technology comes around to help us connect to people.”

 

Donaldson emphasised on the importance of moving away from retargeting by stating that it’s more important to be predictive rather than reactive. 

 

Next up on their agenda were self-drive cars and the duo stated that with all the screens available in a self-drive car, Google and Apple will look to capture the attention of those in the car.

 

Donaldson then spoke about how the way things will be seen in the future will change. He said, “5G is coming soon. As it works, we’ll get speeds of 1 TBPS (Terabyte Per Second). So the way we see things will change and get narrower. We’ll have 500 billion connected devices by 2050.”

 

Tavss added, “But over connection leads to saturation. Having so many choices doesn’t really help as everything becomes a blur. This is where targeting needs to be good. When one has to pick between two choices, one takes lesser time to make the choice versus when one has to pick between three choices. P&G shrunk its product range and that increased their sales. Similar things should be done on digital. The next generation won’t know how to use cash. A two-year old can use a touch screen, but can’t hold a crayon.”

 

Can robots take over the world?

 

Donaldson posed a question to the audience about whether they believe robots will take over the world. As he didn’t get a positive response, he set upon explaining why he believed they could.

 

“If you put a robot in a factory, you take 195 days to get your money back. It takes six months for a new employee to train and learn at a workplace. And then six months later, the employee will look to move on. A robot doesn’t take leaves, as it doesn’t fall ill or go on maternity/paternity leave etc.

“By 2030, 33 per cent of the world will own robots. Robots will be the second most expensive purchases people will make. We’ve already seen the emergence of new media, digital and AI agencies. The number of people working in these agencies will reduce by 50 per cent by 2030 as those many media jobs will go away,” said Donaldson.

 

Tavss contradicted his colleague. He said, “People believed the same with farming. They thought that as farming jobs go, people will be left unemployed. 56 per cent of farming jobs reduced, but the global unemployment rate is less than five per cent. AI will assist, not replace.”

 

Donaldson then spoke about ‘fake news’ and how videos are trusted more globally. The duo showed two ‘fake’ videos featuring Donald Trump and Barack Obama. While there are apps and softwares that help creating fake news, Tavss informed that there are companies like Factmata that help combating these videos.

 

Donaldson claimed that 50 per cent of all internet traffic will come from appliances.

 

He surmised, “We were talking about video in the past. It’s now going to be appliances. It will have full life integration. Robots will take over because we’re too lazy.”