Machines as fashion consultants?
You try on a new designer suit, and look in the mirror. How does it fit? "It's a beautiful suit, elegant, with a classic cut," says a warm female voice. But her tone changes: "It just doesn't suit you. Follow my colleague with the red antennae for advice on outfits for the overweight."
Machines as fashion consultants-possible, perhaps, but are they desirable? Even the experts aren't sure what customers will want in the future. Will robots, machines or computer voices replace human helpers? One third say probably, another third say maybe and the rest say no way.
So it's a matter of taste whether you'll get merciless fashion advice from a machine, or from sales staff. Either way, you'll still have consider whether you really want that extra piece of cake.
Thesis 61: In Future customers insist on a human point of contact and reject being addressed by computer voices, robots, or machines.
The voting result reflects the uncertainty about customers' mind-sets, i.e. whether or not they will insist on a human point of contact. Hence, professionals are divided about the mentality of customers.
However, more than two-thirds believe that it is possible or likely that marketing via IP and automation will reach its limits as consumers will not accept the replacement of humans by robots or automated processes.
This result has far-reaching consequences for corporations' sales and marketing efforts and the future of the industry network. It further illustrates that customers may not be ready to accept new technological developments when these may be perceived as impairing convenience.
In other words, logistics industries can only realize efficiency gains up to a certain limit: namely, they are restricted by the convenience demands of their customers. Further interdependencies with Thesis 13.
