2017 Health Innovation Summit Presentations & Videos

Customer of the Future looks over the horizon to anticipate how customer needs will change, and how our clients’ strategies and business models must respond. Learn more at lippincott.com/customerofthefuture.

The pursuit of freedom may be the most consistently powerful urge of them all, and technology now allows us to untie many binds. Fixed acquisitions that once anchored us will soon flow with us. Wi-Fi, Li-Fi, 5G and changing norms allow us to de-locate tasks and complete anything from anywhere. In a world prioritizing access over ownership, optionality is the new stability.

If history is any guide, in the battle between privacy and sharing, never bet against likes. We crave connection, and we’ll trade a lot to get it. The customer of the future will increasingly be tracked and will track themselves as well. But when all can be shared, it will be suspicious if it’s not. And when all can be tracked, we will demand transparency.

From tribes to teams, our drive for power has dictated behavior for centuries. Technology will give us new opportunities to wield power in line with our personal preferences. We’ll use that power to make and modulate everything: from our homes to our jeans to our genes. Yet uneasy lies the head that wears the crown, which may leave us questioning if more power is always a good thing.

Our appetite for the instantaneous knows no bounds. Immediate access and automated task completion will fundamentally change how we spend our time and what we expect from experiences. In an era of adaptive devices, prediction will be expected and right now may already be late.

Robots and intelligent devices interpret diverse information sources at speeds unachievable for mere mortals. AI is already mimicking us, and in some instances, beating us. Its expansion will have profound consequences on our personal lives and business growth. Which begs the question: What are humans for?

The distinction of digital versus real will disintegrate and our synthetic reality will combine the natural and the man-made to enhance form and function, with vast implications on human behavior.