Technology is growing and advancing at a rapid rate. Things that we never thought would exist are now part of our daily lives. From the invention of the home computer, the smart phone, and now the rise of AI machines, technology is evolving exponentially. One of the areas of tech that is growing the fastest is mobile technology. Over 80% of Americans own a smartphone as of February 2019 and the world of technology has improved with the growth in the number of users. Companies large and small are catering to the mobile platform with new developments. The customer experience is being vastly improved to be quick, easy, and painless. This is adding to the already existing convenience mobile technology offers. As the platform of choice shifts towards mobile in a big way, new trends will emerge. Over the next two years, the mobile industry will roll out many new improvements. Here are a few that we expect to see by 2020.
More Proactive Apps
Artificial intelligence might sound like a far-fetched idea, but the technology is already in use throughout mobile apps. AI is helping customers get what they want within a matter of seconds, all thanks to intelligent machines. From the minute most apps are opened, an AI is working to make the customer experience as smooth as possible. A good example of AI in action is when you are sent a message on an app like LinkedIn. Once the message comes through, the user is offered a number of ways to click and read the message. When the user goes to type a reply, an AI suggests things to write based on the context of the first message. These suggested sentences are designed so the user could conceivably click an auto generated response without needing to type anything. These generated responses are normally well written and related to the initial message; this is entirely possible due to AI.
This proactive feature only adds to the amount of assistance we receive from apps everyday. More productive AI assisted apps will run faster, smoother, and offer more features than ever before. Your phone is getting to know you better and will use that to make your experience better.
Mobile First Indexing
For a while now Google has been working on mobile first indexing to make websites more mobile friendly. Since much of the market has shifted away from home desktops and towards mobile phones, Google is taking steps to ensure mobile friendly websites rank higher in its eyes. Google will monitor websites and determine how they rank based on Google's criteria, which is now prioritizing mobile friendly websites. This means features like easy to use buttons, quick loading, proper formatting for ease of use on mobile, and other aspects will result in websites ranking higher. In order to boost your website's ranking on mobile, you will need to have a quality mobile site that is different than your desktop site.
Personalized Mobile Experiences
In the same vein as the previous point, companies are pouring resources into making the overall mobile experience better for the customer. These improvements include personalizing experiences for customers. Customers can choose which communication method they prefer so the company will only contact them through that channel. Companies will also show customers items for sale depending on their data. A customer in California likely won't be shown heavy winter gear while someone living in Alaska won't likely be shown beach attire. This means that the items customers are shown are more personally relevant to them. This practice increases sales as customers are more prone to buy something if it is relevant to them.
Voice Search and Commands
One of the largest and latest technologies going through a boom is voice search. It is expected that voice search as a retail segment will rise to $40 Billion by 2022. It will not be long before Siri, Alexa, and other virtual assistants can handle our most complex orders with ease. As the sophistication of voice recognition increases, we will emerge from the other side of the uncanny valley. It is currently not possible to have a full conversation with virtual assistants, but that will change in the future. You can already order items from Amazon through the Amazon Alexa so it is not unfathomable that voice commands will become standard.
Chatbots
Customer service is incredibly important. Customers want to have their issues resolved quickly, but that is not always possible. Emails, phones, and human staffed chats all take employees to man and operate. This means that lines can stack up and leaves customers waiting their turn to be served. However, AI can solve this. AI run chatbots can help customers with their questions any time of day any day of the week since they require no human employees to function. Customers are happy to be receiving service without delay and employees are happy to not have long queues.
Technology is making massive improvements in peoples' lives. AI is bolstering how people shop online. Mobile websites are becoming properly optimized and outfitted with features that leave customers satisfied. The use of data allows for personalized shopping, allowing customers to see relevant content which improves sales. Voice commands and chatbots are perfect examples of how emerging technology is bringing mobile industry into the future. We will have to wait and see how the industry develops as 2020 approaches.