If the last decade has showed us anything about digital signage innovations, it’s the breadth of ways in which digital displays can be used — from meeting rooms to video walls at conferences to big screen displays in your indoor sports venues.
No longer do you have to manually upload content to each of your professional displays. The industry has come a long way in the last 10 years, and the evolution is really just beginning.
As we head into the 2020s, displays will only get smarter and more connected, creating next-level experiences through the latest emerging technologies (for example, artificial intelligence (AI) and voice assistance).
Digital signage has more power than ever before to impact day-to-day consumers.
While the AV industry is experiencing digital signage innovations at an unprecedented rate, the question remains which emerging technologies will still be around and thriving over the next decade?
There are a few that stand out:
AI
From healthcare to enterprise tech, it’s clear that AI isn’t going away any time soon. In fact, it has shifted how we think about the potential of technology as a whole.
When we think about how we can marry AI and digital signage by building upon processes that are already in place, we see entirely new ways to use digital signage.
For example, AI can be used to improve the customer experience through increased personalization. It will enable displays to recognize customers with the touch of a button, including providing a history of purchases or returns and access to the customer’s personal profile.
The opportunity to personalize display discounts at retail locations will help to improve sales and enhance the shopping experience.
Voice assistance
Pairing voice assistance with digital signage offers organizations the opportunity to create interactions with all types of people, such as those with disabilities — which impacts 15 percent of the world’s population — or those speaking different languages.
In order to create positive experiences for all, it is important to consider accessibility features to help reach all potential customers.
Voice assistance can help businesses create a new connection point for those who can’t reach or see the screen displays. Specifically, customers would no longer be required to read or touch a screen to use the service. Instead, they could press a button or provide a vocal command to activate the screen, similar to a voice-to-text feature.
Read Next: Understanding Employee Types Can Inform Your Digital Signage Strategy
In a similar manner, voice assistance can also work in tandem with AI to provide added personalization, including translation services for those fluent in other languages.
Another benefit is the creation of a voice assistant experience like ‘Amazon Alexa’ or ‘Google Assistant’ outside of your personal smart device.
Customers would have the opportunity to activate the digital display and issue a request through a simple voice request without using their hands, which will be beneficial to customers pushing shopping carts, keeping track of children, holding large supplies, or keeping their belongings close in a public place.
This feature can even be used to communicate with employees who may be outside of your sight line when you are in need of
assistance, which is much easier than wandering around the store and trying to track down a salesperson, and more efficient for your business.
Touch screens
Touch screens have become a key feature in digital signage, and we see this technology becoming more and more precise over the next 10 years.
How many times have you seen someone try to tap a screen that just doesn’t respond? Over the next few years, we predict that the displays in public settings will become more sensitive to consumer engagement and navigation as businesses invest in creating more engaging, digital experiences.
Thinking ahead even further, our hope is that the evolution of touch screens can replace the remote control device, providing a more sustainable product.
Eventually, we may even start to see one-touch solutions that activate a user’s unique profile and work in tandem with AI to provide personalized experiences, wherever the customer’s journey leads them.
LED
We know how important LED is when it comes to to having less of an environmental impact and reducing maintenance requirements. On top of that, we’ve seen a consistent theme emerge around demand for ready-made displays that are easy to install.
Over the next 10 years, that demand will only increase, so why not combine the need for custom kits and energy efficient displays? In 2020, we expect to see customer demand increase and LED use surge.
Further, like the Apple products using the Retina technology, digital display screen resolutions will naturally also improve, resulting in an even more crystal-clear picture, while being more energy efficient than ever before.
We’ve only started to scratch the surface of what emerging technologies can do for the AV industry.
Taking its cues from what’s happening overall in the technology landscape, digital signage has the power to provide on-demand, self-service options, merging with kiosks to provide a comprehensive, interactive solution with a more convenient user interface.
From corporate to retail, displays have the power to act as massive tablets with personalized experiences for each user that crosses their paths. The future is bright, accessible, and personal when it comes to the relationships between digital signage and the end user.
Over the next 10 years, we will see the impacts, large and small, that these digital signage innovations (and some that haven’t even been invented yet) will have.
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