2017 tech and digital trends: "Everyone will go AI mad"

When looking back at 2016, the development of artificial intelligence, virtual reality and augmented reality technology have to be the defining trends of an extremely exciting year for digital.

AR entered our everyday lives (perhaps most noticeably with the craze of Pokemon Go), we were increasingly immersed in VR with the launch of new apps and headsets, and the popularity and prominence of AI rose rapidly thanks to innovations such as Amazon's Alexa.

Another remarkable change was in the way we consumed social media, with new features such as Instagram stories and Snapchat Spectacles making sharing even more instant. These features clearly indicate that ‘video first’ will soon become a reality – if it isn’t already.

In summary, 2016 made us more instant and interconnected than ever before.

What to expect from 2017
With this in mind, what can we expect from 2017 in terms of digital and tech?

Since we still don’t have a crystal ball, we turned to our experts to find the answer to the question on everyone’s lips: What will be the key trends within digital and tech during 2017?

Jonny Tooze, Founder & MD

@JonnyTooze

“Everyone is going to go AI mad this year as the 'Age of Automation' begins to dawn. User experience thinking will begin to be turned on its head and digital will play an even greater role in stitching together consumers and their demands.”

Matt Lintott, Customer Services & Operations Director

@mattlintott

“I think automated purchasing based on previous orders and behaviour will be a big thing this year, along with an increase in voice purchasing. I have both in place at the moment and they are working a treat.”

Mara Lature, Performance Marketing Manager

@marame

“Content will continue to be a big part of SEO and paid media campaigns: especially visual content, but also virtual reality and augmented reality, which provide immersive ways of telling a brand's story. Video will be overwhelmingly big in 2017: whether it is livestreaming, 360-degree videos or growth of video usage as part of SEO, paid or even email campaigns.”

Toby Kesterton, Client Account Director

@tobykesterton

“The battle between Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri and Google assistant/home will hot up and dominate 2017. The end effect is a change of behaviour towards voice search. Voice search already accounts for 20% of searches on Android – and as they’re more verbose, they can massively affect search results.”

Branko Ajzele, Head of Office Croatia & Magento Developer

@ajzele

“’Change is the only constant in life’, as Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher put it. The proverb is more than obvious when it comes to IT. Throughout the last year we have witnessed numerous technological buzzwords slowly but surely turning into reality. Technology wise, year 2017 is likely to be a major milestone for the e-commerce sector. Chat bots, artificial intelligence, mobile, personalisation and same day delivery will transform our shopping experience. Major industry players such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, IBM have already laid out necessary tools for developers to ease the integration of these trending technologies.”

Want to stay up to date?
Get the low down on the latest news within the industry on Twitter @LabDigitalUK.