7. Everything On Demand ("EOD"): Your AI-Curated Future
Rethinking Ownership & Experience Across the Digital and Physical World
Part 7 of our 10-part journey into AI's future. In the past two posts, we have explored AI’s role in shaping learning & career development, privacy and authenticity, and now we explore a future where everything is on demand.
China is changing the game for how we think about commerce, which is fuelled by a blend of online convenience with offline services, a phenomenon known as O2O (online-to-offline) businesses. At the forefront is WeChat, the super app that's making everything from paying for groceries to booking doctor's appointments, all within a single platform. WeChat consolidates the functionality of at least a dozen apps like Uber, PayPal, and Amazon into one. This integration not only simplifies life for consumers but also creates a goldmine of data – from dining preferences to daily commutes – that will bring the next wave of AI personalization.
The genius of this model lies in its ability to create a unified view of the digital and physical world, bridging online with offline behaviours, and offering a comprehensive view of consumers’ lifestyles & needs. The future of commerce hinges on creating these interconnected experiences that bridge the online and offline.
These O2O models have promise to:
Make services smarter: By harvesting and analyzing vast datasets (online and offline), they will make every interaction smarter and more tailored.
Elevate irreplaceable experiences: As Digital goods become ubiquitous and commoditized (and even free), our appreciation for experiences that are unique and cannot be duplicated will grow stronger. Businesses that can blend the digital with the physical, offering experiences that cannot be copied, will find themselves with a competitive advantage
Everything “On-Demand” Ecosystems
As assets like houses and cars become more expensive to own and maintain, we are seeing society pivot from a preference for ownership to access. Imagine a world where everything you need is at your fingertips, not through ownership, but through a subscription model offering personalized access that is always anticipating and adapting to your preferences. These futuristic ecosystems will harness AI to keep your world fresh, tailored and intelligent, blending the best of online insights with offline realities. From doctors' appointments to living spaces, everything is curated to your evolving preferences, redefining ownership for an era that values immediacy, personalization, authenticity, accessibility, and sustainability.
Examples:
Flex Home and Living: Subscribers can choose their living spaces and styles, which AI tailors according to their changing life stages—from a downtown apartment to a suburban home. This service would not only include the dwelling but also the furnishings, electronics, artwork, and utilities, all maintained, updated, or exchanged by the service provider as needed for a monthly fee.
AI-Powered Culinary Explorer: A subscription service that revolutionizes the way we dine. By analyzing your taste preferences, dietary restrictions, and even your mood, AI curates a monthly selection of meal kits, restaurant reservations, and exclusive pop-up dining experiences. Imagine enjoying an All You Can Eat feast one week and a molecular gastronomy workshop the next, all aligned with your food journey and moods.
Always-On Therapy: uses AI to offer mental health support tailored to everyone’s emotional state and life events. This platform blends in-person therapy sessions, mindfulness exercises, and emotional resilience training, utilizing data captured "outside of your session" from a constant stream of your daily activities, moods, and interactions. Advanced algorithms will adapt therapeutic approaches to the user’s ongoing mental health journey.
Technologies Shaping Our Digital Future
To realize the vision of Everything On-Demand ecosystems, a blend of cutting-edge technologies is instrumental to personalize the user experience while also ensuring seamless service delivery and upholding data integrity. Examples include:
Advanced Analytics and Machine Learning: Central to understanding user behaviour and preferences, these technologies aggregate data from various sources, including real-time interactions, to build dynamic user profiles. This enables the creation of highly personalized experiences across culinary, living, and wellness domains by predicting needs and adapting services in real time.
Generative AI and Multi-Modal Data Processing: Leveraging diverse data types (text, images, audio, sensor input), generative AI models craft customized offerings, from meal plans to wellness routines, tailoring each aspect of the service to individual preferences and real-world feedback.
Conversational AI and Intelligent Agents: These advanced systems go beyond traditional chatbots, offering instant, nuanced assistance. They engage in human-like conversations and are integrated into your apps, providing tailored advice and intelligent recommendations that evolve in real time.
Seamless Logistics and On-Demand Delivery: Efficient logistics and supply chain management, including robotic process automation, on-demand delivery, and inventory optimization, would be necessary to provide a frictionless experience for the physical aspects of the services, such as meal kit delivery and home furnishing exchanges.
Secure and Privacy-Preserving Data Practices: Given the sensitive nature of the user data involved, the services would need to implement robust data privacy and security measures, leveraging technologies like differential privacy and blockchain-based systems, to build user trust and comply with regulations.
Augmented, Virtual, and Extended Reality (AR, VR, XR): These immersive technologies offer vivid previews and interactions with subscription services, enabling users to explore living spaces or engage with wellness practices in engaging, innovative ways. XR extends these experiences, blending digital and physical realms for enhanced product interaction and visualization (Think Iron-Man’s JARVIS)
Internet of Things (IoT): IoT devices can collect real-time data on user preferences, habits, and environmental conditions, feeding into AI systems for even more nuanced personalization. In a home living subscription, for example, IoT could adjust the environment (lighting, temperature) based on user preference patterns or suggest health and wellness activities based on physical activity data collected from wearable devices.
Notable References:
Baidu's O2O food delivery app is using AI algorithms to optimize the delivery process and provide personalized recommendations.
Alibaba's platforms, such as Taobao and Tmall, use AI and data to personalize offerings and optimize logistics for their online-to-offline experiences.
AI Runner provides custom AI coaching, heart rate tracking, and instant feedback.
Empathy closes $47M for AI to help with the practical and emotional bereavement process.
SavorEat, a food tech company, has introduced a plant-based robot chef that uses AI and 3D printing to produce personalized plant-based meals on demand.
Tasty, the BuzzFeed-owned digital media company, has launched "Botatouille" - an AI-powered culinary companion that can provide personalized recipe recommendations, meal planning, and cooking assistance to users.
Zoku: A micro-apartment hotel brand that has pivoted to a subscription model, offering remote workers and digital nomads the ability to stay in different cities around the world every month. Zoku is expanding to new locations in Copenhagen and Vienna, catering to the growing demand for flexible, location-independent living.