WHY IT MATTERS: Digital Transformation

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

This is an annual bag of goodies.

Highlight #1: retail stores are closing at record pace while Amazon opens stores. This is such a huge trend because it transforms stores from a mini-warehouse into something else: a destination for experience, service, and training. Think Apple store with the highest sales per square foot, genius bar, classes and a showroom. Amazon has pushed its Amazon GO, no lines, no registers concept and it is rolling it out slowly. This is just the beginning...

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Looks like AR will be most powerful and useful in professional settings. This is a great example where surgeons get additional information to guide them during surgery without having to look up and away from their patient. Bravo!

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Grocery is the last frontier for digital disruption, everyone knows (huge market but late adopter of digital, especially eCommerce see http://sco.lt/8ai7W5 http://sco.lt/6q1Ijx http://sco.lt/8Y94vh ).

But no one knows when exactly they'll get disrupted. Many are betting on eCommerce but from the looks of this report, we may see a lot of changes in our weekly trip to the supermarket, from shelf monitoring to augmented reality.

Then again, grocers are pre-historic in their use of technology because of low margins and a very repetitive shopping experience. We mostly always buy the same products and are looking at our store "experience" to be fast with low prices, not so much fun and experiential (see Amazon GO http://sco.lt/8MTY8X where there is no cash register to slow you down still needs to be cheap http://sco.lt/80HuqX).

So my bets are on the startups that enable faster grocery shopping at a low cost- all others I expect will have a hard time (sorry AR and VR startups...)!

Bloomberg video interview that provides motivations for the explosion on VR in the coming years:

1- applications are numerous, with opportunities in different space, not only in gaming but in medical, movie, etc.

2- big players are lined up : Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc.

That being said, there have been multiple false starts for VR and #D (remember 3D TVs and google glasses?), so I remaining cautiously optimistic with both VR and AR. They may not be ready for consumer market but may expand into certain key niche applications and industries.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT

In that context, it is essential for digital transformation strategies to consider VR and AR in their roadmaps. There must be clear business needs to drive adoption of this relatively immature technology which requires a number of user constraint (least of which is wearing a headset which makes you look like a dork and prevents you from living in the moment). But there are multiple types of industries where professionals can find benefits in viewing things in 3D in a lifelike fashion: those should be prioritized.

5 must read papers to understand where we stand in the area of direct brain communication with machines. In a nutshell; still very early.

Just watch the video and you'll see. We live in the matrix! ;-)

Olympics in VR is just starting. This article describes what it is like to look at volleyball in VR. and it is quite something. Actually it is part of a larger trend to push sports in virtual reality as described elegantly here: http://bit.ly/2aJv8lO

(in french, english here)

Canadian Tire follows the likes of IKEA catalogue, real estate, technical publication, tourist guides and other applications to extends its paper catalogue with additional information using mobile phone technologies. Not sure the IKEA project received huge success but again this was 2013 and a lot has changed in the past 3 years.

With virtual reality (VR) being trumpeted as the next big thing, Augmented Reality (AR) may actually provide something more useful and less intrusive - thus leading to faster and larger adoption? Microsoft hololens project sure thinks that way.

http://bit.ly/1SEJeS8 

http://sco.lt/6g6TZp 

http://conference.corp.at/archive/CORP2013_128.pdf 

http://www.inglobetechnologies.com/docs/whitepapers/AR_printing_whitepaper_en.pdf 

http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses/?tag=Augmented+Reality