• by Lisa Giacosa , Op-Ed Contributor, January 12, 2020

As we arrive at a new version of the “roaring twenties,” this data geek has a lot on her mind: privacy, CCPA, and the “death of the cookie.” Meanwhile, the average consumer is concerned with things like how do I get what I want and when I want it, for less?

In other words, for the average consumer, issues like privacy and trust, although important, may be secondary concerns. In my experience working across brands and categories, I’ve seen consumers willing to trade access and information to their data as long as the value proposition aligns with helping them live more convenient, fulfilled, and less expensive lives.

This year at CES we witnessed the continued unveiling of devices and services that in exchange for entrée to consumers’ lives and data provide greater value than ever before. Some of these devices can track our movement, expression, and even thoughts. These new and updated products include:

• an app that promises to predictively analyze what you should and should not eat
• smart mirrors that not only help you with your makeup choices and update you on the news, but also read signals that can help predict how your health is doing. The mirrors layer in AI capabilities along with a virtual assistant that enable you to seamlessly order your vitamins, food and meds – all at the blink of an eye
• a robotic ball that connects signals from all present devices, pets and humans to become the ultimate personal assistant and virtual housekeeper.
• home virtual assistant devices, which continue to evolve and have expanded to monitor all faces in the home in order to deliver tailored solutions for each individual and make homes more “anticipatory.” 

Is this scary? 

Not too long ago, location tracking was perceived to be intrusive. However, it has now become second nature to pull up Google Maps and Waze to get to where you need or to provide your location data to your weather app for a more precise forecast. 

In today’s world, everything can be a data source. There is an opportunity to learn more than ever before about human behavior, signals, triggers and needs because every movement, wince, wink, smile or action can be tracked. Analysis of these signals will enable us to deliver more relevant and useful experiences that consumers not only want but also need. And, if you overlay those data sources with machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), which is called predictive analytics, then we can have analysis at a pace that consumers need as technology continues to advance. 

Predictive analytics enable brands to understand consumers at the individual level to deliver more relevant messages, and as an industry, we need to shift from delivering “messages” that we think our consumers want to hear, when they want to hear it and where to providing fulfilling experiences and true value. For example, pre-allergy season, I would love to have meds delivered to me ahead of the wheezy onslaught based on the signals I have emitted. The age of anticipatory homes means that we need to focus not on how consumers should use products and services but why those products and services are important and add value. 

So that brings us back to trust. It is something that takes time to build but if the value exchange is right and people get the products and services that feel intuitive they will understand why they need them. 

Trust from the consumer is critical. It may arrive on horseback but it will leave in a Tesla!