[Extract] 23 Glimpses of The Future Normal from 2023

Note: this is just a sample of the full post, featuring 52 future-focused questions for 2024.

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Trends feel important. Yet in truth they are meaningless. The most important events of 2024 won't be in any of the hundreds of trend reports published in recent weeks. It is your actions that matter.?

With that in mind, here are 23 thought-provoking, future-focused questions, inspired by innovations I’ve featured over the past 12 months, spread across:

• Health & Wellbeing
• Making What We Buy & Consume Better
• Work & Education
• Sustainable Cities, Mobility & Living
• Culture, Entertainment & Marketing

As I said in last year’s edition, I make no attempt to claim that these are the 'most important' stories from 2023. There are many other lists in that vein. Instead this deliberately eclectic yet hopeful collection should inspire you to (re)imagine what you could do differently – and better! – in 2024.??

Dive in, discuss them with your team, and good luck!

>>>>>> Read the full post on Substack <<<<<<

1. What jobs-to-be-done will humans play in your organisation? People on combined AI and human coaching plans lost 74% more weight than those on AI-only plans. As Fitt Insider summarises, “accountability is hard to automate.”
2. What if… ‘human’ drug trials didn’t need to involve real humans? Biotech startup Vivodyne uses robotic automation to create more than 10,000 samples of lab-grown human organ tissue and then tests new drugs on them.?Unnatural. But definitely better. Read more in The Future Normal.
3. What if… healthcare solutions could be created by those most affected? Fruitpunch’s ‘AI for good’ challenge helped citizens monitor a Dutch steel plant’s toxic emissions. AI will empower patients to hack their own healthcare – will you help them??
4. What if… daily drug regimes could be replaced by single shots? Verve Therapies’ gene-edited CRISPR treatment slashed patients’ cholesterol after a single infusion. Here’s how this could affect adjacent industries, via my Trend Analyst GPT ;).?
5. What if… brands didn’t produce anything new at all? Here’s a fashion brand that produces no clothing, instead using only recycled and dead stock fabrics. Look out for other ‘zero production’ brands, in other industries.
6. What if… electronics didn’t generate e-waste? Pulpatronics makes RFID tags entirely from paper, making them 100% recyclable. We explore Waste-Free Products in The Future Normal.?
7. What if… brands shared their secrets? Allbirds released the world’s first Net Zero CO2 shoe. Most interestingly, it open-sourced its toolkit. I explored why this is a brilliant talent play as much as a product one.
8. What if… AI could make humans more empathetic? Re:course uses diverse virtual patients to train doctors; its analytics are able to identify and alert doctors to any implicit biases. Augmented Empathy is just one People-First AI Strategy to explore in 2024. ? ???
9. What could you offer to, and also learn from, other generations? Eldera pairs vetted elderly mentors with young people for cross-generational video chats.? Read more about Ending Loneliness in The Future Normal.??
10. What new human-powered business opportunities will automation unlock for you? Billie, IKEA‘s AI chatbot, now handles half of the brand’s customer queries – so it retrained 8,500 call centre operators as remote interior design advisors. The result? The brand did €1.3 billion through this channel in 2022.?
11. What if … you could remember everything you see and hear? Rewind.ai announced its always-recording wearable pendant. Ambient computing will be unthinkable, until it suddenly becomes unthinkable to live without.
12. What if … the metaverse isn’t a dud? While the metaverse was lame in 2022, Lex Friedman’s interview with Mark Zuckerberg should remind you that the line between ridiculous and revolutionary is often narrower than you might imagine.?
13. What if… Dubai became the new Amsterdam? Between The Loop, Dubai’s climate-controlled walking and cycling highway, and NEOM’s The Line, the Middle East is aiming high when it comes to urban sustainability. It’s easy to be skeptical, but remember, Amsterdam looked like this in the 1970s.
14. What if… your ‘local’ market suddenly became 10x bigger? In 2024 people will travel further, faster thanks to autonomous flying taxis (now legal in China) and the less exciting, but more impactful, e-bike.
15. What if… AI could create ‘better’ designs than humans can? NASA shared that it was using AI to design space parts that weighed less, could tolerate more stress, and require a fraction of the time parts designed by humans take to develop.
16. What new behaviours will ubiquitous (and storable!) clean energy unlock? Squad Mobility’s solar-powered buggy is a glimpse of this brave new charge-free world.???
17. What positive eco feedback loops could you unlock? Biosolar roofs use the cooling effect of green roofs to reduce the negative impact of extreme heat on solar panels, plus they offer insulation, water runoff, and biodiversity effects too.?
18. What if… we regulated social media? The US Surgeon General said that social media use presents “a profound risk of harm” for children. Our kids will look back on unregulated social media as we do to indoor smoking and ask, ‘wtf were you thinking?!’
19. What if… AI could reduce bias and exclusion, rather than create it? In August, Activision rolled out ToxMod, a tool which uses AI to monitor its voice chat channels for hate speech and bullying to its smash hit Call of Duty game.?
20. What if… you could trust digital content? Qualcomm partnered with Truepic (profiled in The Future Normal) to embed content credentials into images at their creation. It won’t stop the flood of deepfake content, but it will show that ‘digital trust’ is possible.?
21. What if… everyone could make their own media? Midjourney and DALLE-3 are just the start. Roblox’s AI assistant and Fable Studio’s demo of its prompt-to-South Park episode tool should give you a glimpse of a future normal of infinite, crowd-powered creativity.
22. What if… virtual companions become as normal as ‘real’ ones? The early data around Snap’s My AI – 150 million users sent 10 billion messages in just 10 weeks! – show that for many, they already are.?
23. How could you use AI to create more inclusive products? Estée Lauder’s Voice Makeup Assistant helps visually impaired users check if their makeup is applied correctly. The Tiktok reviews are an appropriately inspiring note to end on.?

>>>>>> Read the full post on Substack <<<<<<

What’s the future normal for YOUR organisation in 2024?

I have delivered 150+ actionable keynotes and workshops in 30+ countries, bringing audiences fresh perspectives on what’s next.

To discuss your next meeting or event then please reach out directly to Renee Strom or check out my speaking site.??

Here’s what Cassie Gasson, Thrive’s CMO had to say about it:

“Henry was recommended to us by Secret Leaders Podcast host, Dan Murray, and he didn't disappoint! Despite the short notice due to a last-minute keynote dropout, Henry spent time on the phone with me the day before to perfectly understand our audience and tailor his talk to what L&D cares about. I'd definitely recommend Henry to anyone looking to deliver a session on a fresh take on AI and the future normal!”

Some other recent feedback:

“My go-to speaker for future-gazing grounded in reality is always Henry. He's a fantastic speaker who fills big rooms and gets high praise on feedback forms. It's refreshing to work with someone who puts so much time and effort into making a killer keynote that resonates with our audience and helps attendees to make sense of where the world is going – free from the BS and hype that's often prevalent in this space!”

Dan Brain, Founder, MAD//Fest

Thanks for reading,

Henry