What Impressed Me Most at Mobile World Congress 2019
Did you make it to MWC 2019? I did, and it was fantastic. I’m excited to share some of the most impressive technologies and partnerships that came out of the conference. Read on!
Folding Phones and Fast 5G
MWC is one of the biggest events of the year for the tech and telecom industries, so companies at the conference pull out all the stops to showcase their latest and greatest innovations. Some stunning new technology was unveiled this year, from smartphones that fold in half to robot servants that can thread needles and mix drinks. This is all very impressive, especially when we consider that these technologies will only continue to get better, smarter and faster.
But everyone in Barcelona and I mean everyone, was talking about 5G wireless technology, the next generation of communications. All of the major telecoms at MWC were showing off designs for what these networks will look like once they’re in place. 5G will bring us dramatically faster phone calls and downloads, and it will fundamentally change the way we do business.
Garrison Macri, our SVP Partnerships, and me at Mobile World Congress 2019
Big Changes for Business
5G networks will completely revolutionize the way we communicate, with each other and with computers, robots and artificial intelligence. How? It’s all about speed.
Today’s networks offer peak download speeds of about 1 Gbps. 5G will be 10x faster, along with lower latency, of 10 milliseconds or less. That’s compared to 60 milliseconds on currently available 4G networks. This will be especially beneficial for robots and AI, because it will allow them to work faster, more efficiently and more intelligently. Higher speeds mean faster transfers of the huge amounts of data that are necessary for machine learning processes, so robots will be able to act on new data more quickly. This could be an important bridge to the future.
Streaming movies and downloading photos from grandma even faster on 5G networks will be great, but those private applications are only the beginning of the changes this technology will bring. The entire industry is buzzing about 5G because the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence will operate even more efficiently on these new networks. That means greater convenience and a more significant convergence between real-world and digital spaces.
What This Means for Digital Customer Service
What does all of this mean for digital customer service? Well, for one thing, it means we’re moving closer to transhumanism in the workplace, which is something that I’m so interested in that I wrote a whole book about it, Customer Service in the Transhuman Age! But in the immediate future, we’ll see even greater integration between AI and human agents in customer service. That’s going to be good for everyone, giving customers better, faster and more personalized service, and allowing companies to cut costs and raise revenues.
We’re already beginning to see progress in this direction, with chatbots solving basic, front-line service problems and seamlessly escalating more complex cases or those requiring real human empathy to agents. With faster data transfers, AI will be able to learn more about customer behavior and do so more quickly. That will lead to instant data sharing across networks, so customer service will improve in real time as new and more complex cases come in. The result will be a service that’s better for customers and companies.
The future of digital customer service is just around the corner. Want to see what it looks like? My colleagues are happy to show you around - get a demo or just a free consultation by our amazing Brand Embassy team.
This post was originally published on the Brand Embassy blog.