Robots & better jobs; Samsung's content credentials; AI and biodiversity; and more...
⏩ Future Normal: Fast Forward #118
An eclectic mix of stories from the future normal this week. Robots in nursing homes. A biodiversity monitoring startup. Samsung’s new phone range.
As always, these are really superficial signals of far deeper, non-obvious trends that you need to know – how robots will make work better; the shift to a world where we can analyse everything; and new ways to regain online trust.
We might not be able to predict the future (hence my ‘reluctant futurist’ positioning!), but you can equip yourself with a world view that gives you an edge in understanding what’s coming next, and how to seize the opportunities that these changes present.1
If you were expecting an analysis of Open AI’s new Operator agent, then you’ll have to wait. I don’t have much more to add (yet!) to the two pieces I wrote on AI agents last year – Gen AI’s Act Two Starts Here and The Weird World of Working With AI Agents.
Right, let’s go…
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Typically I inspire clients with:
Your Future Normal: a trend keynote, bringing you non-obvious yet relevant and practical insights from outside your industry.
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What if… robots made your job better?
Regular readers will know I don’t buy into workplace doomerism, instead arguing that the future normal of work will be “Less, But Better”.
Which is why I was fascinated by a recent study on the use of robots in nursing homes which found “robot use is associated with increased employment and employee retention, improved productivity and a higher quality of care.”
The study looked at the impact of assistive robots (to help move patients), and monitoring robots (to track and alert carers to issues).
A few key insights from Youg Suk Lee, who led the study:
“We found that robot adoption complements care workers by reducing quit rates… [which is] important because turnover is a big concern in nursing homes. Workers typically experience a great deal of physical pain, particularly in their knees and back. The work is hard and the pay is low. So robot use was associated with employee retention.”
“Robots can improve productivity by shifting the tasks performed by care workers to those involving human touch, empathy and dexterity. Ultimately, robots can help workers provide a higher level of patient care.”
// So what?
Instead of thinking about robots’ impact as zero sum, how can you prepare and design a world where robots make your employee and customer experience better?
One further non-obvious provocation: how will your employee profile change as robots take on physical tasks? Especially in terms of gender balance, or opening up currently more physical roles to older employees? How will your culture change as the demographics and skills of your employees change? What about your training and development programs?
What if… we could really understand what’s happening around us?
I was fortunate enough to moderate a series of climate roundtables in Davos this week. One of the most inspiring startups I met there was NatureMetrics, a biodiversity monitoring startup that’s just raised $25 million.
You might be wondering why a biodiversity startup is relevant to you (beyond the fact that every business on earth depends on nature, directly or indirectly). But it’s how NatureMetrics captures and analyses its data that is especially interesting:
In its words, “Imagine stepping into a dense forest, a vibrant coral reef, or even an expansive desert and being able to unveil the creatures that have lived and passed through there—a story told not by visible signs, but by collecting tiny traces of soil and water. This is environmental DNA (eDNA), a powerful tool revolutionizing the way we understand and conserve our planet's biodiversity.”
// So what?
There’s a lot of Very Clever Science going on behind the scenes to be able to identify the species present in an ecosystem from just a small sample of soil, water or even air.
But what fascinates me (and should fascinate you!), is that in sector after sector, we’re making the invisible, visible. With faster, cheaper data collection, at massive scale. And we’re not just collecting data, we’re using AI to analyse and act on it.
NatureMetrics isn’t a million miles away from another startup in the news this week, the body-scanning startup Neko Health which has just raised $260 million. I wrote about Neko last year, saying:
“We’ll soon look back in horror at how little we knew about our bodies and how inefficient a system focused on trying to fix ailments is versus one that prevents them from occurring in the first place.”
From our bodies, to the oceans and forests that we depend on… it’s clear that in the future normal we’ll leave no stone unturned or mole unexamined.
The non-obvious question is “what will we do with all this information?”
Will simply knowing be enough to drive positive change, at either an individual or systemic level? I suspect the future will belong to those who can tell visual, accessible, data-driven stories that can inspire people and organisations to act.
And what new business models will these rich streams of data unlock? From B2C companies subscribing to NatureMetrics’ nature intelligence platforms, to Neko Health’s annual checkups – the value will be in understanding change, rather than a single snapshot in time.
How will we trust information in the age of AI?
In our book, The Future Normal, we explored the idea of Certified Media and new ways to trust digital content. Since then, I’ve been closely following the C2PA and its Content Credentials initiative, an open technology standard that allows users to get further information about digital media – how was it made? Is it AI-generated? When was it created or edited?
This week it was announced that Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S25 range will be the first line of phones to support this standard.
// So what?
The US election was far less affected by AI generated content than many had feared – although there were some wildly entertaining deepfakes of Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris robbing convenience stores, smoking joints and attending Eyes Wide Shut ‘parties’.
However, its the ‘smaller’, less obvious deepfakes that target less visible individuals that pose a bigger risk – last week the UK saw its first legal settlement resulting from deepfake harassment.
And while there are technical challenges to implementing AI labelling solutions at scale, it’s not hard to imagine a future normal where Content Credentials (or similar schemes) is widespread enough that the absence of a label will instantly make audiences doubtful as to the authenticity of an image or video.
We’re certainly not there yet when it comes to an online culture of skepticism towards digital content, but having a manufacturer the size of Samsung come on board is a signal that we might be heading in the right direction.
And for businesses, it’s worth thinking about where you want to position yourself going forwards. Will you lean into authentic, AI-free imagery? Or will you embrace and celebrate new forms of AI-augmented creativity?
Can I inspire your team to thrive in the future normal?
In 2024 I delivered 30+ sessions, both live and virtually – from Brazil to Saudi Arabia, Las Vegas to London.
My regular trend & innovation keynotes bring fresh, cross-industry, people-first perspectives to your audience.
VisuAIse Futures takes it one step further, turning a keynote into an interactive, ‘multiplayer’ creative experience. Here’s what people are saying about it:
“It was so refreshing to hear how AI can be used to power human imagination, rather than replace it. And then it was even better to actually experience it”
“Fantastic session! Hugely insightful and fun, too!”
“Brilliant. The feeling in the room was positively intense whilst the images were coming through!
Feel the optimistic vibes it will bring to your event in the 2-minute video below (or watch it here).
If you’d like to discuss bringing me to your next meeting or event then please do reach out directly to Renee Strom or check out my speaking site.
Thanks for reading,
Henry
Here’s a quick recap of the innovation-focused approach to trend spotting I laid out in my first book, Trend-Driven Innovation:
Forget trends. Look for opportunities.
Opportunities lie in the gaps between people’s emerging expectations and their current reality.
Expectations are created by people’s experiences – both personal experience, or just being aware that something is now possible.
The best (and easiest!) source of insight? Innovations – i.e. the new startups, products and services – which will shape people’s experiences.
Not all innovations are equally important (to you) – look for those that raise people’s expectations around a core, unchanging basic human need or want that you cater to.
This will lead you to identify meaningful expectation gaps. Ask ‘so what…?’ and ‘what if…?’, instead of stating ‘this will…’ Tell stories to provoke and inspire action rather than presenting data in order to convince.