Will Ambient Computing Come To Its Own in 2023?
- By Lachlan Colquhoun
- December 19, 2022
The world of technology has a way of calling things out and giving them new names and titles before they become a reality.
Every technology trend over the last two decades was a slogan or had a snappy name as it was recognized and before it gained momentum.
Think of cloud and edge computing, the Internet of Things and now the metaverse.
While cynicism comes easily, it is also a credit to the futurists who see these trends before they gain pace and go mainstream.
Possibly it's worth examining the process through which naming and describing them helps these trends become a reality. Is there a degree of actualization there?
Watershed year
As we move into 2023, one trend to look out for is the further development of ambient computing. This idea has been around for a few years but is yet to achieve critical mass like other trends before it. 2023 could be a watershed year.
For many years we’ve been talking about the idea of ‘frictionless’ technology: the ability to merge technology into our everyday lives and have it work for us without us knowing it’s even there.
This is particularly useful in delivering better customer experiences. Card linking technology, virtual assistants, wearables and sensors all help to make for a frictionless experience, with the tech activating automatically to take out the pain points and — perhaps more importantly — removing barriers to action, such as purchasing.
Ambient computing would seem to be a step further. Deloitte describes it as “putting the internet of things to work” and agrees that it is “maturing from its awkward adolescent phase.”
// “An ambient approach gets the tech out of your way so you can live your life while getting the help you need”
“Possibilities abound from the tremendous growth of embedded sensors and connected devices — in the home, the enterprise and the world at large,” says a Deloitte U.K. report.
“Translating these possibilities into business impact requires focus — purposefully bringing smarter ‘things’ together with analytics, security data and integration platforms to make the disparate parts work seamlessly with each other.”
Other words to describe ambient computing are ‘seamless’ and ‘ubiquitous.’
“An ambient approach gets the tech out of your way so you can live your life while getting the help you need,” said Rick Osterloh, Google’s senior vice president of devices and services, in a 2022 keynote.
“It doesn’t matter what device you are using, what context you’re in, whether you’re talking, typing or tapping. The technology in your life works together seamlessly.”
Delivering on the promise?
2023 should see ambient computing accelerate in use cases because the hardware, the infrastructure and the software are increasingly aligned to deliver on the promise of the experience.
5G connectivity combined with the IoT and a world of innovative apps is increasingly able to deliver smarter environments with ambience at the core.
Ambience is enabled by a sensor as a trigger, a stream of data, and a CPU to process the data and connectivity.
Not only do we have that today, but we can enlist the help of the cloud for scale and capacity and artificial intelligence for better and more compelling use cases.
So often, we hear that technology is clunky and is making life more difficult than it should be.
The promise of ambient computing is for technology to exist in the background, adapt to our preferences, and fade into the background.
As it develops, Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri and the Google Nest will become less annoying and frustrating and more intuitive and helpful.
Many people are relying more and more on these virtual assistants to keep the world revolving around them according to their preferences.
Room temperatures, favorite songs, lighting settings – all of these are part of the ambient universe.
You may not have to go to the extreme of embedding sensors into your body, as some people have done, but wearables could become a more significant part of your life and will also play a role in monitoring and assessing your health.
In 2023, look out for these applications to become more sophisticated, to leave the house and join you in your car, as you walk around the street or as you enter the workplace.
The irony is that if ambient computing really takes off, a measure of its success will be that you won’t even notice that it’s there in 2023 and beyond.
Lachlan Colquhoun is the Australia and New Zealand correspondent for CDOTrends and the NextGenConnectivity editor. He remains fascinated with how businesses reinvent themselves through digital technology to solve existing issues and change their entire business models. You can reach him at [email protected].
Image credit: iStockphoto/fcscafeine