We’re back to finish what we’ve started. I naturally assumed you read the first part: It’s A Love Story, Baby Just Say Yes … | Part 1, but if somehow you missed that one (not sure how you could do that to me), you should probably go catch up, so we are all on the same page!
“As you might have somehow realized the whole 4 pages long thing is wait for it …. about the personalization” Mr. Obvious, You Don’t Say, 2019. We wrapped up our previous article by saying that we’ve so far only seen a tip of the iceberg and actually don’t at all have a clue what the full potential of personalization might be. To explore it, there are three major steps we need to make.
- Technology level & Data Quality
I already mentioned that technology-wise, we’re only getting started and yet already offering a very high-level of personalization. These last years were great for the buzzing ML topic and its potential in various fields. Personalization is one of those fields and at the end of the day, it might be the one with the greatest commercial potential. As mentioned, companies who understand the enormous importance of this topic are rightly investing colossal time and financial resources into it. Frankly speaking, I believe there won’t be one ultimate winner but for certain there will be a bunch of losers who just don’t realize the importance soon enough (wrote more about this topic within the article: Evolve or Die). Although I recognize the position that algorithms with the biggest amount of dynamic constantly generating data will win, I believe to reach the highest level of the full-scale of personalization, the social aspect will be needed as my further points indicate and therefore, we are getting closer to the topic of general AI. Yep, to reach the full potential of personalization something called ’empathy’ is needed.
- Data Security & Ownership
So, here is the thing. While the majority of the population doesn’t give a damn about their data security, it might still be a huge barrier to reach the full-scale personalization. The whole idea of Magicookie is built on our digital identities and that someday in the future, we may realize that “offering” all our data and getting as much as personalized ads from the Zuck isn’t enough. Here comes the power of the Blockchain. I love the potential in which Blockchain might have (beside producing things as Dogecoin – I love that one too though). Just imagine you are Mark. You own your data, and companies would be in constant conversation with your digital identities and paying for the crucial information to make the full-scale personalization happen. Moreover, as a bonus you would get transparency, data ownership, and the highest level of security. Wouldn’t that be fu*king awesome? There are several Blockchain based startups already working on this topic and I definitely see this happening in the near {I adore relative terms} future.
- Mindset
Though we’ve touched on the topic within the previous two steps, the last thing which we need to change is our current mindset. I really believe that full-scale personalization will be only possible if we change our focus from ‘let’s personalize everything about the user to make personalization equal’ to ‘user’. We simply need to create our digital selves, or at least our most accurate version of our digital selves. The one who knows what color is your favorite, what gift makes you happy, what your mood will be today, what style you love, and is empathetic enough to simply be you in every situation. To get here, however, the two previous points must be met.
This article might feel like an episode of Black Mirror, but I really believe that once we are able to completely mimic ourselves, the full level of personalization will be reached. Due to the complexity of the users’ data and its current value to various players, I don’t really see this happening through a collaboration of tech giants but rather a disruptive AI-based independent startup. The whole topic reminds me one of my favorite movies, the Oscar-winning Her, a heartfelt film where Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) falls in love with his virtual assistant Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson). Honestly, listening to Scarlett for 10 hours a day, I guess we all would be “in love” with whatever the device is. There are already a bunch of companies playing around this area and I’m looking forward to many more players who have the guts to disrupt the current stage of digital personalization. If you want to try one of those, you should definitely download an app calls Replika (https://replika.ai/) and give it a try.
Replika and similar technologies are far from perfect, but once again let’s not focus on what these technologies are right now, but what they can or are capable of being in the future. As discussed throughout these articles, we all already know how personalization works. But these are the major steps we need to take in order to get to the point where we can all say, “Holy moly this is huge!”
Thanks for reading and remember I love you guys!