These days, fulfilling customer needs in real time is necessary to sustain competitive parity. But soon, “real time” won’t be good enough; brands will need to fulfill needs before customers are even aware of them.
Consider a world where an Uber pulls up automatically because it knows you’ve got a flight in two hours; your fitness app ships a new pair of running shoes without you ordering them, as it can detect that you’ve put in too many miles on your existing pair. Or, your vehicle automatically plots a traffic-free route because it knows you are likely headed home after a day at the office, alerting you to the nearest gas station given the pending snowstorm.


Smart Automation Soon Will Be Routine
Digital (particularly the smartphone) has conditioned an entire generation to expect instant gratification. Anything can be accessed, anywhere and at any time. To an experienced smartphone user, the device is key to navigating through a digital world. The phone is our communication lifeline, our source for directions to anywhere, a pocket-sized entertainment library, our retirement plan, the easiest way to get a cab, and so much more. But the handheld “computerphone” will soon be integrated into our clothing, eyeglasses or watch, and will leverage an increasing ability to harvest and interpret data from devices equipped with location and condition-aware technologies.
Soon – based on predictive and proactive capabilities introduced in the latest mobile operating systems – delivering instant gratification will not be good enough. As a result, buyers will expect brands to predict their needs in a relevant, non-interruptive way without being asked or prompted. Brands that lag behind this fundamental shift in buyer expectations are at enormous risk.

Reading The Consumer’s Mind
While predictive intelligence may seem like the stuff of the future, the building blocks are in place today. Already, a simple mobile search unlocks answers to the world’s most vexing questions, like “Where should we have dinner tonight?” “Am I getting a good deal on this product I’m about to purchase in store?” Google knows what you are looking for from the moment you begin typing. Similarly, there are apps that tell you it’s time to leave for your next appointment based on the location of that next meeting, your current location and the traffic conditions between the two. Plug in your headphones, and music controls appear.
This predictive capability will move from foundational OS-level functionality to a pervasive feature available in every app, and it will become ever more powerful as the device gets better at harnessing data from external sensors. While users today expect the phone to know their current location – and further expect relevant info, content, offers and marketing communications based on that knowledge – they will soon expect more. We will be marketing in a world where your phone is so aware of your context and need states, that it predicts what you want, then delivers it before you ask. When devices fully understand context and mindset, content and experiences (including marketing) will be delivered proactively based on that understanding. It’s a tectonic shift in what people expect from any and all interactions on their phone.

Big Data And Artificial Intelligence Change Everything
Marketers that fuse buyer history with knowledge gleaned from multiple data sources and sensors will eat their competitors for breakfast. These brands will anticipate and even deliver products and services before being asked, while competitors practice old techniques.
Consider common re-targeting missteps happening today, like getting an onslaught of ads to BUY or LEASE the car you just bought. Or Google Maps showing you the location of the Westin New York (where you typically stay), even though you are standing in downtown Chicago.
The frustration these scenarios cause is, at minimum, a negative experience that reflects poorly on the brands. Already, according to a study by the CMO Council, more than half of consumers are willing to end a relationship with a retailer if they are not getting personalized offers.
In the very near future, these experiences will move from annoying to a customer that is lost forever, never to be re-acquired. The consumer experience bar has been raised to dizzying heights and buyers are not satisfied with anything less than clairvoyance.

Source: forbes.com