Last year we could read a report and see an Infographic which illustrated how brands and consumers react to different technologies which are trending. Now we have an updated version of it, time to look into Digital Trends 2018.

Last year, digital agency Code Computerlove brought us the report and infographic first hand. Thanks to the team who updated it with the latest data and information which lets us look into Digital Trends 2018. So let’s have a look if brands learned or they are still losing out.

Pessimists would say, some things are never changing, we could say in summary the same of the overall findings. Brands are not listing, people are not looking for new products, they are looking to have products which got better. But to be honest, some things did change.

I can see on the first look that more digital trends in media are increasing. One of the hot topics of the year was “augmented reality” which was mention in 2016 more than 24 million times in the news, compared to 2017 where we could hear 41 million times from it. Same goes for our famous “voice assistant” which was mention only 10,700 in the year 2016, hold tight the number in 2017 increased to 11 million. Now, this looks to me like a hot topic. The second place in discussed hot topics is “virtual reality”, we could hear it 29 million times in the news. Impressive numbers.

Google search reflects the same result as the news, also VR is leading here in front of augmented reality, voice assistant, chatbots and mobile payment.

The battle of the giants is also reflecting in the digital trends. In the red corner Amazon and in the blue corner Google, bing, the 2017 round goes to Amazon with Amazon Alexa and Amazon Echo which was mention 4 times more than Google Home –  8,6 million vs 2,1 million.

Regional key trends in focus are showing that countries and 80% market leaders are looking into chatbots, France, the Netherlands, South Africa, and the UK say they are already using chatbots, or plan to use them by 2020. The global forecast on implementing VR & AR is recognized as 143 million dollar business.

But how about the voice of the consumers, which are there Digital Trends 2018? Well, 1000 people have been surveyed to find out how the really feel about some of the major emerging consumer technology trends.

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They have been asked which technologies do consumers want to use in 2018. 23.7% said they would feel to use voice assistant, 23% are fine with mobile payment even if in the UK the biggest fear is the contactless payment, 15% of the consumers are interested into VR, 11.3% in AR and only 8.8% in chatbots.

Technology that removes effort from everyday interactions (voice assistant and mobile payments) is igniting the most consumer interest, whilst tech that might be seen as primary being there to make brands live easier (chatbots) is getting colder reception. 40% of consumers who encountered chatbots in 2017 weren’t happy with the experience.

Listen to the consumers, see the infographic below for all the details of this year “Digital Trends 2018? Don’t miss to check out the 2017 version which we have also online at Skillz Middle East. Share with us your thought as a consumer, which technologies did you try 2017? Use our commenting below.