The perfect day in 2025

Introduction

This blog was written in 2017 trying to capture the importance of more meaningful digital mobility solutions. So what if you could manage with just a few wearables doing the same as hundreds today, e.g. VentureBeat’s Harrison Weber managed to try on 56 different wearables at CES. A bit too much.

What if you could enjoy a smart home today without the hassle of connecting sensors and devices to manufacturing specific platforms and systems. As Samsung CEO BK Yoon said in his CES keynote, “I’ve heard people say they want to create a single operating system for the Internet of Things, but these people only work with their own devices”.

As manufacturers enter their digital journey, the biggest change is actually a major cultural change, learning the new way and letting go of what still works today.
Today we’re already co-creating the future with clients using emerging technologies to boost customer experience for a better tomorrow. Companies accelerate and implement start-up innovative culture and units, broadening their client/partner ecosystems to improve top line growth.

I recently visited the IBM Watson IoT Center in Munich, a new truly ecosystem friendly Client/Partner lab opened this spring, where clients and partners innovate together with access to top talent. I expect more similar centers to be operational in next 12 months, e.g. World Economic Forum announced, the new Forum Center in San Francisco to Advance Global Cooperation with the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
So let me try to describe the perfect day in 2025, which of course takes place during a dark cold winter day in our Northern hemisphere.

The Perfect Day
“I wake up to a delightful (artificial) sunrise, nice pleasant lounge music and feeling blessed. It was my greatest decision ever to move to the new innovative Smart Home apartment complex. No worries about setting the alarm anymore, no need to operate light or devices manually in my apartment.

As I perform my morning routines, I listen my client portfolio company news, and I respond to a few urgent requests by voice control, and enter the shower. My shower knows my preferences and automatically adjusts the water temperature +2C. The cool thing about all the sensors in my apartment is that everything is connected and optimized for my preferences by using personal AI analytics.

I’m scanned from top to toe in the bathroom and my sleep is analyzed, so I’m looking forward for the perfectly brewed coffee to get me going. My orange juice is blended with daily vitamins, as prescribed in real time by my personal 24/7 digital health doctor. I decide to enjoy a freshly baked croissant, although I know my personal trainer advisor will add 15 minutes of exercise to my calendar, it is worth it (I’ll use the stairs today).

As I enjoy breakfast my cognitive expert advisor is currently rescheduling my appointments for the day based upon last night’s snowstorm, considering data from traffic situation and also latest health information shared by the people I will meet today (as we all want to avoid the winter influenza epidemic). I guess a few will attend remotely today.

I walk towards the front door and my personal robot Pepper wishes me a nice day. I’m picked up by an autonomous vehicle and charged automatically with standard flat rate and the tip is based upon my customer satisfaction rating.

During the ride I have time to catch up on the latest news and take care of my morning correspondence. As I’m approaching the Client/Partner lab building I exit the autonomous vehicle and enter the building, as of course there is no delay with parking.

I’m scanned by face recognition with access granted in real time to the lab. My meeting participants are informed of my estimated arrival and the agenda is adjusted accordingly.

At the lab we’re working on a specific client case where client satisfaction dropped last month in a specific rural market. We analyze data and recommendations provided by Watson IoT and machine learning minor adjustments made last weeks in core processes. We connect to a client/partner lab closer to the rural market and jointly identify the root cause, taking into account local market conditions.

We prototype a Blockchain-based smart contracts solution, that can be fully executed without human interaction and eliminates the need to upgrade thousands of mobile devices and apps in the rural market. We conclude with an e2e simulation to ensure the changes can be implemented and support company core processes and KPI’s.

After a full day at the Client/Partner lab working with multiple clients and partners I’m finally heading home, and decide at the last minute to enjoy fresh lobster and wine for dinner, which is recognized by the voice control in my autonomous vehicle which places the order to Wolt for delivery. Nice.”

Conclusion
It’s an exciting time, maybe similar to when companies like Ford or Harley Davidson started over 100 years ago, the spirit of innovation, true entrepreneurship and fast paced ecosystems sharing knowledge to test out new products and solutions for customers to be amazed, though cycle from idea to minimum viable product takes only a few days nowadays.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is global ecosystem, which will enforce collaboration and standardization to ensure connectivity and improve customer experience and quality of life at home and work and in transition, as an example, think of what Kone’s People Flow solutions with autonomous vehicles ecosystem can enable.

So let’s create the perfect day 2025 today and enjoy connected homes, autonomous vehicles, machine learning, personal analytics, cognitive expert advisors, smart robots and global standardized Industrial IoT platforms.

To succeed industries need to create an open ecosystem culture with accelerated innovation:
a)     From Many Ideas to Prototype (Innovation Workshops, Design Sprints and Innovative Ecosystem Partners)
b)     From Prototype to Proof of Concept (Agile, Embedded Software projects, Client/Partner labs)
c)     From Proof of Concept to Product & Services (Lifecycle Services, proven scalable services and platforms, quality)

So let’s accelerate innovation with Design Thinking minds and agile ecosystem partners solving specific business challenges in days and weeks rather than months.