Ikea AI
Deep pockets come in handy once again.
On April 28th Ikea's external innovation lab, called Space10, launched a consumer survey online and at locations in Barcelona, to discover what people are thinking about artificial intelligence. The results are sure to guide not only Ikea's future product innovations, in-store shopping experiences, external business investments, but also perhaps 'smart furniture' advances for the industry as a whole.
The survey is a rather creative, and academic approach to online consumer research. It is introduced with a set of conceptual frameworks for AI that we are already familiar with today, but that most consumers have little personal experience with. The consumer is is asked to speculate on their own future preferences. What would you want from AI? Human personality, guidance on how to live or do things, robotic personality, male/female gender identification, what type of attitude, do you want the system to grow with you, and mimic your life stages? These surveys can be lots of fun, but how predictive can they be if consumers lack prior experience with the systems? And certainly that's most of the point.
Thinking back to 2010, the jewelry and watch industry, typically very traditional and certainly slow to adapt to digital innovation, was beginning to wake up to the implications of wearable technology on their businesses. It wasn't a matter of whether they'd lose marketshare, it was how soon and how much share would be lost.
The same appears to be true for the equally cozy furniture market. Heritage brands may innovate some, forward thinking designer brands more quickly, and Ikea's learnings and growing pains as they test and integrate smart technology into their furniture will be great fun to watch and discover what works. Already Ikea is introducing smart lighting with accompanying app, and this Fall, the much-promoted "open-source" Delaktig couch, a modular bed/sofa/many other things when additional design features are combined with it, as part of Ikea's move towards sustainability. Tom Dixon designed the couch, and while I am both a Tom Dixon design fan, and conceptually at least, on board with Ikea's forward thinking innovations, the sofa is about as "future-proof" as a plastic storage bin for keeping clothes moth-free in the attic. Sparce and to the point, it might survive for eternity but its certainly not heirloom-worthy aesthetically. Nor does it really warrant a tie with their AI adventures
As for the the "Do You Speak Human?" survey, click here to participate. It really is quite cute. So far the trending preferences (which I'm not really sure why they're publicizing already) is male. My guess is they'll be able to tease these results apart by gender and regional preferences once its all said and done.
I look forward to the day that I can mindlessly arrive at dinner to wonderfully home cooked organic dinner that is prescribed by my doctor and made in my AI kitchen system, ensuring my greatest health and longevity. All of which will be fine so long as I'm allowed to still eat dessert with real sugar in it as a reward for eating my greens. That said, will AI juvenalize adulthood and downgrade our expectations of personal responsibility?
On April 28th Ikea's external innovation lab, called Space10, launched a consumer survey online and at locations in Barcelona, to discover what people are thinking about artificial intelligence. The results are sure to guide not only Ikea's future product innovations, in-store shopping experiences, external business investments, but also perhaps 'smart furniture' advances for the industry as a whole.
The survey is a rather creative, and academic approach to online consumer research. It is introduced with a set of conceptual frameworks for AI that we are already familiar with today, but that most consumers have little personal experience with. The consumer is is asked to speculate on their own future preferences. What would you want from AI? Human personality, guidance on how to live or do things, robotic personality, male/female gender identification, what type of attitude, do you want the system to grow with you, and mimic your life stages? These surveys can be lots of fun, but how predictive can they be if consumers lack prior experience with the systems? And certainly that's most of the point.
Thinking back to 2010, the jewelry and watch industry, typically very traditional and certainly slow to adapt to digital innovation, was beginning to wake up to the implications of wearable technology on their businesses. It wasn't a matter of whether they'd lose marketshare, it was how soon and how much share would be lost.
The same appears to be true for the equally cozy furniture market. Heritage brands may innovate some, forward thinking designer brands more quickly, and Ikea's learnings and growing pains as they test and integrate smart technology into their furniture will be great fun to watch and discover what works. Already Ikea is introducing smart lighting with accompanying app, and this Fall, the much-promoted "open-source" Delaktig couch, a modular bed/sofa/many other things when additional design features are combined with it, as part of Ikea's move towards sustainability. Tom Dixon designed the couch, and while I am both a Tom Dixon design fan, and conceptually at least, on board with Ikea's forward thinking innovations, the sofa is about as "future-proof" as a plastic storage bin for keeping clothes moth-free in the attic. Sparce and to the point, it might survive for eternity but its certainly not heirloom-worthy aesthetically. Nor does it really warrant a tie with their AI adventures
As for the the "Do You Speak Human?" survey, click here to participate. It really is quite cute. So far the trending preferences (which I'm not really sure why they're publicizing already) is male. My guess is they'll be able to tease these results apart by gender and regional preferences once its all said and done.
I look forward to the day that I can mindlessly arrive at dinner to wonderfully home cooked organic dinner that is prescribed by my doctor and made in my AI kitchen system, ensuring my greatest health and longevity. All of which will be fine so long as I'm allowed to still eat dessert with real sugar in it as a reward for eating my greens. That said, will AI juvenalize adulthood and downgrade our expectations of personal responsibility?
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