We expect that CEOs and celebrities live in a different world, surrounded by their entourages. Yet their charmed lives may be prototypes for how the middle classes will live tomorrow.
Robots of all kinds were in their greatest numbers ever at CES 2016. Staples such as robot vacuum cleaners — if you don’t have one, get one now — were joined by robots that fold laundry, make cocktails, clean your grill, and tidy up after your cat, and robot luggage that follows you through the airport. Whirlpool’s latest washing machine orders a new bottle of laundry detergent from Amazon on your behalf when it is getting low. HP printers do the same with ink. People who use these robots (the word actually comes from the Czech for “drudgery”) quickly put their trust in them and learn to let go of the details.
The kinds of robots that we recognize from stories — C3PO, basically — are still not quite there, but many of them have matured from being at the bleeding edge of CES three years ago to being plausible products today. Telepresence robots allow remote workers to “walk” around the office and join in. Home robots can answer the door and patrol your house when you’re not around. Companion robots entertain and educate children. You’ll easily get through 2016 without meeting one of these, but over the next 2–3 years people will learn to find mechanical presences unexceptional.
Transport is also being transformed by automation. Flying drones, which were once things that people flew (and crashed), are becoming things that you tell what to do: follow me with a camera; take this thing to this place. Chinese drone maker EHang showed its people-sized autonomous aerial vehicle: sit inside, tell it where you want to go, and it will fly up to 1,000 feet, go there, and land. Safely. Hot on its tail are auto makers, all of whom are racing towards autonomous driving. The biggest barrier is likely to be legislation, but the year 2020 feels like a good bet. Electric car maker Telsa has released a beta of “summon,” where your car will open the garage door and come to you in response to a call from your phone — and “unsummon” to do the reverse. CEO Elon Musk reckons that by 2018 you will be able to do this even if you’re in Los Angeles and your car is in New York, as long as you don’t mind the wait. All of these developments increasingly make transport something that will demand almost no attention from travelers.
We are seeing how giving robots agency in our lives frees our time for more enriching activities. Like CEOs and celebrities, we will need to learn to delegate and trust. Brands will necessarily compete for this new frontier of free time and attention. The real gold rush is competing for people’s confidence: when so much in your life is done by others on your behalf, who will you trust with it?
Lorenzo Wood is Global Chief Innovation Officer, DigitasLBi