CES 2020 - my takeaways on three annual days of crazy

CES is where companies from all over the world and of all shapes and sizes come to exhibit and connect new product propositions, services and platforms. For our team here at GSK Consumer Healthcare it’s a wonderful opportunity to get a sense of the disruptions shaping healthcare and consumer expectations, both today and tomorrow. 

Having been for the last couple of years it’s amazing to see the progress and adoption some transformative technologies have made in the last 24 months. In 2018 Alexa and the idea of Alexa skills were launched. Customer Service and the idea of virtual agents were becoming more commonplace. In 2019 everything was seemingly becoming Alexa enabled...from toilet seats to doorbells - this intelligence and level of convenience was becoming embedded (and therefore expected).

This year it felt like the big themes were 5G connectivity, Sustainability and true Artificial Intelligence as a service being added to even the most mundane of everyday products and service. Data is obviously the thread which runs through all of these things and becomes stronger and more valuable the more relatable and connected it becomes. 

The connected home, the connected consumer and the internet of things (IoT) are reoccurring constants which are now transcending edge use cases and moving into the hygiene/norm of a product experience i.e I'm just beginning to expect my device to be connected to other services, or that I can pay with my Amazon account, or that giving you my data will result in a greater level of useful and actionable insight for myself. 

Above all, the thing we must strive to understand is just where the true value and unmet/unimagined need lies for the consumer as that is the thing which will drive the real adoption and behaviour change. Remembering that just because things can be connected doesn’t necessarily mean a) they should or b) people will care.

I want to highlight a couple of businesses and propositions/ themes which I feel are or will be significant signals of change.... 

Wearables becoming invisible and passive:

Yes - there is a plethora of devices, trackers, smart bands and gizmos. It wouldn’t be CES without it... but the most interesting emergent themes I saw in this space was smart clothing and synthetics. Businesses like Skiin from Myant (smart fibres) and Welt (smart belts which capture and analyse your gait) and Aura (a smart band you attach to your Apple Watch with additional sensors) feel to be the next iteration of devices which become invisible to our eyes but deliver accurate, always on passive data collection. In a world which is seeking to be less wasteful and more connected this makes sense to me. 

Smart devices are becoming smarter, but no one has cracked the integration layer (yet...):

Amazon had a huge experience around connected home. The ironic thing was none of the devices were actually really connected to one another. Yes - there were instances of interesting use cases (kids toys, smart shelves etc) but in most instances people are applying layers of AI or conversational technologies to “analog” products.. which isn’t the same. The only place where this is truly happening is in home security where individual component devices are acting as one integrated and interoperable system. 

Diagnostics are getting faster, more accurate, and more useful:

If you’ve never heard of them, check out a UK based business called DNA Nudge. They deliver a DNA diagnostic in under and hour - the smart bit is they link it to your food shop which allows people to make in the moment smaller smarter everyday choices (the very essence and building blocks of sustainable and measurable behaviour change). On the other extreme, Bodyo is a portable diagnostic centre in a booth which can be dropped into retail environments and serve as a one-stop-shop to measure biometrics (as part of triage, but also part of ongoing maintenance). It plays on a huge consumer drive for convenience (and a signal we’re already seeing from retailers like Walmart, CVS, BestBuy and Boots who are making shopping a health destination.) Likewise, through the Care OS platform, Roca (the bathroom fittings company) have launched a smart mirror with some truly impressive integrated diagnostics and connected features - everything from travel updates to AR make up features. The demonstration really bought to life how seamless and integrated technology is becoming. 

Sleep continues to dominate:

It’s hard to bring to life the magnitude of presence that sleep and sleep tech held at the show this year. From the biggest to the smallest business, everyone is now capitalising on the power and growing consumer fascination of sleep – although as with all new trends, quantifying the effect and bringing it to life for people is hard. My hypothesis is that we can treat it as a siloed opportunity or benefit. The trick which no one has managed to conjure (yet) is how you truly embed both benefit and behaviour into a new sleep product and service. Watch this space.

So what are my three major take-aways after this year’s show...?

1. Large global businesses like ours (i.e. health care / CPG) continue to experiment in new spaces. Yet there is not one company that has perfected their approach - and for me there was no one product that had my jaw on the floor. 

2. Devices seem to be less focussed on the physical product. Importantly the focus is now turning to USP’s around the data it interprets, amalgamates or emits on behalf of the user. These will in turn fuel smarter services and partnerships. 

3. Companies are beginning to be bigger and bolder into their thinking. Besides all of the “me too” products and services on offer, the most ambitious ideas solving the significant problems of tomorrow (smart cities, how we travel, how we create new, more immersive and more human experiences for one another) captured people’s hearts and minds. 

As we work in the most human of all industries, we must continue to think boldly...and move quickly. 

Views expressed in this article are my own.

NT / Jan 2020