The five big things that Web3 is missing, and how Empowerment Tech will make our lives better
The five big things that Web3 is missing, and how Empowerment Tech will make our lives better
The ideas of Web3 are nearly right, but there’s a much bigger prize if we look beyond solutions, to personal outcomes
Hi everyone,
Thanks for coming back to Customer Futures. Each week I unpack the fundamental shifts around Empowerment Tech.
Digital wallets, Personal AI and new digital customer relationships.
This is a PERSPECTIVE edition, a regular take on the future of digital customer relationships.
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Most folks following the rise of digital wallets and Web3 believe it’s all about two things:
More private and decentralised value exchange
Proof of digital ownership
If you push for a deeper answer, it’s about free-flowing and verifiable data. About programmable money and digital independence. Even about about seamless experiences.
I think that’s nearly right. Because those are solutions, not benefits. Here’s what’s really going to happen, and the much larger prize if we do it right.
The next wave of disruptive digital tools will really be about people.
About personal outcomes.
Our new digital tools will:
Give us back time
Make us less stressed
Remove lots of our day-to-day hassles
Enable new experiences
Simplify the complicated things in our lives
Because innovation and disruption should be about outcomes. Not about products or solutions. It should be about customer jobs-to-be-done. Not about the latest tech hype cycle.
Let’s take a look.
Give us back time
With new digital tools like Personal AI, digital wallets and portable verifiable credentials, we will be able to share verifiable data about ourselves. Trusted information about who we are, our context and what we need.
Simply, privately and securely.
So what?
It means other people and businesses will be able to instantly trust who they are dealing with. They’ll get high levels of assurance of where data and payments come from.
Together this means we’ll be able to automate many, many processes. It’s going to save a wild amount of time for everyone. Including organisations.
Digital Empowerment Tech is going to free us all up to do what actually matters. Like spending time with family.
Make us less stressed
Our bodies are under constant digital stress. I don’t just mean phone and social media addiction. (Which is getting worse, and is impacting our kids in the most horrible ways: check out these stats for your country).
I mean from the everyday digital chaos. The admin. The spam.
It’s exhausting. But we’re all putting up with it. And we’re developing some serious digital illnesses.
Spam Blindness. Consent Fatigue. Digital Helplessness. Information Overeating. Digital Fraud Anxiety.
And it’s taking a quiet toll. Most of us don’t answer that call, don’t fill out the form and don’t interact online because we don’t know which business or person we are dealing with.
But new personal agents, verifiable credentials and peer-to-peer connections are going to change that forever.
They’re going to help everyone build digital confidence.
Soon we’ll connect in a whole new way. Authentically and verifiably. Privately and securely. To only those people and businesses that matter.
And here’s the kicker. Once we can trust the other end of a digital connection? We’ll share more data. Transaction and interaction volumes are going to explode.
All because we will feel much more digitally free.
Empowerment Tech will mean we’ll be less stressed about who’s on the other end of that connection.
Remove lots of our day-to-day hassles
Once we start using trusted digital wallets and verifiable credentials, our digital interactions will be lower risk, by definition. More secure. More trusted.
So when we’re asked to prove things about ourselves we will waste less time messing about.
Organisations will do less faffing too. Chasing fraudsters. Double-checking data. Paying for expensive 3rd party verification checks. (Together these things will save them $millions by the way. It will become the next wave of digital transformation).
Plus, we’ll all make fewer mistakes getting the right data to the right people in the first place.
And with clever new digital tools like personal agents on the individual's side, people can make better decisions the first time.
What to buy. When to switch. How much to pay. What not to buy. When to wait. Which provider to select.
Empowerment Tech will fix much of the digital hassles we put up with today.
Enable new experiences
Even with a basic understanding of AI, most people can imagine a Personal AI helping us manage our money.
Or perhaps helping with an ongoing health condition. Providing things like reminders for medication. Creating a personalised daily exercise plan, based on our very personal needs.
But the inventors of the electric motor could never have imagined that today, motors would be used to turn the wing mirrors on our cars. Or automatically dispense fresh ice from our kitchen fridges.
So we need to think broader. Wider. Deeper. Digital wallets and personal agents are going to show up in every facet of life.
Not only will our smart digital tools be able to do things we didn’t think were possible. But they will do things we can’t even conceive of right now.
Empowerment Tech will empower people in ways we can’t predict. And that’s a Good Thing.
Simplify the complicated things in our lives
AI is already having an impact on businesses. Skill augmentation. Task automation. And much more.
Soon it will also be about task autonomy, where AI agents will set themselves goals to get things done within and for business teams.
But digital wallets and personal agents will be different. Because they’ll live on the side of the individual. Helping the customer, the patient, the athlete, and the employee directly.
These new smart tools will help us make sense of our world. Help us with decisions. And help us manage our own digital affairs.
Our digital wallets and personal agents will support us with complex life events. Like moving home or choosing a job. Recovering from a car accident or going through a divorce.
But they’ll also help us with our complex daily routines. Managing our blood sugar levels. The weekly family shop. The work-and-life calendar mess.
Those things that are too small to have someone dedicated (and paid) to help with, but too big and messy to manage in ‘an app’.
Empowerment Tech is going to make life simpler, better and more enjoyable.
Today, Web3 is only scratching the surface.
On the other hand, Empowerment Tech is going to change everything. And if we do it right, the opportunities for people will be endless.
Because there’s a much bigger prize if we look beyond today’s technical solutions, and start thinking about personal outcomes.
Thanks for reading this week’s edition.
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