(slow, mysterious music)
- What if social distancing
was not something we had to do,
but the start of something
revolutionary and new?
Long before the pandemic,
there was a trend that
started in South Korea.
The marketers called it Untact.
Their vision was a world in which
all your goods and services
could be delivered autonomously,
without people having to interact.
The idea was especially popular
with younger consumers and Generation Z,
awkward in social circumstances,
more familiar with smartphones than TV.
So now there are coffee shops
where robots can brew 90
cups of coffee per hour,
and jean stores that are open
24/7 without a human inside,
augmented reality beauty bars
where an AI can offer you advice,
automated convenience stores
and the contactless ordering
of noodles and rice,
and supermarkets where your
choice of basket colour
indicates whether people
should talk to you or not.
When COVID-19 arrived,
South Korea was, in a way,
already prepared, with far more automation
than most countries would have dared.
South Korea's robot density
is now the second-highest in the world,
with 774 robots
to 10,000 human employees.
And Untact is now part of the government's
official response to the disease.
Their plan is a $62 billion new deal
that incorporates high-speed broadband,
robots, remote work, and drones.
Will it be a high-tech heaven,
or a sad inferno of digital
addiction and being alone?
COVID-19 let us experience
what a socially distanced world might be,
with digital interactions,
automation, and home delivery.
But South Korea is just one glimpse
of what the post-pandemic
world might become.
They aren't the only country
dreaming of being robot-run.
In China, there are robot restaurants,
automated retailers, and AI hotels,
while in America there's Amazon Go,
food delivery robots, and
parcel delivery by drone.
Could you imagine living
and working your whole life
without leaving your home?
The Untact revolution is bigger
than just being left alone
and doing everything from your phone.
It's about creating an
operating system for daily life
that can anticipate your needs
and save you a lot of strife.
But there's still a number of things
that we need to think about,
if this is going to be a blueprint
for the world that is to come.
Number one: use online to
offline to accelerate innovation.
Online to offline came from China,
where they simply call it O2O.
The idea is that the relationship
between the digital and the real world
is one of two-way flow.
In China, anything you need or want
can be organised from your
phone with just a tap.
Ridesharing, travel, haircuts, massage,
dry-cleaning, financial services,
it's all there on the Weixin app.
The Chinese know that,
the more of the world
that can be digitally
coordinated and booked,
the richer the data that
can train algorithms
to keep us engaged and hooked.
Number two: know the difference
between delivery and service.
Part of getting contactless right
is knowing that there's a difference
between delivery and service,
or fulfilment and delight.
Delivery is getting something done;
service is doing it great.
Sometimes, done is enough:
a quick bowl of noodles,
paying a friend, getting across town.
Service is when you want something more:
an amazing experience, a new insight,
or a welcome surprise
when you're feeling down.
Delivery is best automated,
for repetitive tasks that
don't require people much.
Service is best when it's tailored,
for experiences that demand a human touch.
Number three: keep the
world at human scale.
There's a risk in a world of machines
that we design solutions that
are no longer at human scale.
But just because something is contactless
doesn't mean it has to
be an automation hell.
An AI hotel might not
need a physical check-in,
but a great concierge should never be
more than a video call away.
A robot barista may make
the perfect cup of coffee
without making you queue,
but a café can still be a great place
for human interaction
and conversation too.
You can use AI in a contact centre
to fix customer problems and disputes,
but still have human
beings armed with insights
to solve the ones that don't compute.
As strange as it may seem,
designing your business to
work without human contact
may actually be a path to
greater human intimacy.
What if, by eliminating the frustrations
and frictions of getting things done,
we could actually find a path
to delivering great
experiences for everyone?
(slow, mysterious music)
