Advanced Technology and Customer Experience: A Winning Combination
Sure you want to have fun, learn something, and work with cool people during the hackathon. But what is even better than that? Winning of course!
Part of the Judging Criteria for the hackathon is Technical Innovation, where 15 points are up for grabs! By Technical Innovation we mean a solution that uses advanced technologies, product features or mashups, and that may push the current state of technology.
We now have increased computing power, faster connectivity, cloud technologies, sensors of all kinds and smaller devices that are all driving a number of advanced technologies including:
- Robotics
- 5G connectivity
- XR which include augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR)
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning
- Internet of Things (IoT)
- Smart cameras and computer vision
- Edge computing
- Autonomous vehicles
- AI Assistants including voice bots with speech recognition
- Blockchain technology and
- APIs.
Red Hat itself is investing and contributing to advanced technologies including Kubernetes which is at the core of the open hybrid cloud.
Remember from a previous blog, that Customer Experience is about the entire journey a customer takes from finding out about you, interacting with your product or service, making a purchase and receiving followup or support. Using emerging technologies – especially based on open source – can help significantly improve this experience, if used purposefully. Customer touch points could be online through a laptop, with a mobile device with voice enabled chat, a virtual reality headset, or even with a robot for deliveries or information exchange!
Of course you also need to learn about your customer. Advanced technologies really come into play here for instance: using computer vision to identify shopping patterns in a store and then optimize the layout for a better experience.
Advanced technologies and customer experience can mash up for any industry. Consider health care, where using AI and machine learning could identify potential drug side effects based on a patient’s history, current drugs and possible drug recalls. Blockchain technology is being used for traceable supply chains to prevent fraud like in branded goods and increase safety as in agriculture. All of this could be accessed and opened via APIs. Biting into an apple that I know hasn’t been subjected to pesticides and has been grown in a sustainable manner puts a customer experience smile on my face!
We hope these are a few ideas of advanced technology to help you think about how you might include an advanced technology into your hackathon project. Remember - it’s worth 15 points! We’re looking forward to finding out what you create.