About every five years, CEDIA’s Technology Advisory Council releases a white paper with in-depth predictions of what we believe the landscape will look like for the integrator five years in the future.
When the paper first began, there was a large focus on the technology itself as the landscape was beginning to explode with the Internet of Things, products that incorporated machine learning, and a brand-new buzzword (err, buzz acronym), AI. Subsequent papers kept a heavy focus on the technology trends of tomorrow and even began to incorporate some market size predictions.
But the Technology Advisory Council realised something when brainstorming its latest white paper.
In its simplest form, technology is a tool to get the job done. Its complexity will grow, and curation of simplified, usable systems will continue to be an opportunity for the CEDIA channel.
Fast forward to The Integrator of 2027 white paper and you’ll notice a different approach this time around. The latest iteration presents a lesser focus on technology and product-centricity and instead moves to user-centricity and designing hyper-personalised experiences to improve the human condition.
Shifting to a more qualitative format provided the theme of the white paper: “Integrating technology into the built environment to improve the human condition.”
The emphasis is on the importance of designing with intention and empathy to unravel each user’s unique needs across five main categories: presence, comfort, health, safety, and sustainability. Two vital yet often missed steps in systems creation are also discussed. While many integrators today go straight from sales to specification, a new workflow of discovery, design, engineering, and specification is proposed. Each step of the process is broken down into why, how, and what throughout the paper.
The importance of meeting a user’s needs while profiting from process, not just products is covered – a big thing to be cognisant of by 2027 as hardware margins erode for some product categories. Micro and macro trends, hyper personalization, and much more are discussed. And despite the heavy focus on the integrator, there remains plenty of technology to sink your teeth into.
To download The Integrator of 2027 white paper for free, visit cedia.net/whitepapers.
