Zoom calls will now come with the option of live captions, in a move that’s likely to make life easier for remote workers whose attention spans suffer steep declines during online meetings.

In March 2018, we published in issue 4-39 an article “Transcribe Your Meetings in Real Time” introducing you to Otter.ai, a Los Altos, CA start-up. Now the company is expanding its technology to enable speakers on a Zoom call to see their words turned into accurate captions in real-time. This should put an end to the unfortunate miscommunications frequently caused by remote collaboration tools.

So, there should be no more excuses for misreporting the numbers presented by your sales team or missing the list of targets put forward by your manager.

Captions will appear directly within the call, with a couple of seconds of lag. Presumably, they will be accurate enough for crucial information to come out in plain text consistently. 

The new feature will be incredibly helpful to users with accessibility needs and non-native English speakers struggling to make out the meaning of a sentence. Otter.ai currently only supports the English language but can handle a variety of accents, including southern American, Indian, British, Scottish, Chinese, and various European accents.

Two years ago, Otter.ai launched its popular speech-to-text software. Available as a mobile app or as a web-based tool, the technology soon started supporting online conferences, offering users the option to turn Zoom cloud recordings into written conversations to keep a record of their virtual meetings. 

Earlier this year, Otter.ai launched Live Notes – a new feature that enables users to open a live transcript of the call during a video conference in a separate shared file, which transcribes what is being said in real-time.  
Based on a sophisticated algorithm, Live Notes can separate human voices to identify different speakers and includes their name in the transcript to indicate that a given participant has started intervening. Users can then go back to the file to check a detail if they have missed a sentence or jumped late into the call.

Therefore, the new announcement builds on top of Live Notes, integrating the transcribed quotes directly into Zoom’s platform during a virtual meeting. In a demo call showcasing the technology, Otter.ai’s founder Sam Liang said, “Now, you will have Live Notes still going on in the background, but then you will also have the captions put down in the call. And there’s a pretty broad range of people that this will be helpful too.”

“It’s definitely a great help for people with a hearing disability, but also for international, distributed workforces who don’t speak English as their native language. And education as well: online classes could benefit from captions, on top of the Live Notes that they can go back to, to facilitate learning.”

The transcription is not precisely pitch-perfect: some sentences don’t make sense, and words occasionally come up deformed. Overall, however, Otter.ai’s algorithm, especially given the tool’s ease of use and accessibility, appears to be pretty accurate – an assessment echoed by most online reviews and user experiences.

Liang is confident that the technology’s accuracy is only improving as more users get on board, providing more training data for the speech-to-text algorithm and helping the AI work its way through background noise and strong accents.

By considering the context of an entire sentence, rather than working on a word-by-word basis, the AI can make more accurate decisions. 

Similar methods have sparked the interest of the industry’s most prominent players, with IBM now offering a cloud-based, highly accurate speech-to-text platform as part of Watson’s services. In contrast, Amazon Transcribe provides an API for automatic speech recognition.

However, Otter.ai is arguably the most consumer-facing technology out there. Liang confirmed that the company is now working on a smoother integration with platforms like Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Cisco Webex to open up access to the transcription and live-captions features.
​
In Zoom, live captions are available now for Otter customers paying for a Business plan, as well as for Zoom Pro customers.

Wireless engineers, automakers, and governments have spent years preparing for a future where autonomous cars will communicate with each other and sophisticated transportation networks – an initiative known as “cellular vehicle to everything,” commonly abbreviated C-V2X. Recently, the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) offered a roadmap for mass deployments of automotive communications technologies, and its timeline includes several interesting dates that aren’t as far off as some people might have guessed.

Based on the current pace of cellular industry standards organization 3GPP’s 5G releases, global 5G deployments, and the state of the automotive communications supply chain, the 5GAA expects three C-V2X stages over the next decade:

1. From 2020 through 2023, automakers will rely on 4G LTE-V2X technology to enable basic safety features, such as left-turn assistance and emergency electronic brake light features, to improve traffic efficiency. They’ll augment primary local hazard and traffic information that’s already being shared over cellular networks.
2. Starting in 2024, the 5GAA predicts a “large-scale introduction” of 5G-enabled automated driving technologies that rely on communications between vehicles and infrastructure. For example, 5G-V2X will be used to park cars in parking garages automatically – a car-to-private infrastructure use case Bosch is already testing in German and U.S. locations – followed by “more complex environments and scenarios” including public roads. Tele-operated driving will also be possible.
3. In 2026, 5GAA expects all new autonomous vehicles will include 5G-V2X, kicking off an age where cars cooperate by sharing high-definition sensor data. Some of C-V2X’s most widely anticipated autonomous functionality, such as cars being able to share their upcoming intentions with each other and the network, as well as combining video and depth information for real-time cooperative perception, will be in pilot test stages at this point. Urban and highway pilot programs for dynamic intersection management and cooperative traffic flows could take until 2029.

5GAA expects that the 3GPP will continue to evolve the 5G standard from current Release 16 through 2023’s Release 18, enhancing industry support and specifications for 5G-V2X as carriers continue building out their 5G infrastructures. As nice as it would be if autonomous vehicles could just start relying on 5G today, the reality is that 5G infrastructure isn’t yet built out enough around the world. There are technological and legal practicalities to consider, as well.
​
Allocating wireless spectrum to vehicles will be critical to 5G-V2X deployments, the 5GAA notes, ideally harmonized internationally at 5.9GHz, as well as low band spectrum for use in rural driving, and mid-band spectrum in urban environments. The group expects basic safety to require 10 to 20MHz of spectrum for direct 4G communications, plus 40MHz or more for advanced 5G driving.

The U.S. government is announcing $1 billion in new funding for multidisciplinary A.I. and quantum computing research hubs today, according to multiple reports. A total of 12 hubs will be funded, each embedded within different agencies of the federal government. Their work will span a diverse range of topics, from using machine learning for atmospheric and ocean science, to speeding up high-energy physics simulations with quantum systems.

The investment is part of a slow push from the White House to fund emerging technologies. Many policy advisors have worried that America is falling behind in A.I. and quantum research compared to rivals like China and warn that these technologies are instrumental not only for economic development but also for national security. 

It’s challenging to make a fair comparison of U.S. and Chinese spend on technology like A.I. as funding and research in this area is diffuse. Although China announced ambitious plans to become the world leader in A.I. by 2030, America still outspends the country in military funding (which increasingly includes A.I. research), while U.S. tech companies like Google and Microsoft remain world leaders in artificial intelligence.

​Some $625 million of today’s funding will go to research involving quantum information sciences in five centers linked to the Department of Energy (DOE). A further $140 million will be invested in seven A.I. initiatives, two overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and five by the National Science Foundation (NSF). According to the Wall Street Journal, private tech companies, including IBM and Microsoft, are contributing $300 million in the form of “technology-services donations,” likely meaning access to cloud computing resources.

The fitness industry is in the midst of a digital transformation. Fitness, like just about every industry from transportation to leisure, has witnessed the emergence of digital as a force for change, and brick and mortar gyms are having a tough time keeping pace. Entire companies have been successfully launched to capitalize on the rise in digital fitness, as evidenced by the popularity of companies such as MIRROR Home Fitness, Peloton, FiiT, and SWEAT. These are just a few fitness providers that have leveraged digital technology to engage audiences that are looking for customized fitness experiences that meet their individual schedules and routines.

We have Jane Fonda to thank for bringing fitness into the home back in the ’80s with her Original Workout video on VHS that went on to become the biggest selling video of all time. Fast forward 40 years, and we can thank technological innovation for taking home fitness to a new level.

But there is another factor at play which speaks to the preferences of Generation Y/millennials and Generation Z, who account for almost 50% of all health club members: These consumers have a preference for on-demand services and are less attracted to locking in annual membership fees. Remember, it was the recurring annuity stream of yearly membership fees that attracted private equity to brick and mortar gyms, which need stable and predictable cash flow to service debt and to cover high operating expenses. Working out at home or in private sessions with a personal trainer (in-person or virtual) doesn’t require an annual membership.

Paying as you go is where the market is moving. Facilitating this trend is the emergence of mobile apps that provide fitness trainers and coaches with a business-in-a-box so professionals in all aspects of fitness, but who are not necessarily astute in how to run a business, can manage scheduling, client on-boarding, invoicing, payment processing, and communication. The many thousands of certified trainers who have been laid off from gyms are now empowered to run their businesses thanks to cloud-hosted back offices and video conferencing capabilities that provide real-time delivery of services.

Disruption creates winners and losers in any industry. Sometimes disruption is a gradual process, and the eventual losers don’t detect the shifting landscape for periods that can extend for years. Think of Kodak and digital photography or Sony and its inability to capitalize on the success of the Walkman, thereby allowing Apple to become the dominant player in digital music. Disruption has been underway in the fitness industry for several years, but until recently, it has been a slow and steady disruption.

COVID-19 accelerated the pace of disruption in fitness, and studios and clubs, both small and large, are increasingly vulnerable. 24-Hour Fitness recently filed for bankruptcy, citing Coronavirus-related causes. With 420 clubs in the US, 24-Hour Fitness is the second largest fitness chain after LA Fitness. With the filing, the company announced it would permanently shut down 100 of its gyms, leaving roughly one million members to find a new place to exercise. Also, Town Sports, owner of Boston Sports Club, and several other club brands announced they would likely file for bankruptcy in the coming weeks. Gold’s Gym filed for bankruptcy in May.

Demand for fitness isn’t going anywhere but up. The $30 billion fitness industry has been growing 3 – 4% annually for the last ten years. How it is delivered, however, is changing before our eyes. The often-quoted expression “Never let a good crisis go to waste” speaks perfectly to the opportunity in the industry today.

Stuck at home, trainers and consumers have had to adapt and get creative about how they think about fitness. Many have also discovered a new meaning of community through virtual experiences that were never seriously considered just 12 months ago. No surprise that MIRROR and Peloton have experienced record sales during the pandemic because they provide consumers a workout experience that feels pretty close to being in a room surrounded by fellow workout enthusiasts. And now that they have gotten into the routine of working out from home, either with a trainer or on-demand through an app, many will never go back to a traditional gym.
​
The implications of COVID on the fitness industry offer insights into the way several industries will shift as a result of the shelter in place orders. Restaurants will get more creative about take-out options that engage the diner with the preparation, travel experiences may turn to staycations, and the beauty industry may have to move to home services or even more training than doing for their customers. The winners in every case will be the ones that are agile and ready to adapt to the change.

​The coronavirus pandemic has forced everyone to get creative. 

Whether through Zoom meetings, online fitness classes, or take-out cocktails, companies in nearly every industry are pivoting to get through the crisis. 

But beyond short-term fixes, many innovative new strategies and business models have emerged that are likely to stick, even as many jurisdictions begin to reopen in some capacity. 

In many cases, these transformations are thanks to the increased adoption of technology and the digitization of businesses. Many of these changes were underway pre-coronavirus; the pandemic has just accelerated them. 

“What’s important to customers has changed,” John Roese, Dell Technologies chief technology officer, said. “We’ve broken through a bunch of psychological or sociological obstacles to embrace technologies such as video, bots, drones, and AI.”

Here are a few of the business concepts that have gained traction over the past several months thanks to the pandemic. 

People may be sheltering in place, but they haven’t stopped looking for love. Dating apps have reported an uptick in usage during the pandemic, including a 26% increase in the messages sent on Bumble. 

One appropriately named app, “Quarantine Together,” was created specifically for the COVID-19 Age. It asks users to verify that they’ve washed their hands that day before they can connect with someone. After 15 minutes of texting, matched users can choose to switch to video chatting. 

“Bumble users are increasingly taking advantage of video calling, and audio chat features to get to know each other better and build deeper relationships, rather than engaging in more regular, casual flings,” says Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd. 

She said she expects the behavior will continue, even after people return to in-person dating. 

As the coronavirus pandemic escalated, restaurants across the United States became delivery-only almost overnight.

Most are eager to get back to serving customers in-house. But some find the prospect of operating a kitchen without a dining room an attractive opportunity. 

So, diners may begin to see a growing number of “ghost kitchens” (also known as virtual kitchens), according to Aayush Gupta, a senior associate at Create venture studio in New York City. 

Ghost kitchens have normal branding and menus online and offer delivery, but they aren’t attached to a brick-and-mortar restaurant where people can sit and eat. Gupta said such restaurants are likely to manage better as uncertainty from the coronavirus continues because they don’t have to pay rent on a dining room space or hire wait staff. 

“Younger restaurants, if they don’t have a front-of-house, they’re likely getting through this a lot better, because they don’t have the fixed costs that they have to try to recover,” Gupta said. 

Some customers have noticed the phenomenon lately. A GrubHub user in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, was surprised when the food she ordered from a restaurant called Pasqually’s Pizza & Wings tasted eerily familiar to food from Chuck E. Cheese. And no wonder – it was sort of. A Chuck E. Cheese spokesperson told CNN that Pasqually’s is a “delivery-only brand operating on its own, leveraging the operational infrastructure of Chuck E. Cheese kitchens across the nation.” 

The trend may also provide opportunities for startups like CloudKitchens, Uber Founder Travis Kalanick’s new venture that operates shared commercial kitchen spaces, and rents them out to delivery-only restaurants. 
After a few highly anticipated movie premieres were canceled this spring, some studios decided to forgo theaters altogether in favor of direct-to-consumer debuts. And it turns out that some people may not care to get out of their PJs and off their couch to catch a new flick on the big screen. 

Theater chains don’t love this – many want to preserve their exclusive rights to premiere movies, to give people an incentive to go out.

But consumers are into it. “Trolls World Tour” was an on-demand success, earning nearly $100 million in rental fees in the United States during the first two weeks after its release. And while studios and theaters typically split a film’s box office grosses about 50-50, studios make about 80% of the sales on digital releases.
​
Movie theaters aren’t going by the wayside just yet (release dates for major films such as Disney’s Mulan were moved so they can head to the big screen first), the trend of at-home premieres could continue, at least for certain genres. The latest test of the concept is the adult comedy film, “The King of Staten Island.” 
“Comedy has not really been a strong genre at the box office lately, so if ‘Staten Island’ is a digital hit maybe that sends a signal to the studios that this genre is better suited for the small screen in the future,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.

From predicting outbreaks to devising treatments, doctors are turning to AI to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Why It Matters. While machine learning algorithms were already becoming a part of health care, COVID-19 is likely to accelerate their adoption. But lack of data and testing time could hinder their effectiveness – for this pandemic, at least.

What's Happening. With millions of cases and outbreaks in every corner of the world, speed is of the essence when it comes to diagnosing and treating COVID-19. So it's no surprise doctors were quick to employ AI tools to get ahead of what could be the worst pandemic in a century.

• HealthMap, a web service run by Boston Children's Hospital that uses AI to scan social media and other reports for signals of disease outbreaks, spotted some of the first signs of what would become the COVID-19 outbreak. This was days before the WHO formally alerted the rest of the world.
• Early in the epidemic, the Chinese tech company Alibaba released an AI algorithm that uses CT scans of possible coronavirus patients and can diagnose cases automatically in a matter of seconds.
• In New York, Mount Sinai Health System and NYU Langone Health have developed AI algorithms that can predict whether a COVID-19 patient is likely to suffer adverse events soon and determine when patients will be ready to be discharged. Such systems can help overburdened hospitals better manage the flow of supplies and personnel during a medical crisis. 

The Big Picture. Even before COVID-19, AI was already becoming a more significant part of modern health care. Nearly $2 billion was invested in companies involved in health care AI in 2019, and in the first quarter of 2020, investments hit $635 million – more than four times the amount seen in the same period of 2019, according to digital health technology funder Rock Health.

• The advance of AI is partially a result of the rapid increase in data, the lifeblood of any machine learning system. The amount of medical data in the world is estimated to double every two months.
• Engineer and entrepreneur Peter Diamandis told Wired an estimated 200 million physicians, scientists, technologists, and engineers are now working on COVID-19, generating and sharing data "with transparency and at speeds we've never seen before."
• "We understand who is at risk and how they're at risk, and then we can get the right treatment to them," says Zeeshan Syed, the CEO of Health[at]Scale, an AI health care startup.

In Trials. AI has demonstrated in recent trials a decent record of success, especially when it comes to rapidly diagnosing COVID-19 by interpreting medical scans.

• A study published in Nature Medicine in May found an AI system was more accurate than a radiologist in diagnosing COVID-19 patients using CT scans – X-ray images of lungs – combined with clinical symptoms. 
• A systematic review of preprint and published studies of AI diagnostic systems for COVID-19 published in the British Medical Journal in April noted the models reported "good to excellent predictive performance." However, they cautioned the data was still limited for real-world applications and at high risk for bias.

The Catch. That's the perennial challenge for AI systems in any field. Experts worry models that perform well in an experiment may not be able to replicate that success in a hospital under stress.

• "There is a lot of promise in using algorithms, but the data in the biomedical space can be really difficult to deal with," says Gabe Musso, the chief science officer at BioSymetrics. This biomedical AI company uses machine learning for simulation-based drug discovery. Genetic data, imaging data, and data from electronic health records are often unstructured and rarely share a common format, complicating efforts to feed the information into an algorithm.
• Many of the AI diagnostic systems being rushed into the fight against COVID-19 were developed before the pandemic and thus were trained on other respiratory diseases like tuberculosis. That reduces their accuracy – especially if their training datasets don't match the gender or age of typical COVID-19 patients.
• As a result, pioneering computer scientist Kai-fu Lee wrote recently, "I would give [AI] a B-minus at best" for its performance during the pandemic.

The Bottom Line. As both the size and quality of medical data on COVID-19 improves, so should the AI systems that draw from it. But that will take time.

In today’s workplace, constant innovation makes it critical for employees to keep up with the latest technologies and applications. Want to excel at your job and lay the groundwork for future promotions?
Check out these five e-courses from LinkedIn Learning, part of the LinkedIn platform. Each course is available for a monthly site membership fee, with no extra costs necessary. I have been a loyal user of both LinkedIn Learning and its predecessor Lynda.com for over ten years and can personally attest to the quality of their educational offerings. So, with instruction on the blockchain, cloud computing, UX, and more, these five courses will help you fast-track yourself for future success!

1. Blockchain Basics
Instructor: Jonathan Reichental, Ph.D.
Do you work in business leadership positions, data science, or IT management? Curious about blockchain technology? This quick one-hour e-course will introduce you to the improvements in security and efficiency that blockchain databases represent. Learn about the history of blockchain technology, practical applications, and risks of blockchain innovation.

2. Learning Cloud Computing: Core Concepts
Instructor: David Linthicum, Deloitte Consulting
Looking to explore the potentialities of cloud computing? Take an hour and 44 minutes to watch this course, which will introduce you to the tools you need to take advantage of cloud computing opportunities. Find out what Saas, laaS, and PaaS are, learn about the data and applications necessary to move to the cloud, and explore the essentials of cloud monitoring, management, and security.

3.) Learning Data Analytics
Instructor: Robin Hunt, developer and educator
This 90-minute course introduces basic concepts to those who work with data, both analysts and non-analysts alike. It begins by defining data analytics and the role of data analysts. Following this, it teaches you how to work with data sets and follow best practices for data analytics projects. Finally, it covers advanced techniques for repurposing, charting, and pivoting data and top shortcut and troubleshooting tips.

4.) Artificial Intelligence Foundations: Machine Learning
Instructor: Doug Rose
As one of the most promising fields in artificial intelligence, machine learning can be beneficial in interpreting and organizing data, programming computers, and even discovering new frontiers in science. This 77-minute course teaches you how to work with data and apply machine learning principles, as well as identify different types of machine learning and machine learning applications.

5.) Getting Started In User Experience
Instructor: Chris Nodder
Want to improve the customer experience on your e-commerce website or web interface? This 41-minute micro-course introduces you to the elements of user experience (UX) – including design, research, strategy, development, interactive and visual design, content, accessibility, localization, and data science. Learn about various UX career paths, the practical skills required by employers, and typical job profiles.

Here are the steps to set yourself up with LinkedIn Learning:

1. Go to the LinkedIn Home Pag
   
2. If you are not a LinkedIn member, click on the “Join Now” button in the upper-right of the screen, and set up your membership.
   
3. If you are a member, sign in, and on the Account & Settings page, click the yellow “Upgrade” button to bring up the premium account options.
   
4. Click the “Sign Up” button for the premium level to which you want to upgrade.

Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher of Ephesus, is credited with the quote, “The only constant in life is change.” It comes as no surprise that technology is gradually taking over all aspects of our day to day life. 
The rise of cutting-edge technology, including cloud-based computing, big data analysis, wearables, machine learnings, Internet of Things, AR/VR, and drones has been exhibiting nothing but change. Moreover, the rise of 5G technology is establishing even further growth prospects.
So, looking at the coming decade, these top 5 technologies are set to have the most significant impact and change: 

• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Blockchain
• Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (AR/VR)
• Big Data
• Internet of Things (IoT).

 
Artificial intelligence (AI)remains a hot spot, with its ever-increasing impact on numerous industries all over the world. AI is the most substantial and significant driving technology factor with its speedy execution in sectors like banking, retail, healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing, and defense. AI applications allow machines to learn from experience and work like humans by simulating human performance.
Whether it’s Apple’s self-driving car, Amazon’s Alexa and Echo, or Google’s Lens, the application of artificial intelligence holds the most vital prospect.
AI can impact the world economy on numerous grounds, like aiding or replacing human labor to finish the assigned work more rapidly. Consequently, it expands production, speeds up the processing of data flows, increases production and service development, thereby generating more wealth worldwide.
According to several media reports, 80% of emerging technologies will implement AI technology by 2021.
The important spheres where AI is used: 
•      Knowledge Reasoning
•      Machine Learning
•      Robotics
•      Natural Language Processing.
•      Planning 
 
Blockchainis significantly speedier and more reliable than the legacy technologies in completing a transaction and recording it securely. This is primarily due to the lack of manual processing or verification by mediators as it applies a distributed consensus.
Additionally, blockchain technology is expected to be honest and intended to deliver unaffected information. Thus, the probability of financial deficits is low, with the slightest possibilities of double counting and hacking.
Overall, the cohesive use of the technology can enable countries to attain better economic growth with streamlined day-to-day systems. Bitcoin is one of the best examples of blockchain technology use.
The important spheres where blockchain is used: 
•      Encrypted Messaging
•      Decentralized Internet
•      Distributed Cloud Storage
•      Networking Sites
•      Stock Exchange
•      Real Estate
 
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)is seeing significant new implementations due to the shift in consumer desires and business demands. With hardware possibilities and digital capabilities becoming more easily accessible and inexpensive to the ordinary person, AR/VR technologies have evolved extraordinarily well in the last few years.

Almost every major sector, including healthcare, retail, pharma, gaming, entertainment, automobiles, and construction, are utilizing the technology to interrelate between the actual world and 3D virtual objects in real-time.

The important spheres where AR/VR is used: 

• Design & Modelling
• Business Logistics
• Field Service
• Entertainment Properties
• Retail
• Medical Training

 
Big Data is turning out to be an essential component for businesses to remain aggressive and competitive in most industries. Companies are utilizing this technology to identify and calculate consumption models or enhance operational effectiveness.

Investments in big data analytics software, hardware, and services are anticipated to increase in the new decade, due to the enormous amount of structured and unstructured data generated universally. This pervasive implementation of big data analytics is a significant tailwind driving the big data market on a global basis.

Big Data technology aids in controlling vast amounts of structured and unstructured information, thereby making it more straightforward for companies to make better business decisions. Moreover, big data analytics acts as a booster for marketing strategies, thereby improving customer relationships.

Additionally, with rising cyber-threats and cyber-crimes, big data is the best answer to fight fraud in online deals.

The important spheres where big data is used: 

• Location Tracking
• Precision Medicine
• Fraud Detection & Handling
• Advertising
• Entertainment & Media.

 
Internet of Things (IoT)unites manufacturing, medical devices, vehicles, and a range of consumer and everyday products, which allows enhanced monitoring, analytics, and more.

IoT, in simple terms, implies connecting devices over the network or internet for the intent of interaction. In IoT, devices gather and distribute data that is accumulated in the cloud, thereby helping in faster analyzing information, gaining more accurate insights.

According to media reports, by 2025, the total installed base of IoT connected devices is expected to be around 75.44 billion globally. This represents a 500% increase over the last decade.
​
The important spheres where IoT is used: 

• Connected Devices
• Smart Homes
• Wearables
• Smart Cities.

Visual search – the ability to initiate a search query using an image captured by the camera lens on a mobile device – has increasingly become a channel that can drive consumers from becoming aware of a product to making a purchase.

Gartner classifies visual search as an emerging technology, which puts it right on par with findings from an eMarketer survey suggesting that few consumers "regularly" use it.

On average, only 3% regularly use visual search, and only 10% have used it in the past, according to the findings. On the other side of the spectrum, 7% are familiar with the technology, according to an eMarketer eCommerce survey conducted in June 2019 by Bizrate Insights and published in August 2019.

Gartner Analyst Mike McGuire points to artificial intelligence (AI), which sits high on the list of transformational trends, as an important technology that supports visual search platforms like Google Lens and Prism.

Google, Microsoft, Pinterest, and other augmented reality vendors continue to invest in visual search. Their platforms use computer vision and AI to identify the image.

ASOS, a U.K. online fashion retailer, already uses visual search. Its search tool, Style Match, integrates into the ASOS mobile app, so customers can zoom in on a man’s suit in a magazine picture, for example, and receive suggestions on similar suits, McGuire explains.

McGuire calls visual search a tool that will enhance the customer experience, benefiting brands most in e-commerce, content marketing, product, and search marketing. Amazon also supports this media.

Recently, Mondo released a study showing that 21% of the 1,000 marketers surveyed cite visual search as an essential marketing strategy for their organizations through 2020. Visual search fell in line behind strategies such as experiential marketing, micro-moments, and motion design.

Gartner rated visual search as an “on the rise” strategy, along with over-the-top TV advertising, consent and preference management, and personification.  
​
At the peak are advanced supply-side bidding, customer journey analytics, real-time marketing, conversational marketing, artificial intelligence for marketing, and customer data platforms.

The acquisition, though small, is the latest in Microsoft’s attempts to level up with Amazon. Over the last few years, the company has garnered individual partnerships with retailers, which has laid the groundwork for marketers to see it as a potential alternative to the Jeff Bezos behemoth. Still, Microsoft has a long way to go: Amazon has a substantial leg up on both advertising (which brought in $3 billion this past quarter) and cloud storage (which hit $8.38 billion in Q2 of this year). Adding PromoteHQ – which has clients that include Overstock.com, Office Depot, and Kohl’s – indicates that Microsoft is strategizing about how to expand and undercut the competition quietly.

Until now, Microsoft has had to face Google as its primary advertising competitor. The acquisition hints at Microsoft’s ambition to go beyond search. Bloomberg estimated search would bring in about $7.9 billion in annual revenue for the fiscal year 2019, a drop in the bucket compared to Google’s $120 billion in annual ad sales. Earlier this year, Microsoft announced it was changing its ads name from Bing Ads to Microsoft Ads, which also implied that it had grander horizons beyond mere web search, which Google will almost certainly always dominate. Indeed, the PromoteHQ purchase is a way for Microsoft to go beyond search in its quest to court retailers – effectively providing a platform so that brands with e-commerce sites can run ads on their own storefronts.

Microsoft over the last few years has become a quietly growing alternative to the ever-growing Amazon behemoth, something that retailers squeamish to do business with Amazon would welcome. Even though Amazon Web Services has about one-third of the cloud market share, retailers have been inking long-term contracts with competitors like Microsoft to try to chip away at the e-commerce giant’s bottom line. Kroger, for example, has signed significant agreements with both Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. With that, the grocery chain announced that it was working with Microsoft to build out in-store technology – including a connected store experience and digital shelving that would serve shoppers personalized ads. Walmart too has reportedly told vendors it wants them to stop using AWS.

There are other examples too. Walgreens also signed a long-term deal with Microsoft, as have Walmart and Gap.

“What Microsoft has done well over the last three to five years,” said Ray Wang, principal analyst at Constellation Research, “is [work] with retailers.” But what it’s been very weak on, he said, is advertising. These incremental moves over the last few months – the Microsoft Ads rebrand, as well as acquisitions like PromoteHQ – are setting the groundwork to work with retailers on multiple fronts, including advertising. “Every retailer feels they have a gun to their head from Google, Amazon, and Facebook,” Wang said. “There’s a unique opportunity for Microsoft to be in this space.” Of course, other software giants working with large companies are likely trying to follow suit, such as Salesforce, Adobe, and Oracle,” Wang added.

All of these announcements are piecemeal, but they do add up to a more significant strategy. Retailers want to rely as little on Amazon as possible while growing their e-commerce businesses, and Microsoft has laid the groundwork to offer solutions that are direct alternatives. Meanwhile, as Microsoft continues to make individual long-term deals with big retail companies, it puts it in the position to have future clients as it increases its advertising and software offerings.
​
For retailers, forgoing Amazon could become an almost moral imperative. By doing business with them, said Wang, “you’re giving [Amazon] the ability to crush you.” Thus, if Microsoft were to continue to play to these fears – and focus on more retail-adjacent products like PromoteHQ – its business stands to grow even more.