For many attendees, CES is focused on the stuff – the devices, the gadgets, the demos. However, the real holy grail for many marketers is to understand how technology can lead to breakthroughs in user experience.

This is one of the greatest challenges in marketing: how can any brand possibly future proof their user experience? No one has a crystal ball – but boy do we have data. We thought it would be useful to look back at the last two years of major innovations at CES and understand how consumers think about them now and how they stack up both functionally and emotionally.

We also looked for clues to see what would be successful going forward, and for that we pulled apart the Gen Z, Millennials and Gen X generations to see what patterns we could find. There’s a fair amount of evidence to support that generations are differentiated by their seminal technology experiences, and how that shapes how they use technology – a sort of “tech persona”. We combined industry learning with our own research, our generational Reflector Survey, to tease these differences out.

Let’s focus on Generation Z, whom many marketers assume are thorough digital natives. That’s only partially true. Let’s break this down in terms of specific innovations.

One of the recurrent themes of CES is the growth of voice assistants and at this year’s CES, few innovations weren’t voice-connected, particularly in the smart home segment. Gen Z uses voice at about the same frequency as other generations, but what they use it for is different. Their in-the-moment needs drive how they use it – they’re 25% more likely to check a fact in the moment than Millennials, and most likely to use voice assistants to search for something. When it comes to how they feel about the experience, they find it both useful and entertaining, and show none of the frustration that older generations find with voice. They’re very likely, then, to look to devices that combine fact-checking/how to with lots of functionality, like Whirlpool’s multiple screen use of Yummly content across their smart home kitchen ecosystem.

When we shift to technologies that are verging on mainstream like facial recognition, Gen Z’s level of comfort and enjoying the experience is high. They’re also the generation who are most likely to have experienced VR and LOVED it – at nearly half our surveyed group. For any technologies that are using mixed realities - like the amazing Icaros pictured above - they’re very keen to try!

However, not every innovation meets with unqualified enthusiasm. A full 56% of them didn’t want robots in their home, and 26% wouldn’t share their health data from a smart device. That said, we’re willing to bet that good integrated smart home devices like the Artemis mirror might overcome their reluctance to share - as long as it’s delivering superb value.

AI for many consumers is invisible from a user experience perspective, so we asked Gen Z about how they felt about algorithms, particularly in entertainment. They’re very different from Millennials in this regard – they’re the most likely group to agree that algorithms help them find content they wouldn’t normally find, and they love the ease of the service. They show none of that ennui that Millennials exhibit, who are most likely to find streaming services “showing them the same stuff every time” and taking the fun out of discovering new things.

When it comes to true machine learning and AI applications, we tested Gen Z’s level of comfort with where AI could go next. Complex ethical applications of AI – using it to diagnose medical conditions, or to comfort the elderly – were met with open-mindedness. Of all the generations, Z is most likely to have a “wait and see” attitude. However, create an artificial social media personality or change their driving route without their knowledge, and they are NOT happy with that application of AI.

Finally, because nearly every successful innovation is at its heart a generator of data, we probed on what data they’d be willing to share with a brand. For all their willingness to play with technology, they have slightly stronger feelings than Millennials about not sharing their data with brands. It’s most pronounced in facial recognition, voice recognition, and tracking their mobile habits without their consent. However, sharing their contacts could be okay, depending on what it’s used for, but sharing likes and dislikes is totally acceptable.

For brands looking to enhance their brand experience to connect with Generation Z, our research points to technologies that:

Provide strong entertainment value and lots of playability;
Have fluid and fast interfaces;
Have clear rules around how data is going to be collected and used:
Avoid opaque data and AI applications;
Leverage likes and dislikes for customization BUT avoid overstepping into intimacy.

And above all, when keeping Gen Z in mind, don’t forget to have some fun and play a bit – which should be no problem coming out of CES!

This overview of generational aspects of tech adoption comes from our proprietary survey, Reflector™, that looks at how different generations and their attitudes and behaviours create opportunities for brands. This Reflector™ survey was fielded in November 2018 in the US.

Sarah Ivey founded Agents of Necessity, a global strategy agency, to crack the big strategic problems that confront agencies and marketers alike. Check out our Futurlens insight service to find out how to customize our learnings to your brand.

Gen Z comes out to play: CES 2019 through a generational lens