M+E Daily

In today’s hyperconnected world, lines have disappeared between the real and virtual, according to Sabyasachi “Saby” Mitra, global head of operating model transformation industry and strategic accounts lead for Tata Consultancy Services.

Speaking during the presentation “Experience Ecosystem – Where Virtual breathes Life into Real(ity)” May 12 at the annual Hollywood Innovation and Transformation Summit (HITS) Spring event,  he said: “What we believe is that stories and adventures are at the heart of human connection.”

If one were to “really look deep within yourself, you would see that your most cherished memories are those which you have either created with others, shared with others or heard from others,” he told viewers.

Humans are all about creating stories from experiences. Virtual experiences influence the real world and real life experiences help enhance the virtual world, according to TCS.

The key challenge now, however, is that there are a disparate number of companies trying to address consumers’ needs and wants without really tapping into a holistic ecosystem for experiences.

And that is the next frontier to explore, according to TCS.

The power of storytelling

Stories and experiences connect people and society, and we engage with others through stories, Mitra said.

Psychologists have found that if you can connect information, statistics and data “together through a common storyline, it is possible to have a recollection factor that is almost 22 times that of just disjointed facts and figures,” he pointed out.

Stories and experiences lead to the creation of “microcosms” of like-minded individuals and groups, he said, noting that, at LinkedIn, there are almost 122,000 people who have storytelling as part of their titles, which means it is becoming increasingly important even in the corporate world.

Storytelling helps us live longer and have more meaningful lives and “experience sharing creates social wants,” he told viewers. Stories are created through life experiences and shared to remember, he noted.

The power of social media and video

People are spending an average of 19.5 hours a month on well-known social media sites to share their own experiences, Mitra said.

Meanwhile, video is becoming the most important way to create and share your thoughts with others, he said, noting YouTube overtook Facebook as the top social networking site in activity.

Attention spans are shorter today than in years past and that, combined with the popularity of sharing video, have “created the TikTok generation,” he explained, pointing out TikTok had about 200% growth in 2020 and is expected to have the same numbers in 2021.

The power of AR, MR, VR and XR

Immersive experiences are helping to bring people together around the world, Mitra told viewers.

The virtual reality (VR) industry is now worth $18.8 billion and seeing 18% compound annual growth, he noted.

There are companies, meanwhile, using extended reality (XR), which is a combination of augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR) and VR, to “drive co-design,” he said. Users can log into an environment and create their own unique products, he explained.

The power of learning

Online became the biggest way to share knowledge in 2020 during the height of the pandemic, according to Mitra.

He predicted that, by 2024, 66% of learning and sharing will happen online.

Hyper-personalization and interconnected virtual worlds can come together and create a seamless experience, and we can elevate experiences to the “next normal,” he went on to tell viewers.

The top three priorities driving growth, he said, are: Digital excellence (Tesla, for example); safe and contactless engagement (Kroger, for example); and dynamic insights to predict delight (examples: Netflix, Expedia and Amazon recommendations).

He predicted that multiple industries like those will interact and create a larger ecosystem to deliver personalized and elevated experiences.

He ended the presentation by saying: “We believe that we can bring all these elements together and actually enhance the life of the consumer’s experience because the experience that we can bring together by connecting the dots across all these elements… will help the people realize that the ecosystem can enhance how we live life and how we live life better.”

To view the entire presentation, click here.

HITS Spring was presented by IBM Security with sponsorship by Genpact, Irdeto, Tata Consultancy Services, Convergent Risks, Equinix, MicroStrategy, Microsoft Azure, Richey May Technology Solutions, Tamr, Whip Media, Eluvio, 5th Kind, LucidLink, Salesforce, Signiant, Zendesk, EIDR, PacketFabric and the Trusted Partner Network.