The Future Is Now Futurist Sophie Hackford on the shape of things to come

While we hunt for Pokémon in our office space and have our DNA tested in our leisure time; Sophie Hackford’s nimble brain is analyzing the impact and opportunities in technology in five plus years to come.

“I’m interested in how tech can change the way we consume: it’s changed the way we read books and listen to music. Previously, our experiences were limited to places that we could visit physically while today, there is the potential to travel in virtual reality that could indeed be better than real life and without the restrictions of budget or gravity. Virtual Reality is social. You could be in Hong Kong and I could be in London and we would be sitting with headsets on in real time visiting the Yosemite National Park in our downtime. And I know it is you; I can even see the freckles on your arm. I can teleport you into a new experience. That’s a tremendously exciting thing. In the luxury field, we could visit a designer’s atelier – brands could really go crazy developing that experience,” says Hackford who sees VR co-existing with bricks and mortar rather than replacing it; a technology that is rapidly developing and will impact our lives in years to come, as the ‘experience’ gets increasingly immersive.

Hackford, who works as the Director of WIRED Consulting, has a 360-degree approach to the subject and advises top tier global companies on the opportunities and challenges presented by fast moving technologies. “It is easy to get blindsided by complexity, uncertainty and tech becomes another ‘threat’ category. We want to make people feel more confident. We look at the operating conditions in the future to help businesses make decisions,” says Hackford who previously worked at Singularity University, a NASA/Google think tank in Silicon Valley.

Another area of research is facial recognition technology. Through our devices, A.I. assistants like Siri would figure out stress levels and advise the quickest or most relaxing routes to get from A to B. “It’s about tailoring responses to how I am feeling. Amazon Echo is an emerging example of that. The Echo sits in your room and inside the Echo is Alexa – you say, ‘Alexa, I’d like a coconut water!’ and she would put it on my Amazon shopping list. She would check out for me. In order for her to do that, she has to be on all the time, listening. The question of whether we want our devices listening constantly is a complicated one – does convenience trump privacy?

In lifestyle technology, the Holy Grail is creating a seamless experience with no ‘pain points’, Hackford believes most technology should be invisible. A prime example is Uber - a service that has already shaped the way we think about a city and mobility. “Again, what is luxury? It saves you time! The question is how does tech feed into a concept of luxury in the future?” says Hackford.

As regards shopping, there will be much fun to be had. Advances in A.I. mean that conversations via Alexa or WeChat will become highly responsive and specific. “Imagine chatting directly with a store. ‘Hey, I love the Gucci dress on the front cover of Vogue - I would like it in red for a party next week!’ Alexa would know I would be in Raw Press for a meeting and would arrange to have the courier deliver the dress for a try on,” proposes Hackford.

Hackford is convinced that human beings are fundamentally social creatures. “It’s not how we want to spend all our time. We want to hang out with other humans; we want to optimize that experience. When we are not online, we want the best offline experience,” she says. Besides, without human interaction, there would be little point in dressing up at all.