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Articles February 13, 2024

2024 Consumer Innovation Survey Insights: Consumers are Leading the Charge

CapTech
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CapTech

Conventional wisdom has long held that consumers are slower to embrace innovative ideas than businesses. Our recent Consumer Innovation Survey, however, demonstrates the opposite. Businesses don’t need to wait for consumers to catch up. Consumers are leading the charge.

See below for a few highlights from our 2024 Consumer Survey and click the link to read the full report.

Download the 2024 Consumer Survey Report

Executive Summary

Consumers are showing an ever-increasing appetite for innovations like conversational technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI), digital wallets, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR). They not only expect these technologies to play a role in their business transactions and online experiences, but to drive meaningful change across industries as varied as healthcare, retail, and finance, as well as education, manufacturing, and energy. They also expect innovative technology regardless of task or experience.

Consumers have effectively raised the bar for all. The more they experience innovation and advanced capabilities, the more of it they expect. “Nice to haves” from years (or even months) past, are now “must haves.” Conversational technology, for instance, has become table stakes, and AI is gaining tremendous momentum, especially with regard to its personalization capabilities.

We’ve reported on this groundswell over the past few years. Even as data privacy remains top of mind, consumers have increasingly warmed to innovative products and technologies, relying on businesses to establish security guardrails.

As our fourth annual consumer sentiment survey bears out, consumers aren’t merely on board, they are at the helm. And innovative organizations — those that adopt emerging technologies to infuse creativity, enhance solutions, and improve experiences for an increasingly sophisticated audience — will earn competitive advantages and coveted brand loyalty.

Until recently, AI was a business acronym requiring definition, or at least clarification, when writing to consumers. How quickly times change. Accelerated by technology like ChatGPT and rapidly evolving consumer needs during the pandemic, AI has become so commonplace we no longer feel the need to remind readers what it stands for.

Our survey indicates that consumers favor companies with innovative products and services, but with an important caveat: Usability is a requirement. Today’s market demands consumer-centric design, not innovation for the sake of innovation.

Conversational technology has arrived, and consumers have no intention of letting it go. As consumers increasingly value personalization, efficiency, and round-the-clock accessibility, they demonstrate a growing comfort with conversational technologies like chatbots, live chat, and voice assistants.

While data governance is — and should be — a central area of focus for businesses, most consumers (54%) are comfortable sharing data if it will solve problems and make their lives better.

Start Leading Innovation Today

Modern consumers recognize the value and opportunity of innovative technologies like AI. They’re actively seeking innovative businesses to improve their lives and help them solve problems. They’re aware of data concerns and expect businesses to protect them. And they’re expecting to be able to engage with businesses at their convenience. 

Businesses that understand this and are able to deliver cutting-edge, personalized, and secure experiences with an emphasis on enhancing usability, will not only meet but exceed the heightened expectations of today’s evolving consumers.

To read our full 2024 Consumer Survey, download the report below.

Download the 2024 Consumer Survey Report

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