10. Digital humans get more realistic.

Digital humans may have earned a spot on our list of trends last year, but we haven’t grown tired of traversing the uncanny valley to play with the technology. In fact, the recent explosion of conversational AI will likely inject new life into digital humans and transform the realms of customer service, entertainment and more. Whether used to hand-craft original characters or refine scanned-in digital twins, digital human creation tools are becoming increasingly complex to deliver lifelike avatars. 

“We’ll see more competition between Unreal’s MetaHuman Creator and Unity’s Ziva,” says Geert Eichhorn, Innovation Director. In fact, Media.Monks has used Unreal’s tool to create a digital double of our APAC Chief Executive Officer, Michel de Rijk. Because why not?

9. Motion capture becomes more accessible.

Last year, we released a Labs Report dedicated to motion capture and how its increasing accessibility influenced content production for both professional film teams and everyday consumers. New technologies available at consumer price points are helping to bring motion capture into even more people’s hands. Meta’s Quest Pro headset, which released late last year, features impressive facial tracking that will be key to expressing the nuances of human emotion in VR. Move.ai, currently in beta, enables 1:1 motion tracking with a group of mobile devices—no bodysuits, no markers, no extra hardware needed. Using computer vision, the platform allows anyone to make motion capture video in any environment.

8. Mixed reality and mirror worlds mature.

With smaller and more comfortable AR headsets shown off already at CES, we can expect augmented and mixed reality to become more immersive, accessible and practical over the course of 2023 (check out more of what we saw at CES here). The VIVE Flow, for example, includes diopters so that users can replicate their prescription lenses in the device, amounting to a more comfortable experience overall. 

But it’s not just about hardware. “One of the major advancements is not in the headsets, but in the software,” says Eichhorn, noting that VPS has the power to pinpoint a user’s exact position and vantage point in the real world. “They do this positioning by comparing your camera view to a virtual, 3D version of the world, like Street View.” We covered mirror worlds in last year’s trend list, but the development of VPS is now bringing this vision closer to everyday consumers.

While VPS currently works only outdoors, we’ve already seen the power of the technology with Gorillaz performances in Times Square and Piccadilly Circus in December 2022.

7. More enterprises embrace the hybrid model.

For many businesses the return to the office hasn’t been a smooth transition; while some roles require close collaboration within a shared space, others enjoy more flexible setups that support childcare, offer privacy for focus work or greater accessibility. Given the benefits of flexible work setups and the development of technologies that build presence in virtual environments, Luis Guajardo Díaz, Creative Technologist, believes more enterprises will embrace the hybrid work model.

Media.Monks’ live broadcast team, for example, built a sophisticated network of cloud-based virtual machines hosted on AWS to enable people distributed around the world to produce live broadcasts and events. Born out of necessity during the pandemic, the workflow goes beyond bringing teams together—it’s designed to overcome some of the challenges traditional broadcast teams face on the ground, like outages or hardware malfunctions. It stands to show how hybrid models can help enhance the ways we work today.

6. Virtual production continues to impress.

Virtual production powered by real-time become popular in recent years: the beautiful environments of The Mandalorian or grungy urban landscape of The Matrix showed what was possible by integrating game engines in the production process, while pandemic lockdowns made the technology a necessity for teams who couldn’t shoot on location.

Now, further advancements in game engines and graphics processing offer a look inside the future of virtual production. Sander van der Vegte, VP Emerging Tech and R&D, points to Unreal’s Nanite, which allows for the optimization of raw 3D content in real time.

Localization of content is one example. “In 2023 we’re going to see this versatility in the localization of shoots, where one virtual production shoot can have different settings for different regions, all adapted post-shoot,” says Eichhorn.

5. TV streaming and broadcasts become more interactive.

With virtual production becoming even more powerful, TV and broadcasting will also evolve to become more interactive and immersive. “Translating live, filmed people into real-time models allows for many new creative possibilities,” says van der Vegt. “Imagine unlocking the power to be the cameraman for anything you are watching on TV.” 

It might sound like science fiction, but Sander’s vision isn’t far off. At this year’s CES, Sony demoed a platform that uses Hawk-Eye data to generate simulated sports replays. Users can freely control the virtual camera to view the action from any angle—and while not live, the demo illustrates the power of more immersive broadcasts. The technology could be a game changer for sports and televised events that let audiences feel like they’re part of the action.

4. Metaverse moves become more strategic.

“2021 was a peak hype year for the metaverse and Web3. 2022 was the year of major disillusionment,” says Javier Sancho, Project Manager. “There are plenty of reasons to believe that this was just an overinflated hype, but it’s a recurring pattern in tech history.” Indeed, a “trough of disillusionment” inevitably follows a peak in the hype cycle.

This year will challenge brands to think of where they fit within the metaverse—and how they can leverage the immersive technology to drive bottom-line value. Angelica Ortiz, Senior Creative Technologist, says the key to unlocking value in metaverse spaces is to think beyond one-time activations and instead fuel long-term customer journeys.

A great example of how brands are using Web3 in impactful ways is by transforming customer loyalty programs, like offering unique membership perks and gamified experiences. These programs reinforce how the Web3 ethos is evolving brand-customer relationships by turning consumers into active participants and collaborators.

3. Large language models keep the conversation flowing.

With so much interest in bots like ChatGPT, the Labs.Monks expect large language models (LLMs) will continue to impress as the year goes on. “Large Language Models (LLMs) are artificial intelligence tools that can read, summarize and translate texts, and generate sentences similar to how humans talk and write,” says Eichhorn. These models can hold humanlike conversations, answering complex questions and even writing programs. But these skills open a can of worms, especially in education when students can outsource their homework to a bot.

LLMs like GPT are only going to become more powerful, with GPT-4 soon to launch. But despite their impressive ability to understand and mimic human speech, inaccuracies in response still need to be worked out. “The results are not entirely trustworthy, so there’s plenty of challenges ahead,” says Eichhorn. “We expect many discussions over AI sentience this year, as the Turing Test is a measurement we’re going to leave behind.” In fact, Google’s LaMDA already triggered debates about sentience last year—so expect more to come. 

2. Generative AI paints the future of AI-assisted creativity.

If 2021 was the year of the metaverse, the breakout star of 2022 is generative AI in all its forms: creating copy, music, voiceovers and especially artwork. “Generative AI wasn’t on our list in 2022, although looking back it should have been,” says Eichhorn. “The writing was on the wall, and internally we’ve been working on machine learning and generating assets for years.” 

But while the technology has been embraced by some creatives and technologists, there’s also been some worry and pushback. “These new technologies are so disruptive that we see not only copywriters and illustrators feel threatened, but also major tech companies need to catch up to not become obsolete.” 

In response to these concerns, Ortiz anticipates a friendly middle ground where AI will be used to augment—not erase—human creativity. “With the increasing push back from artists, the industry will find strategic ways to optimize processes not cut jobs to improve workflows and let artists do more of what they love and less of what they don’t,” she says. Prior to the generative AI boom, Adobe integrated machine learning and artificial intelligence across its software with Adobe Sensei. More recently, they announced plans to sell AI-generated images on their stock photography platform.

1. The definition of “artist” or “creator” changes forever.

Perhaps the most significant trend we anticipate this year isn’t a tech trend; rather, it’s the effect that technology like generative AI and LLMs will have on artists, knowledge workers and society. 

With an abundance of AI-generated content, traditional works of art—illustrations, photographs and more—may lose some of their value. “But on the flip side, these tools let everyone become an artist, including those who were never able to create this kind of work before,” says Eichhorn. This can mean those who lack the training, sure, but it also means those with disabilities who have found particular creative fields to be inaccessible.

When everyone can be an artist, what does being an artist even mean? The new definition will lie in the skills that generative AI forces us to adopt. Working with generative AI doesn’t necessarily eliminate creative decision-making; rather, it changes what the creative process entails. New creative skills, like understanding how to prompt a generative AI for specific results, may reshape the role of the artist into something more akin to a director. 

Eichhorn compares these questions to the rise of digital cameras and Photoshop, both of which changed photography forever while making it more accessible. “The whole process will take many more years to settle in society, but we’ll likely see many discussions this year on what ‘craft’ really entails,” says Eichhorn.

That’s all, but we can expect a few surprises to emerge as the year goes on. Look out for more updates from the Labs.Monks, who regularly release reports, prototypes and podcast episodes that touch on the latest in digital tech, including some of the topics discussed above. Here’s to another year of innovation!

In this Labs report, we tap into the unique tech, perspectives and potential of the region and share some use cases that brands and marketers can apply anywhere in the world.

In this report, you will learn:

• The most influential technologies of each region
• Regional and local trends
• Attitudes toward adopting tech and innovation in the region
• How APAC relates to the rest of the world
• Takeaways to help with brand success

Zepeto Prototype: The Metaverse Reloaded

APAC’s hunger for tech and virtual innovation create an ideal set of circumstances to build a revolutionary new platform. To showcase this, we created an experience hub in APAC’s biggest metaverse platform: Zepeto.

“Sorrell sat down last week with Mumbrella at a bustling Les.Monks Cafe, Media.Monks’ headquarters at the festival in the South of France. The festival appeared to be in line with Sorrell’s vision for the future of S4Capital, citing the intersection of tech, digital, and creativity as why it may have been well-timed for the freshly merged Media.Monks at Cannes.” Sir Martin concurred in conversation with LinkedIn News at Cannes:

And with that, here’s a quick look of what I learned from the Grand Prix Lions and our Monks, who took the stage and chatted with press to make their thoughts known. And because it’s not a Media.Monks missive without either alliteration or a punny sense of humor, here are the top takeaways I Cannes’t stop thinking about since I crossed the pond back home. If a deck is more your speed, don’t miss our #MonkNews Wrap-Up.

Purposeful, human-centered creativity stole the show.

“The pandemic proved that creativity can help pull a business through a crisis,” the Cannes Lions summed up in their Official Wrap-Up Report. “The most dynamic transformations [use] creative solutions to change the fundamentals of how businesses operate and inspire industry-wide, cultural change that will have a lasting impact.”

This became clear as the wins rolled in. Against the backdrop of the war and residue of the pandemic, this year’s Grand Prix winners raised topical issues, and set out to solve problems rather than just generate awareness. Putting people, creators and communities at the heart of the creative process, the big winners focused on emotion and practical solutions, rather than tech innovation and clever use of platforms that have won in previous years. As a result, the category relevance became almost secondary–and several of the campaigns won big across multiple categories.

“Flashiness for its own sake no longer cuts it,” Sara Cosgrove, Global Director of Awards and Creativity at Media.Monks, shared at our team’s Creative Council meetup at Les.Monks Café. “But while tech may have taken a backseat this time around, that certainly doesn’t mean innovation is any less important than it ever was. As a focus on human behavior takes the wheel, a virtualized approach will help brands leverage emerging technologies to drive culture forward, build legacies and meet people’s needs in creative new ways.”

Innovation met cultural needs to truly drive impact.

While the content program was rife with metaverse and Web3 sessions, the two were largely absent from the Grand Prix winner’s lineup. On one hand, these spaces are nascent; with time to mature, they may have a bigger presence among winners next year. But, Media.Monks Chief Creative Officer Jouke Vuurmans challenged the audience at his Young Lions Session to reconsider misuse of innovative tech for its own sake: “Blinded by a shiny new thing, a nearsighted pursuit of rapid innovation can lead to a misuse of technology. With flashy acts that don’t contribute to overall brand business objectives, the fun is over before it ever even really begins. How can we be better as an industry in this next phase? Let’s do it right.”

Luciana Haguiara, Executive Creative Director, Media.Monks and Digital Craft Jury President, shared a similar sentiment with LBBOnline, recapping her thoughts after exiting the jury room. “In the last year we’ve seen a lot of work that exists as a response to Covid: a wave of virtual events, digital experiences and entertainment, living side-by-side with campaigns and content that reflect the important cultural shifts and difficult conversations.” She went on to say:

Virtualization gave shape to the transformation of digital.

Luciana’s comment hinted at a major theme that we’ve been following over the last couple of years: that we’ve entered the era of virtualization. Virtualization is defined by a set of new audience behaviors, cultural norms and technology paradigms resulting from 30 years of digital transformation, hyper-accelerated over the past five years. Consumers today have heightened their expectations, adopted new behaviors and ultimately demand more from the brands they engage with, each of which are covered in our recent report, “The Transformation of Digital: Virtualization & the New Era of Growth," which released just in time for this year’s festival. Designed to help brands build lasting legacies now and into the future, we amplified report takeaways throughout the week.

Our Chief Innovation Officer Henry Cowling hosted a meetup that distilled the transformation of digital for the festival audience, explaining that “after two years of hyper online behavior, consumers are craving more than traditional digital can offer: access, information and connectivity are table stakes. For a new generation, digital experience is becoming foundational to their identity––and with the advent of Web3, ownable. For many, it’s not even digital anymore. It’s just life…we’re seeing a new relationship with digital that we’re just starting to scratch the surface with.” 

And much of this year’s winning Cannes Lions work demonstrates the profound ways that post-digital transformation behavior and culture are redefining concepts of experience, community, ownership and identity, and we’ve selected some of our favorite examples in our #MonkNews Cannes Wrap-Up I mentioned above.

Creative effectiveness became top-of-mind.

“Build some preparedness for what’s next by placing small investments in your company and its learning today. It’s the new ROI: Return on Innovation,” wrote Jordan Cuddy, Chief Client Officer, Jam3, in an op-ed for Adweek. Published at the start of the festival, her point proved prescient and anticipated a growing theme as the week went on: that brands need to balance innovation and effectiveness in their strategies, especially as a likely recession comes into focus.

Of course, the metaverse was a popular topic of conversation when it came to meaningful investments in innovation. Sir Martin shared his own bullish perspective on the space, which we saw make headlines in the days following his mainstage talk with Christian Deuringer, Head of Global Brand Communication at Allianz, and John Stinchcomb, Global Chief Revenue Officer of The Wall Street Journal. Sir Martin explained: “The revenue opportunities for brands using the metaverse are currently limited. Conversations that open up about the metaverse often lead elsewhere. We have a long way to go to understand this and it will be extremely important in the long term.”

One of the ways that marketers can dip their toes into the metaverse—or simply adopt a more virtualized mindset, no matter which channels they choose to serve—is by reconsidering the role community plays in their ecosystem. Today’s consumers don’t want to simply purchase a good. They want to invest their time, talent—and yes, money—into helping shape brands and communal environments. At the Les.Monks Café, Jordan Cuddy joined Matthew Sweezey, Co-founder of the Salesforce Web3 Studio, to celebrate the studio’s launch. In the fireside chat, she noted:

A formula to win over hearts (and Lions) comes into view.

If the discourse at Cannes has made anything clear, it’s that now is the time for purpose to take center stage. The last two years have prompted brands and consumers alike to reassess their priorities and evaluate whether initiatives truly make a mark (and a difference) in the culture. And as communities finally meet in-person again, new challenges—a trough of disillusionment and a looming recession—are again substantiating the need for creativity that supports new human behaviors amidst the shifting values of modern society.

Looking ahead, virtualization will offer a path to solving these needs: helping brands better understand their audiences, where they’re at, and how we can ultimately innovate together to overcome these challenges. It’s through this collaborative approach that virtual-first brands will build meaning into every part of their business—a formula that won’t just win Lions, but also the hearts of many.

First, let’s just talk about the elephant in the room: everyone is incredibly excited about the metaverse, and you’ll find that it’s a running theme throughout many (but not all) of the trends our team has highlighted. So if you’re looking for more ways to understand what “the metaverse” means beyond simply being a virtual world, consider this a nice way to get up to speed with many of the metaverse-adjacent technologies that are sure to mature in the near future. Now, without further ado, let’s dive in!

10. Fashion Gets a New (Virtual) Look

One of the earlier topics we explored this year, in collaboration with our fashion and luxury team FLUX, was the virtualization of fashion. The report anticipated many of the conversations that are now closing out the year—namely, the role of personalized avatars and digital assets within the metaverse. “If there ever was one timely trend we managed to point out and detail, it would be this one,” says Sander van der Vegte, Head of the Labs.Monks. One takeaway that Sander finds especially compelling about the virtualization of fashion is the opportunity that it opens up for a more sustainable industry. “I think sustainability is going to make a big step in 2022,” he says.

9. Digital Humans Come Alive

As a corollary to virtual fashion, digital humans were another trend we explored at the very start of the year that has gained new relevance in recent months. By casting a spotlight on Vtubers (content creators who represent themselves in the form of a virtual avatar), virtual influencers, AI-powered agents and more, our report examined how our perception of what it means to be human may be shifting.

Again, virtual agents and avatars in the metaverse will only accelerate the adoption and acceptance of virtual humans, especially as technology closes the uncanny valley. Andrei Ungureanu, Creative Tech Intern, says: “The digital humans lab report really opened my eyes to how much technology has evolved in breaking the uncanny valley. I always viewed this stuff as gimmicks for attracting attention to games or brands, but by seeing all of the applications I see more value in this area.”

8. Extended Reality Gets its Moment

Extended reality isn’t new; consumer VR headsets were made available as early as the 90s, and social media users have enjoyed AR lenses for years. But neither technology has reached its true potential—though that may quickly change in the next year thanks to lowered device costs and increased adoption throughout the pandemic. “I think the biggest trend for the next and coming years is that expensive and hard-to-use tools will become more easily accessible for the typical user,” says Lennart Croese, Creative Tech Intern, who mentions not only virtual reality headsets but also other emerging technologies like deep fakes.

7. Mirror Worlds Emerge

As extended reality becomes more accessible and palatable to end consumers, AR cloud technology—essentially a 3D spatial map overlaying the real world—is set to give way to a “mirrorworld” that doubles our own. Innovation Director Geert Eichhorn notes that many of the major players in AR are already working towards this goal, with Niantic’s Lightship platform, Google’s Cloud Anchors API and Snap’s acquisition of 3D mapping developer Pixel8Earth each serving as key examples. The benefit? More locally relevant, multi-user experiences. “AR Cloud may start to emerge finally, which will allow us to create very precise experiences and gather technologies together,” adds Luis Guajardo Diaz, Creative Technologist.

6. Motion Capture Captures Consumer Attention

Augmented reality and mirror worlds aren’t the only technologies that will bring the virtual and physical worlds together. With a desire to seamlessly interact with virtual objects and spaces, motion capture technology—with the use of suits or even digitally, like the Oculus Quest’s built-in hand tracking—will become an important link.

Once reserved for film and video game production, motion capture suits may soon make their way into everyday users’ hands with consumer-level versions—providing more precise motion tracking than purely software-driven solutions like computer vision. With Vtubers gaining in popularity, it’s easy to spot the demand for more natural and 1:1 movements. “To embody ourselves in virtual worlds, we’re going to need more accessible ways to represent and visualize ourselves,” says Javier Sancho Rodriguez, Project Manager.

5. Healthcare Gets a Digital Checkup

The pandemic prompted mass adoption of telehealth and other innovations in healthcare—but not without contention. “Healthcare is one of those industries that is influenced by social, political, economic and technological opinions and affects us all so personally, and yet there is so little we can do individually,” says Rushali Paratey, Creative Technologist. “Any innovation or prototype in this field is looked at under the microscope, which makes it extremely tricky to get something into the wheel of the system—but I like thinking about difficult things!” She speaks from experience: as part of our report on how to heal healthcare, Rushali helped the team develop a prototype that translates medical jargon into plain English that anyone can understand, demonstrating digital technology’s power to empower patients.

“Our report hinted at how innovation powered by data could revolutionize the way we see and improve health,” says Geert. “This could have global implications when it comes to identifying new diseases, patterns and cures. DeepMind’s recent breakthrough in determining a protein’s 3D shape from its amino-acid sequence is a strong example.”

4. Game Engines Level-Up Content Production

Game engines—a software framework that includes several tools and features to aid in video game development—aren’t just for games anymore. Unreal Engine, developed by Fortnite developer Epic Games, has been famously used in shows like Westworld and the Mandalorian, not to mention several other films and series. And as the metaverse drives demand for immersive worlds and digital assets, game engines will become crucial in the development of digital experiences now and into the near future.

3. We Break Some Rules–And Write New Ones

One undercurrent running behind many of the trends of the last year is a desire to break free from convention and old ways of doing—an attitude that drives our team’s thirst for innovation. There’s probably no better example of this in action than enthusiasm around the blockchain and NFTs, which can transform everything from how we shop online to how we pay content creators and much more. All this is to say: expect more disruption as users continue to shake up power structures and democratize their communities.

“I think the biggest innovations will be the ones that satisfy our collective need to break out of restrictions,” says Rushali. “The pandemic caused a lot of restrictions, so we are going to break out of those in the digital world: cryptocurrencies run by decentralized autonomous organizations or maybe even communities governed by them on platforms like Discord or Clubhouse, where people can connect under their own rules.”

2. Crypto Goes Mainstream

Speaking of crypto, many brands took the opportunity to experiment with NFTs and virtual assets throughout 2021. Yet for many, discussion surrounding NFTs remains focused on market speculation and quickly cashing in on hype, detracting from the more revolutionary and utilitarian purposes of the technology. Javier shares his wish for 2022: “We’re already seeing crypto-based products and metaverse as part of our mainstream discourse, but it is very polarized and motivated by a lot of wrong reasons. My hope is that this will settle down into a more nuanced discourse and we can use these opportunities to do good.”

1. Self-Expression and Identity Evolve

The internet has long been a liberating place where people can represent themselves on their own terms. And while anonymity has slowly faded through real-name registration rules on some platforms, metaverse worlds—like Roblox and VRChat—reinforce the utopian vision that you can be anyone online.

In addition to that, the ability to adopt different personas can have profound implications for brand building and storytelling. “There’s added pressure to not just deliver any type of content, but content that makes us feel something, be someone and challenges us to think differently.” Angelica adds.