AI, mixed reality, and tokenization: technological trends that will influence commerce in the next 3-5 years

Mastercard has published a report Emerging Tech Trends 2024, which explores the technological trends in artificial intelligence, computing power and data processing technologies that will have the greatest impact on the development of commerce over the next three to five years.

The company believes that new developments and solutions in these areas will make technology more intuitive, interactive and integrated into everyday life. This will be reflected in finance, retail and other sectors.

Digital assistants based on artificial intelligence

In its report, the company emphasizes that the new generation of virtual assistants is able to understand and process more complex user requests. Trust in such AI tools is growing as users gain access to more intuitive and personalized interaction with technology in everyday life.

The AI assistant market is expected to grow to $46 billion in the next four years. Already today, 95% of customer service executives expect AI bots to communicate with their customers over the next three years.

Mastercard added that AI-powered assistants can improve the shopping experience by helping consumers quickly find relevant products and speed up the checkout process.

“Generative AI also has significant potential in the development of software and digital services: AI assistants can help at various stages of the software development lifecycle, and will also contribute to the further development of low-code and no-code approaches – making software development more accessible,” the company says.

Going beyond the screen: how AR and MR technologies break down the barriers between digital and physical environments

Mastercard believes that augmented and mixed reality technologies allow for full or partial immersive online shopping, combining the digital and physical worlds into one.

The company cites innovations such as Apple’s Vision Pro headset and Google’s Project Starline technology, which use advanced operating systems, sensors and cameras, AI, and spatial audio to open up new ways for consumers to interact. The market for AR, MR, and other Spatial Computing technologies is projected to reach $620.2 billion by 2032.

The company is convinced that these technologies will transform entire areas of retail, including the sale of clothing and accessories.

Data security: expanding tokenization technology 

At a time when consumers are seeking personalized experiences and are willing to share personal information with companies, tokenization technology is becoming even more relevant. It is responsible for protecting consumers’ sensitive data when paying for purchases and underpins digital card payments in NFC-enabled gadgets, including digital wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay.

“According to the statistics of Mastercard in Ukraine, today more than 60% of payments with Mastercard cards in the country’s physical retail are made using smartphones and gadgets with NFC. This strengthens Ukraine’s position in the top five global leaders in the number of NFC payments with Mastercard cards, along with countries such as Australia, the UK, the Netherlands, and the US,” the company said in a statement.

According to a global report by Mastercard, the potential of tokenization continues to expand, and businesses are already beginning to actively use the new capabilities of this technology in their interactions with customers.

These include greater consumer control over their personal data to increase the security and privacy of online transactions, or, for example, the tokenization of loyalty programs, when rewards in such programs can be tokenized and used universally across different platforms.

The future belongs to the synergy of technologies

The company notes that the introduction of generative AI, AR and MR technologies, and tokenization will continue to change the way users shop, work, relax, and communicate. The combination of these innovations characterizes the future of new technological opportunities.

They will, for example, enable banks to analyze large amounts of financial data even more efficiently for better risk assessment, fraud detection, and more personalized customer service, and merchants to improve the consumer experience.