Mobile apps have had a huge impact on the way many modern businesses operate. Uber, for example, has shown the transformative potential of enterprise mobile apps, and how a clever application of online software can outpace—and even threaten—older models of doing business.
As we look at a new year of business, we see that, unsurprisingly, enterprise mobile apptechnology continues to evolve, expand, and change the way a business can operate. So what’s in store for the future? What should you be looking at for your mobile app possibilities in 2020? Here are three trends that you should think about taking advantage of for your enterprise mobile app usage.
More Personalization
People are happier with work—and often work better—when they can work the way they like to work. Whether it’s arranging the equipment in a cubicle to a preferred configuration, or using a favorite piece of software with custom preferences and presets, people, like to “work the way they like to work.”
This is a trend that is coming to mobile apps as well, which should be no surprise, considering that apps are installed on a variety of different phones and tablets. With greater customization, employees and managers can configure mobile apps to work more closely with their preferences, and this will result in a better interface, better interactions, and better work.
Voice Commands
We’ve already seen the beginning of vocal interfaces in consumer attempts, such as Alexa and Echo. People speaking to each other is a preferred method of communication and one that we’ve gotten very used and very good at over generations of use. Better voice/chat interface is something that can—and is—being improved upon with every year, and in enterprise mobile apps, there are real advantages to working on this.
Workers in the field, for example, have shown the value of “hands-free” communication devices, as it allows workers to be more efficient—and safe—while performing their duties. In the same way, having to stop and use an app, swiping, navigating, or worse yet, using virtual keyboards to type in data, can slow things down. Improved voice recognition and command systems will make a tangible difference to increasing operations.
Better AI
Artificial intelligence seems like one of those science fiction concepts that will only ever appear in books and movies, but rudimentary efforts at machines that can think—or at least, anticipate and predict—are making progress. We’re already seeing the benefits of some AI in software with little things like auto-complete functions for text entry, or the “chatbots” that handle low-level customer inquiries with simple answers and referrals.
For enterprise mobile apps, better AI can mean better monitoring of work activity, providing the data that people need without even directly requesting it, based on monitoring current work data, and even taking the initiative in emergencies to send an alert for assistance if a worker in the field is unable to do so. All of these things can make enterprise mobile apps not just more useful but safer devices.
