Episode 46: Coffee Robots and (Third-Party) Cookies

In our latest Tower After Hours episode, Amanda, Haley, Emily, and Kaitlin discuss artificial intelligence, the most popular things people Googled this year, and the end of retail stores as we know them.

Creepy Coffee Interactions (01:00 – 09:00)

Starbucks is also using AI to automate its staffing and scheduling. But soon, they may also try using AI to take orders from customers. Rather than using AI to reduce or eliminate human interaction, Starbucks hopes that adding artificial intelligence to their ordering process will help foster more human interaction. The AI will take the order via microphone, so that the employee doesn’t have to type or enter anything in the computer, allowing them to focus their attention on having a friendly, positive interaction with the customer.

What Did We Google This Year? (09:00 – 22:30)

We take a look at 2019 Google search trends and two notable algorithm updates. The first update will help Google better understand search intent and word meaning. For example, it can now differentiate the difference between an article about IT hosts and servers and restaurant hosts and servers. Their other update will assist with first-page diversity in search results by limiting the number of pages from a single domain to two results. This will help give a wider variety of search results, rather than just bringing up 10 pages all belonging to the same tech giant.

We’re Over Influencers (22:30 – 28:30)

From user-generated content to influencer marketing, we take a look at the biggest predicted trends in content marketing for 2020. The team weighs in on their thoughts and makes a few predictions of their own.

Shop Til Your Phone Dies (28:30 – 54:20)

Amanda quizzes the team on their preferences when it comes to shopping in stores and online. Over the past two decades, shopping has become an enormous online industry, but millions of people shop in stores every day. What are their motivations? How do the numbers change by age group? Play along to see where you fall on the spectrum of shopping.