Service
TCS Interactive
Humanizing Technology to Create Iconic Experiences
On this page
On this pageinpage
Immersive inclusion
Digital experiences need to give customers greater control and more choices, enabling interactions that are richer, more creative, and collaborative. They need to be human-centered and accessible to everyone. The bottom line? In short, they need to be inclusive, intelligent, and immersive.
In terms of adoption, inclusive features are much more common.
- Users can rely on voice commands to navigate and interact with their apps, computers, and other devices.
- They can customise text size and colour contrast for readability, which is crucial for those with low vision or colour blindness.
- Many apps are designed with VoiceOver (iOS) and TalkBack (Android) for users with visual impairments, ensuring all meaningful user interface (UI) elements are accessible.
- Apps are increasingly focusing on simplified layouts, distraction-free modes, and customisable interfaces to cater to users with cognitive differences such as dyslexia or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
- AI is also being leveraged to create personalised experiences by automatically adjusting layouts, content, and settings based on user needs.
- AI can power features such as automatic captioning for audio content and image descriptions for visually impaired users.
Formless intellect
The emergence of formless conversational AI marks a shift away from rigid, one-way data flows toward more natural, human-centered conversations. Instead of the traditional monologue of users inputting data into forms and navigating buttons, many can now have a two-way conversation with an AI interface that can ask questions, answer queries, and seek clarification in real time. Users no longer need to translate their requirements into pre-defined, search-friendly terms. AI can understand and translate complex prompts into clear digital actions, reimagining the user journey.
The chat bubble or voice command on the AI interface has become the new front door. Instead of users learning how to navigate a specific interface, the AI learns the user’s language, making the interface effectively invisible because it functions as a reasoning engine that interprets intent rather than simply matching keywords.
Importantly, the experience is not a set of disconnected clicks; it unfolds as a continuous, context-aware conversation, allowing for complex, multi-step queries that a traditional form could never handle. This is similar to a guided consultation. Agentic AI can further reinforce execution by making semi-autonomous decisions, a capability enabled through agentic commerce.
The interaction does not just tell you which product is the best for you; it can proactively find the best price, check your payment preferences, and even complete the purchase, all within the same conversational thread. From being a passive information provider, AI’s role shifts to that of an active partner.
Immersive era
The technologies used to create immersive experiences as spatial channels, rather than interactive conversations, are, at least for now, still largely experimental. But as they evolve, they represent the potential to become the physical body for AI.
Nike has explored augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies for virtual try-on experiences, although the functionality is not yet a standard feature of the main Nike app. The American athletic and apparel company has, however, used these technologies for promotional and marketing experiences within specific campaigns or features.
The pause in progress comes down to several challenges:
- Costs: For small to medium-sized brands, procuring expensive hardware (e.g., VR headsets) required for immersive experiences can be difficult.
- Future is in flux: Marketing with immersive technology is not new, but its long-term trajectory remains uncertain.
- Technical complexities: Deploying and managing technologies to create immersive experiences is complex and requires proper training.
- Reduced human interaction: VR and AR communications through simulation activities often limit human interaction, potentially leading to trust and authenticity issues.
Driven by advancements in VR, AR, mixed reality (MR), 3D visualisation, and 360-degree experiences, the field of immersive technologies is changing rapidly. Industries such as education, life sciences, manufacturing, retail, travel, and hospitality are adopting these technologies to deliver immersive and interactive experiences across a wide range of use cases, including training, assistance, marketing, experimentation, collaboration, and entertainment.
Advancements in hardware, such as Apple's Vision Pro, Meta's new AR glasses Orion, and Meta Ray-Ban glasses, are pushing the boundaries of spatial computing and user interaction with better resolution, more comfortable headsets that, in some cases, can be controlled via eye-tracking and hand gestures, and more responsive physical motion controllers. Tools like Unity 6, Omniverse, and Unreal Engine are evolving rapidly, offering enhanced capabilities, graphics, and realism, with ever-increasing integration with AI-powered tools. This helps developers create immersive experiences more quickly, swiftly, and effectively.
Advent of AI
The advent of AI is poised to accelerate the adoption of extended reality (XR) by making experiences more human-like and adaptive. From core spatial engines that incorporate AI to enhance workflows and integrate multiple tools for content creation, to conversational interactions that mimic human dialogue and generate multilingual speech, AI can transform the landscape of immersive experiences.
Some ideas to enhance immersive experiences using AI include:
- Voice-to-voice adaptive interaction: This can improve the user experience that currently relies on traditional gesture-based, pre-defined steps.
- Spatially aware intelligent non-playing characters (NPCs): NPCs can act based on voice commands from the user.
- Emotional feedback incorporation: Enhancing user engagement by incorporating emotional responses.
- AI-driven computer vision: Advances in computer vision are making real-time fault detection and assistance more precise.
These AI-driven enhancements can be applied to various applications, including:
- Training: Allow trainees to converse and interact with virtual elements just as they would in real life, with dynamic adaptive responses. This can include GenAI-based sales training, which can help provide trainees with more life-like training scenarios for handling diverse customers.
- Assistance: AR-enabled maintenance assistants that continuously inspect industrial equipment, flag hidden defects in real time, and then overlay step-by-step repair guidance—parts, 3D visuals, and exact torque settings—directly onto the asset to speed up fixes and reduce errors.
- Virtual marketing concierges: Create virtual sales or product assistants.
- Digital twins: Generate synthetic data to simulate real-world conditions more quickly, aiding in training design for LLM-based systems.
Inclusive impact
Creating inclusive, immersive customer experiences is crucial for marketing organisations aiming to stimulate growth, build the brand, and strengthen customer loyalty. By leveraging advancements in immersive technologies and AI, brands can differentiate themselves, improve operational efficiency, and foster long-term customer engagement.