By Rohit Talwar, Steve Wells, and Alexandra Whittington

Fast Future’s Life in 2025: “Say Hello Say Goodbye” Scenarios were developed in partnership with Huawei Consumer Business Group. This latest scenario explores how a range of exponentially advancing technologies such as AI and big data could transform communications.

Advances in the underlying technologies could transform the experience of communicating. Developments could include mobile devices embedded into our bodies and clothing, with immersive, holographic experiences as standard for everyday conversations and video conferencing. The AR and VR evolution to 2025 will see multi-sensory experiences built into our communications, so that we can physically touch and smell the other person when talking to family and friends on the other side of the world.

Our device interfaces could be sufficiently advanced to recognise and call who we want to talk to – based on our thought patterns – and equally, screen out those with whom we don’t want to engage. For inbound sales and marketing calls, AI could take over the dialogue to screen the offer and determine if it would be of interest to us to have a follow-on call.

Say goodbye to…

• Auto-correct fails – when composing text and email messages, AI technology could offer the options of automatically correcting poor spelling and grammar and highlight where a comment is open to interpretation. The technology could also offer context relevant suggestions of how best to convey a point or respond to the content, energy, and emotion in the other person’s communications. The technology could go further and suggest different ways of framing the same message for different audiences such as friends, a sibling, parent, or boss.

Our devices will learn our behaviours and the emotions associated with our choice of words and patterns of breathing and speaking. We can then give them the option of coaching us on calls, breaking a call if it becomes too emotional, or taking over the call and speaking on our behalf. An AI assistant or a VR experience might serve as a personal communications coach. We could practice speeches or presentations with them and get feedback about speaking style. Students and professionals might use them regularly and they might also help those nervous about approaching any kind of speaking, even interpersonal interactions. Language apps that help with grammar, accents, and writing may also grow into a necessity.

Say goodbye to…

• The fear of public speaking – which would be greatly decreased in society, with support groups and courses to help drastically improve a speaker’s confidence and performance.

Mobile communication devices will increasingly be woven into our clothes with access to the data we need. Contacts, favourites, reminders, and destination navigation would automatically be stored in the cloud, ready to be accessed when we get dressed the following morning.

Our phone will effectively become our personal life concierge and prevent us from forgetting key events. Our smartphone AI will not only give us alerts of impending activities, but also remind us of the supporting actions that we need to take. So, if our child has time off school in three weeks for a teacher training day, we will be reminded to book time off, schedule to work from home that day, or arrange childcare. The urgency of the reminders will increase over time. Our AI might block us from doing anything else with our phone if we get to a week out from the event and haven’t yet taken the appropriate action.

Say goodbye to…

• Disorganisation – There will be no excuse for forgetting key events and appointments, as our mobile devices will become our personal life concierge and transform the way we manage our diaries.
• Task disruption – Greater streamlining of the daily schedule would be guaranteed – leading to fewer unexpected interruptions across work, home, and school.

The authors are futurists with Fast Future – a professional foresight firm specializing in delivering keynote speeches, executive education, research, and consulting for global clients on the emerging future and the impacts of change. To arrange a presentation on the Life in 2025 scenarios please contact

To access more of our articles and learn more about our work please visit www.fastfuture.com

You can find summaries of the ten scenarios here https://consumer.huawei.com/uk/campaign/truestories/tech/

How can I bring the future in my organization?

To find out more about key developments, ideas, tools, and approaches to help you and your organization navigate a fast changing future, why not attend one of the 20 leadership focused events taking place over seven days during Fast Future’s London Futures Week 2020.

Image: https://pixabay.com/images/id-1991850/ by geralt