The idea of being a shopper in a AR enabled store where the staff are able to see see thought bubbles floating over my head is a bizarre mix of scary and absurd. If I as the shopper pay enough I should similarly be able to see my segmentation attributes and churn score floating above the head of the store manager. The presence of such data layer and ability to as deep as you pay will preclude the need to have people skills, emotional intelligence and just about all other markers of being human. We can all be making data driven decisions all the time - more likely have an agent having make them on our behalf.
And no, you won’t just take off your AR glasses or pop out your contacts to avoid these problems. Why not? Because faster than any of us can imagine, we will become thoroughly dependent on the virtual layers of information projected all around us. It will feel no more optional than internet access feels optional today. You won’t unplug your AR system because doing so will make important aspects of your surroundings inaccessible to you, putting you at a disadvantage socially, economically, and intellectually. The fact is, the technologies we adopt in the name of convenience rarely remain optional — not when they are integrated into our lives as broadly as AR will be.
A long time luddite, I succumbed to a smart thermostat and there are benefits to it as I can see in the past year that I have had it. At first it was very optional and not something I thought I would need or use - but I was proven wrong soon enough. The same logic extends to other "conveniences" as this article correctly points out. We sit it out and we sit out of the flow of life around us - certainly a choice but not one that is easy to make.
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