Technology Update

RFID is poised for continued growth, advanced customer service and how office space is evolving.

New research from Yu- Han Chang, senior technology analyst at IDTechEx, found that while the RFID industry is expected to maintain growth in the coming year, it still faces some challenges. IDtechEx expects the RFID industry to reach $ 14 billion this year, which compares to $ 12.8 billion in 2022. Chang said the market value encompasses various RFID form factors, “including labels, cards, fobs and tags, as well as scanners, software and services for both active and passive RFID technologies.” Chang said among these, the Passive RFID Tags portion “stands out as the largest, comprising more than half of the total RFID market.”

Chang noted that the RFID tag market is dominated by the retail apparel sector, “which accounts for 64 percent of the market share by tag volume and 72 percent of the market share by value.” Chang said in the report that while 24 billion RFID labels are expected to be used in retail apparel tagging by 2023, “the total addressable market for retail apparel alone is believed to be around 80 billion tags per year, indicating ample growth opportunities.”

Still, Chang said it is worth noting “that the UHF reader network is still primarily a business tool, with the cost of UHF reader smartphones targeted toward industry use rather than consumers.” Regarding challenges, Chang said the overall RFID market remains subject to supply chain disruptions, but this is expected to improve in the coming year.

In the e-commerce space, CloudHesive’s ConnectPath CX is positioning itself as a leading Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) platform. The solution, powered by Amazon Connect, offers a variety of pre- built service capabilities, “including messaging ( SMS, social, MMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger), voice, email and other omnichannel customer touchpoints,” the company said, noting that the platform is “designed to assist businesses of all sizes in improving customer interactions and driving overall customer satisfaction by harnessing the capabilities of the Amazon Connect and other AWS Ecosystem offerings.”

In content for marketing news, Amsterdambased Azerion is launching Smart Content, which the company described as an AI-powered solution that combines advertising technology and video content on one platform. The Smart Content platform features a video library “of over 10,000 unique brand- safe video clips is seamlessly integrated into Azerion’s video monetization platform.” The company’s said the content, which it produces in- house, “covers various topics across various IAB categories and comes in seven languages. Now our publishing partners can easily add Azerion’s video content and immediately start monetizing the incremental traffic.”

Damian Hartmann, product director of Smart Content at Azerion, said with the platform, the company can now help publishers “find the perfect video content and ensure optimal engagement and relevance for the publishers’ audience. With targeted audiences, we unlock publishers’ revenue potential with our innovative digital assets and provide more value to our customers.”

Meanwhile new research from real estate company JLL shows as the workplace evolves, facility management leaders will leverage data and technology to create a flexible and reimagined office space to meet changing demands.

In its research report, JLL said more than half of organizations will be making remote working a permanent option for all employees by 2025. “However, more than 70 percent of corporate real estate executives agree that the office will continue to be a central part of their workplace ecosystems in the long term,” the report’s authors said. As a result, JLL sees the emergence of “Smart Offices,” which are supported by dynamic services ( technology, AV) and provisioning ( food service, cleaning).

“For many organizations, the corporate office is becoming the primary destination for group work, including training, mentoring, collaboration and focusing around a specific project,” JLL also noted. “In fact, 45 percent of CRE executives view collaborative working as a primary purpose of office space.”