Thinking about the future is completely natural, everyone does it. Predicting which trends will prevail is the task of a futures expert.
“Predictions are difficult, especially when they concern the future.” Mark Twain already knew this at the time. One who is passionate about predicting future trends today is Lisi Prem. Born in St. Johann, she studied international economics and is a futures expert.
“Even as a child I was extremely curious and wanted to discover the world. Many strangers were guests in the tourist resort of St. Johann im Pongau and I always wanted to know where they come from, how they live, what they wear. I guess that really appealed to me shaped,” she admits. Currently she is mainly concerned with the topics of fashion, design and lifestyle.
Future strategies for companies and brands
“Companies or brands ask me and want to know what’s going on. I help them to design future strategies. In workshops we find out where the brand stands and where the development is going.”
Her first job, where she was responsible for the in-house “Trend Magazine”, had an enormous influence on her current work. “That was for the designers at crystal manufacturer Swarovski, because they had to know in advance what colors and shapes would be in demand for the coming season. I met a lot of futurologists back then,” she says of her dream job, which involves to think about how the world will develop.
“Unfortunately, I’ve never lived in places like New York or Berlin, where I could have said: Here and now what will prevail as a trend is happening.” The upheavals of the corona pandemic played into her hands for the success of her future agency. “The whole world was now constantly sitting in front of the computer and in video meetings. That really pushed digitization forward.”
She also runs a blog and podcast under the name “Tomorrow Stories”.
Virtual and augmented reality are an expression of the fact that the Internet is moving more and more into the 3D area, which means it is becoming more immersive. Life in the “Metaverse” – the merging of real life and the digital – has already begun. To be observed with various filters of the mobile phone camera. “You design yourself, so to speak, an avatar that dresses digitally. In fashion, for example, well-known brands with a filter for clothing are ready to go.”
Artificial intelligence, transformation and resilience as major trends in 2023
Lisi Prem identifies three areas that will shape the year 2023 as major trends: artificial intelligence (AI), transformation and resilience. “AI will be defining for the entire decade, because today there is already AI that writes music or lyrics, designs interiors or creates art. There is a lot there already and there will be a lot more to come.” The future expert advocates dealing with the developments in detail, because as helpful as some applications can be, they also harbor risks. “It’s about the relationship between technology and nature. That could put us on a track where we hit a wall,” she warns. Younger generations no longer find anything wrong with moving in these worlds. You grew up with gaming portals and are very familiar with them. “The way we dress in the morning when we leave the house, they put on their avatar. It often has nothing to do with their real appearance. It’s their internet personality. Some people don’t even want them to be someone in real life recognizes.”
“It will be exciting in the future, especially in the field of “FemTech”.
Lisi Prem, futures expert
Technical innovations, which are becoming available more and more quickly, are fueling the process of transformation in which we are currently finding ourselves. That means a fundamental change is underway. “There is so much happening at the same time, both technologically, operationally and individually. It scares some people, but I remain optimistic about the future because the opportunities are just as incredible.” At the same time, a counter-trend is emerging and this is towards resilience. “It’s about the question of how we can cope with the rapid change. This means that people feel the need to go out into nature much more, to grow vegetables or to become farmers straight away.”
Lisi Prem predicts a great future in 2023 for “FemTech”, i.e. innovation by and for women, such as “wearables”: watches that can measure all sorts of things in the female health sector. “It’s going to be exciting, because medicine has so far been dominated almost exclusively by the male perspective.” She also sees plenty of potential in NFT technology, which will become particularly important in digital brand protection.
FUTURE TRENDS FOR 2023
The metaverse, or metaverse, is a digital space created through the interaction of virtual, augmented, and physical reality. A transformation is understood as a fundamental change. From a social perspective, the term describes sudden changes in political, economic or technological development.