Advertising on the Third Layer of Personal Computing

September 30, 2024
By Tom Rose

Smart glasses. AI pins. An orb pendant with a built-in chatbot. Whether you can’t wait to get your hands on them or you’d rather drop them in a glass of water, a new wave of wearable and AI-powered tech is emerging. Some call it the “third layer of computing,” and it’s set to change the way humans interact with each other, with the world, and with brands.

You already know the first two layers of computing well. At the base is the personal computer. Most of us use these machines for work and entertainment daily. As we do, we’re exposed to digital marketing along the way: web ads, video ads, even spam email. When computers aren’t convenient, we use the second layer: smartphones. Here, we encounter different forms of media and brand communication: apps, social platforms, push notifications, and sponsored content.

Smartphones, of course, don’t replace our computers — they simply provide a computing option that we keep in our pocket. From the go, mobile devices have given us the ability to communicate and access information almost anywhere. They’ve also turned everyday people into “entertainers” via social media, flooding our feeds with endless attention bait. The result: today’s consumers are inundated with content and struggling to keep up. Their screen times are rising. And many are grappling with the fact that excessive scrolling is bad for mental health. All of this has primed us for a new kind of tech — devices that preserve our connection to the digital world while helping us focus our interactions with it.

Cue AI-powered wearable devices that can deliver, record, and send information in real time — a third layer of curated computing that you can literally keep on you. These computers take familiar forms like eyeglasses, pins, and necklaces and act as a natural extension of your mind — allowing us to operate technology seamlessly. Consider the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses’ ability to look and remember your spot number in a parking garage. Or the Humane AI Pin, which may not have found commercial footing, but does offer a glimpse of the future with its ability to “Catch me up,” i.e. digest and summarize your recently received messages into a quick verbal update. In both these examples, you can perform the function with a simple voice command, eliminating the break in focus between the desire to do something and the need to pull out a phone and navigate menus to accomplish it.

This is only the beginning. While we won’t speculate on the future of tech (we’ll leave that to the founders), we do expect these devices to get more powerful, more common, and more integrated with the accounts and services we’ve grown accustomed to. By streamlining how we operate and interact with our digital world, this third layer of hardware promises to change the way that consumers are hardwired. And the key to understanding how lies in understanding each layer of computing.

Right now, brands like Spotify, iHeart Radio, and Be My Eyes offer experiences for wearables. Eventually, third-layer devices will open their dev kits so anyone can build an experience for them, just like anyone can build a computer program or a mobile app, including brands. And when brands do start building on the third layer, the new way consumers are moving through the world should drive their design.

So, how will consumers add to their lives with third-layer devices? While the tech is still in its early days, two key feelings will anchor their experience. The first is connection: With access to curated and personalized information on the go, as well as the ability to execute functional tasks in a streamlined, focused manner, consumers navigating life with third-layer tech feel be empowered and in control. The second feeling is freedom: Unencumbered by the temptation of social media and other distracting apps, people can be less beholden to their devices and live more in the moment.

In this way, the rise of AI-powered wearables suggests a shift not just in how we interact with technology, but in how we experience our daily lives. By prioritizing focus and functionality, these devices invite us to reclaim our time and attention, fostering genuine connections with our surroundings and the people in them. As brands begin to adapt to this new landscape and find their place (and their content’s place) within it, they’d be smart to recognize that, ultimately, the future of wearables is not merely about convenience; it’s about cultivating a more mindful relationship with technology — one that enriches our lives rather than distracts from them.