Key Digital Signage Trends for 2024 and Beyond

Announcement

This article will highlight the most significant upcoming trends in digital signage, providing businesses with insights into how these innovations can be leveraged to enhance customer engagement, operational efficiency, and competitive edge. 

Introduction

Companies must contend with the evolving landscape of digital signage. Stagnation kills just as effectively with digital signage as it does with social media posts or did with print media. This year, trends in digital signage are shaped by technological advancements and changing consumer expectations.

Top 6 digital signage trends for 2024 and beyond

So what are the digital signage future trends that companies need to be aware of? We explore the top six trends that can help your company increase customer interaction and improve employee retention at the same time. 

Trend #1. Integration of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Smart AI tools are quickly becoming top contenders for the latest trends in digital signage because of the ways in which they can encourage real-time integration for patients, customers, and even employees. Some of the most basic of these include:

• Voice activation
• Automated content

Voice activation enables a hands-free experience, where people can verbally interact with screens, asking questions such as “Where is the Cool Coffee Bean Cafe?” at a mall kiosk or requesting a change in lighting or music in the background of an office. 

These simple AI integrations mimic the same tools being used throughout homes and offices today with Bluetooth-enabled devices like Alexa. 

Machine learning provides opportunities for things like real-time content to be updated and improved based on user interactions, as well as curating better content across all businesses. 

Trend #2. Augmented Reality and Immersive Content Experiences

Augmented reality can overlay digital information with animations and interactive or immersive content experiences using things like accurate 3D displays of objects and real-time integration. Sensors and cameras can transform static content into immersive experiences.

For example:

• Museums featuring exhibits on Ancient Egypt can offer an immersive content experience where users can pick a display generated on the screen and see how that town looked at different points in history with 3D models.
• Movie theater posters could show trailers with an AR app, making a simple, static poster into an immersive experience.
• Companies with innovative products can offer real-time displays of how that product works or how it was manufactured with AR videos. 

This trend of AR and immersive content offers enhanced customer engagement by inviting immediate interaction where customers might have instead walked right by a display. It can also customize content for different users, providing a presentation of product options or recommendations based on what a customer looks at or interacts with. 

AR maps can promote better navigation while also encouraging sales or brand loyalty. 

Trend #3. Sustainability and Eco-Friendly Technologies

Digital signage future trends will pivot toward sustainability. This was a big focus for organizations in 2023 and remained one this year. Younger consumers and employees are searching for companies that emphasize a limited carbon footprint, and companies are, meanwhile, searching for ways to reduce energy consumption costs. 

With digital signage trends moving away from print material and focusing more on cloud-based solutions, companies can reduce their hardware waste, time, and money spent on marketing and focus more on sustainability. 

Trend #4. Advanced Connectivity and IoT Integration

Another key trend is advanced connectivity and IoT integration. The Internet of Things (IoT) and advanced connectivity provide an opportunity for more targeted content delivery for each of your digital signs. 

The more connected your digital signage is, the better your reach can be. For example:

• Digital signage displays can connect to systems that analyze weather, news, or traffic patterns and provide real-time updates based on location. 
• Digital signage can incorporate personal preferences for customers by enabling phones or smartwatches to connect via sensors on the screens. 
• Digital signage in medical facilities can provide floor plans or directories based on voice commands or questions from visitors, after which the display can connect via Wi-Fi or QR codes to phones, offering a direct GPS-monitored route to the office in question. 

Trend #5. Content Diversification and Dynamic Delivery, Multi-Content Capabilities

Other digital signage trends have to do with dynamic delivery and diversification. Diverse content can create things like customized promotions based on heat maps indicating where consumers are in a given location. With cellular connectivity, location-specific content can reach customers no matter where they are.

Content could be delivered with changes to sound, motion, or even light intensity based on the time of day or the demographics who most often frequent that location during a given time frame. 

Trend #6. Focus on Privacy and Data Protection

As more companies adopt digital signage with integration features, including social media account coordination, private customer data, and other smartphone features like geo-tagging, there needs to be a focus on privacy and data protection. 

Companies need to be aware that when they collect private or personal data as part of their marketing efforts, certain measures have to be taken. 

For example, interactive digital signage should only collect data that is completely relevant to the objective and not anything else without user consent. Collecting data on which items have been browsed directly through voice commands on a digital sign or what items have been browsed after a customer scans a QR code on the phone using company Wi-Fi is very different from scanning all of their user or browser history unrelated to the company.

The more advanced your connectivity, the more your company needs to focus not just on digital signage trends but the privacy behind them. 

Digital Signage Trends: What to Focus on?

The latest trends in digital signage necessitate the integration of AI, with immersive content through AR. Companies looking to stay on top of digital signage trends should focus on advanced connectivity and content diversification. 

Throughout the coming years, these trends will continue to shape the future of digital signage. As a business large or small, find ways to adopt these trends to stay competitive and relevant today.