Connected objects: what are the expectations of the French?

EDF Pulse & You's 100th campaign focuses on the theme of connected objects. The opportunity to share your ideas and win great prizes, but also to understand the evolution of connected objects over the five years of the platform, which has grown significantly since 2016 with now 10,000 participants.
And 100! One hundred EDF Pulse & You campaigns conducted in five years. For the occasion, the co-innovation platform revives the subject of the first project, "What would be the most useful connected object in your home?" », to understand what has changed – or not – about this theme over this ultimately quite long period in the world of new technologies. One hundred awards are up for grabs in addition to being able to share your ideas, discover and give your opinion on the solutions of tomorrow.

The R2D2 myth

Even if it is obviously still too early to draw an assessment of this campaign, which takes place until March 21, 2022, "we have intuitions but we are impatient to see if they are confirmed because each time we are surprised by collective creativity,” says Gaël Le Boulch, in charge of Open Innovation for Private Customers for EDF. In 2016, "everything seemed to be able to be connected according to the R2D2 myth, a robot that speaks, interacts and is present in all the moments of our daily lives". A myth that seems to be somewhat dulled after a few campaigns, technological advances and "some disenchantment about the capabilities of these objects and their necessity at all times".

Key objects and specific services

Another development observed, where five years ago everything had to be connected, the trend now leans more in favor of a few key objects associated with different functions of the house: the refrigerator in the kitchen, the television for the living room, and even the smart mirror in the bathroom as indeed there were many examples at the last CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas. “This makes it possible to centralize usage on objects that offer larger interaction surfaces than on a smartphone,” explains Gaël Le Boulch. Moreover, "the will seems to go in favor of an object that responds to specific services, opening the oven by voice when carrying a hot dish for example, rather than a plethoric offer or eccentric functions, such as if we offered to order an Uber with his toothbrush.
10,000 committed, creative and benevolent pulsators
There is no shortage of subjects on this theme, and moreover already nearly 500 contributions have been posted on the campaign website, "in barely two weeks, when at the start we were unable to collect more than 700 after three months,” enthuses Gaël Le Boulch. This 100th campaign is indeed an opportunity, in addition to focusing on the evolution of connected objects, to look back on these five years of EDF Pulse & You. The platform now has 10,000 participants, of whom Gaël Le Boulch marvels at "commitment, creativity and benevolence". "In 2016, we were heading a bit towards the unknown and it is thanks to all the communities that have been built around the platform that we are fully convinced of the value of co-innovation, whether at the level of the co-ideation of a product or service, its co-development or its co-beta test of use”, he says.

Cover the entire “crowd” chain

Article produced in partnership with the EDF Pulse teams.

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