Seven seconds. That’s all it takes for a first impression to harden into a lasting perception. That's all it takes when a prospective client is stepping through your lobby doors deciding what kind of company you are. The polished floors, lighting, and welcome desk all play a role, but in today’s business climate, it’s the technology that speaks the loudest. A dynamic video wall might display a looping montage of your latest product launches, a real-time social media feed celebrating client wins, or a stunning visual journey through your company’s history. Interactive displays could let visitors navigate a touchscreen map to find their meeting room, or browse recent sustainability initiatives. Digital signage might greet them by name and highlight relevant case studies from their industry.

Digital signage is a popular solution for imparting information that informs and engages various audiences and constituencies. Two broad technology advances are adding additional intelligence to digital signage solutions to make them even more effective, engaging, and important. One is cloud-connected management, and the other is artificial intelligence (AI).

You might already be thinking, aren’t those two areas the underpinnings of almost every smart device today? Of course, you’re right. But it wasn’t so many years ago that many digital signage systems were based on a local player attached to a display screen via USB. Today, cloud-based content management and monitoring make it much easier to keep a large network of digital displays of all sizes running fresh content and enabling more sophisticated communication campaigns. In addition, AI enables more intelligent and customized approaches to digital signage display solutions. Let’s take a look at three innovative applications for digital signage.