Category
Tech
Delegated Interfaces
Trend cluster
Category
Soft
Development
Tech brands facilitate the development of important soft skills.
2.7
Trend score
Trend
What is the Soft Development trend?
Soft Development: Tech companies are developing artificial intelligence tools to help children acquire essential soft skills through interactive tools, games, and companions. These platforms adapt to each user's responses, offering personalized guidance and feedback in real-time while helping to improve skills such as empathy, self-awareness, and conflict resolution.
Insight
The consumer insight behind the Soft Development trend
Many children struggle to practice conflict resolution and communication in a world where digital interactions often replace face-to-face connections. In response, parents and educators are seeking tools that entertain while nurturing emotional intelligence, helping kids grow into more socially aware and resilient individuals. AI-driven platforms meet this need by providing safe, adaptive, and personalized experiences that guide children through real-world social scenarios. For businesses, this helps with developing trusted educational technologies that cater to parents’ desire for holistic development, while fostering long-term brand loyalty in the family market.
Trend themes
Themes within the Soft Development trend
Three behaviours holding the trend together01
Soft Skills Development
Tech companies are prioritizing the development of soft skills through software and products that can help people develop empathy, communication, and cooperation, which presents an opportunity to invest in developing more tools and products that support soft skills development.
02
Virtual Reality Soft Skill Improvement
Virtual reality simulations can significantly improve people's soft skills such as empathy, communication and compassion, which opens up opportunities for businesses to leverage VR technology to support these skill developments.
03
Game-based Emotional Fitness Training
The rising popularity of games that help people flex their emotional fitness skills presents a huge opportunity to develop more unique and engaging narratives that teach users valuable emotional maturity skills, such as mindfulness to improve mindful living.
Industry implications
What the Soft Development trend means for industry
Where the trend changes the playbookFor
EdTech
The increasing focus on soft skills development in mainstream education opens up opportunities for EdTech companies to develop new products and technologies that can help children and adults learn and practice these skills.
For
HR and Workplace Training
Virtual reality technology can be utilized by companies to improve communication, compassion, and empathy among employees and can be used as part of employee training and development programs.
For
Animal Rights
The use of virtual reality technology to immerse users in the experience of animals opens up potential opportunities for animal rights organizations and advocates to create deeper empathy and understanding around animal welfare issues.
Workshop question
How can your brand use AI to nurture and improve human qualities?
Trend signals
Trend signals for Soft Development
Trend score 2.7 out of 10, from popularity 48%, activity 23%, freshness 9%.
Popularity48%
Activity23%
Freshness9%
Audience
50%Men
50%Women
- Gen Alpha
- Gen Z
- Millennial
- Gen X
- Boomer (not a primary audience)
Market
North America
Europe
Asia-Pacific
South America
Evidence
Examples of the Soft Development trend
8 featured examples from Feb 23, 2018 to Oct 29, 2020CategoryLifestyle
Emotional Fitness Games
eQuoo Uses Strong Narratives to Teach Players Life Skills
The eQuoo game exemplifies how the mental health industry can utilize gamified approaches to promote emotional well-being and provide accessible tools for self-improvement.
CategorySocial Good
Empathy-Driven Virtual Reality Experiences
Peta Allows Users to Engage with Virtual Animals
Technology companies can develop VR platforms and content that create empathy-driven experiences with virtual animals.
CategorySocial Good
Cyberbullying Education Platforms
Agree Online Helps Children with Online Conflict Resolution
Agree Online is an educational program that leverages technology to teach online conflict resolution and digital citizenship.
CategoryLifestyle
Dating App Wellness Workshops
The #Open Dating App is Hosting 'Iso-dating 101'
Online Dating companies can take advantage of the shift to virtual events and workshops that cater to their user's current needs and provide a competitive advantage.
CategoryLife-Stages
Cognitive Learning Robots
Moxie Uses Machine Learning to Perceive and Interact with Kids
Educational institutes can adopt interactive technology that introduces machine learning algorithms to enhance cognitive learning experiences of children with disabilities or spec…
CategoryTech
AI Interview Feedback Tools
LinkedIn Created AI Tools for Users to Get Feedback on Soft Skills
AI tools that streamline the interview process and improve candidate evaluation for recruiters and HR professionals.
CategoryTech
Interpersonal VR Experiences
Talespin's Virtual Human Technology Improves Empathy & Communication
Virtual reality training is revolutionizing how employees are trained in various industries.
CategoryLife-Stages
Cubic AR Toys
PleIQ Combines Tangible Cube Toys with Augmented Reality Interactions
Industry that can benefit from the development of educational toys that promote multiple intelligence development.
