Seeing the future: Cathy Hackl’s vision for how digital-physical reality will take shape

Cathy Hackl lives at the intersection of technology and commerce.

As co-founder of Journey, a global innovation and design company made up of several studios that create next-generation customer experiences like Walmart Land in Roblox and the lighting design inside the Sphere in Las Vegas, Hackl works with some of the most influential voices today — from Nike and Ralph Lauren to Louis Vuitton — spearheading innovation with a digital twist.

And as a senior tech and gaming executive and a futurist, she makes it her business to determine where emerging tech trends will carry us. She advises clients on strategies in gaming, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, spatial computing, the metaverse, Web3, digital design and the virtual world. She has channeled her passion for fashion by digitally styling icons like Madison Beer and launching the luxury tech label VerseLuxe.

In her “spare” time, Hackl keynotes significant tech and business events, hosts Adweek’s TechMagic podcast, has written for Forbes, Harvard Business Review and Wired en Español, and has authored five books, including the upcoming “Spatial Computing: An AI-Driving Business Revolution” — cementing her position as a key voice in our increasingly online world.

In a recent conversation with the Mastercard Newsroom, Hackl shares her insights about where technology is going and how it will shape our lives.

You’ve been a big player in the tech game for a while. How did you get your start in the field?

Hackl: I come from a communications background — I used to be a journalist many lives ago. But about 10 years ago I started in live video, before the time you could go live on Instagram and Facebook. That’s the first time I got engaged with Silicon Valley, and when I got introduced to virtual reality and augmented reality.

What drew you to virtual reality?

Hackl: As soon as I took the headset off, I said, “This is the future of storytelling. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.” And at the time I had no technical skills, but I started learning and making connections as quickly as I could and forged my unconventional way into the tech world. I learned as much as possible about AR and VR, started working in the industry, gained some technical skills, and was off to the races. On the futures studies front, I got certified in strategic foresight from the University of Houston, the longest-running training program in the world for futurists, making me a professionally trained futurist.

How did you know that AR and VR were going to be so huge?

Hackl: As a futurist, when I see something that I can identify is going to be really important, I can see where it’s going and I jump on it. It started with VR and AR, then went into spatial computing at Magic Leap, then focused on the metaverse; now I’m doing a lot in the gaming industry, AI, and back again working in spatial computing and the future of AI wearables. AI wearables and the coming era of spatial computing will be at the forefront in 2024.

What does the title “futurist” mean?

Hackl: No one actually knows the future, right? That’s why predictions can be so flawed. But as a trained futurist, I use all relevant information at my disposal to work through second- and third-order effects to determine what plausible and potential futures could happen. A good futurist scans all environments to pick up signals and trends across the board — what’s happening in healthcare, politics, tech, economics, biology and more, in and outside the U.S. I take all of these elements into account to present these potential futures. Then I work with clients, from companies and brands to cities and governments, to pick the desired future they would prefer from the plausible options and work backwards to try to achieve that outcome. But I do think there’s a lowercase futurist in all of us.

What do you think has enabled the growth of certain technologies like Web3, extended reality and the metaverse? Can you see where we’ll grow next?

Hackl: It’s convergence and acceleration and, of course, better computing power. We’re going to continue to need more computing power, especially with AI. And everyone is talking about generative AI right now; we’re in the AI revolution, but I’m thinking broader to spatial computing — that’s where things are going to head. This year we will see AI wearables come to the forefront.

Spatial computing is one of your biggest areas of tech focus, but there’s confusion about what that term means. Could you break it down?

Hackl: People think spatial computing equals mixed reality, but it’s far more than that. It’s not just hardware and AR/VR headsets, it’s a broader revolution. As I wrote recently in the Harvard Business Review, spatial computing is an evolving 3D-centric form of computing that blends our physical world and virtual experiences using a wide range of technologies, thus enabling humans to interact and communicate in new ways with each other and with machines, as well as giving machines the capabilities to navigate and understand our physical environment in new ways. From a business perspective, it will allow people to create new content, products, experiences and services that have purpose in both physical and virtual environments, expanding computing into everything you can see, touch and know.

Virtual experiences and content will interact with the physical world in new ways through spatial interfaces, and that in turn will change human-to-computer interactions and human-to-human interactions. To give it a quick definition, I’d say spatial computing combines software, hardware, information and connectivity that blend the physical world and the virtual content in a new form of advanced computing.

What does that mean for the future of tech?

Hackl: Eventually we’ll be living in a post-smartphone world where it’s not about just one technology. As I describe in my minibook “A Wearable World,” all of these technologies will converge in different interfaces. Whether it’s glasses or a pin or humanoid robots that we engage with or some other type of device, we are going to find new ways to interact with technology. We’re going to break free from those smartphone screens. And a lot of these devices will become spatial computers. A new era of AI-driven spatial computer hardware is just getting started. While I’ve been in the spatial computing and wearable space for many years, it’s not till 2024 that I feel like the industry is about to hit its inflection point.

Eventually you’ll have a spatial computing device that you can’t leave the house without, because it’s the only way that you can engage with the multiple data layers and the information layers and these virtual layers that will be surrounding the physical world. Right now there’s a bit of chaos, but I’m a firm believer that technology can potentially help us have a more “pro-topian” society — not utopian or dystopian, but one that, though human and sometimes flawed, is constantly evolving for the better.

What are your plans for 2024 and your work in tech?

I’m focusing on starting some new exciting chapters of my tech career this year. While I can't share too much right now, I am someone who is a builder and a person who likes to constantly tinker with new tech and spend time in the trenches. I’m excited about the convergence of AI and spatial computing and how they will impact fashion, luxury, commerce, gaming and sports.