Affective Computing Market

Market Overview

The global affective computing market size had a revenue holding of USD 36.32 billion in 2021. It is expected to reach USD 306.5 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 30.55% during the forecast period (2022–2030).

Affective computing is the research and development of devices and systems capable of recognizing, interpreting, processing, and simulating human effects. It is a multidisciplinary field that includes computer science, psychology, and cognitive science. Affective computing systems detect a user's emotional state (through sensors, microphone, cameras, and/or software logic) and respond with predetermined product/service features, such as modifying a quiz or proposing a series of videos to match the learner's disposition. Artificial emotional intelligence is another name for affective computing. It envisions interactions between people and computers in which the latter recognizes user cues and reacts appropriately. For instance, a computational tool powered by emotional artificial intelligence may recognize when a student has difficulty grasping a concept by analyzing their facial expressions while studying the idea and directing them to suitable sources to help them.

Through nonverbal emotional indicators such as gestures, actions, physiology, and other behaviors, affective computing enables a computational device to recognize and respond in real-time to these cues. The market for affective computing is growing due to increased demand for virtual assistants that can spot fraud and increased security requirements across various industries. Affective computing is increasingly being employed in security applications, such as voice-activated biometrics that only allow authorized people access. The development of processing power, the improvement of communication technologies, and the rise of novel approaches, such as artificial intelligence, have opened up unrealized possibilities previously constrained by a lack of resources.

Market Dynamics

Market Driver

Rising Automation in Contact Centers

Affective computing is a fantastic opportunity and has demonstrated its potential in the quest for efficiency improvement in retail and other industries where consumer engagement is quite strong. They are already employed to ascertain from the voices of consumers how the customer felt during their engagement with the customer service representative. Security personnel can utilize it to determine a caller's emotional state—such as stress—to respond more appropriately. Increased automation is simple to implement and can assist businesses in meeting various demands, particularly in cloud-based contact centers.

Using communication application programming interfaces, modern channels can be incorporated. Additionally, there is no centralized office so agents can provide customer care services remotely. Contact centers contain the required infrastructure to support affective computing systems, which can be improved for precision and can handle large volumes of data and accuracy. Contact centers have grown in popularity as the emphasis on providing excellent customer service and experiences has increased. The market for affective computing is predicted to expand due to businesses' increased use of automation to improve output.

Contact centers are increasingly using automation to increase productivity, enhance the customer experience, and give customers self-service options. To facilitate automation in contact centers, businesses are also working to develop innovative affective computing technologies. Cloud solutions have become the most sought-after solution as businesses and organizations deal with various file formats and volumes. Affective computing solutions must learn from massive data sets and continuously work on the ever-expanding raw data; therefore, these systems have gained traction as most enterprises have already used cloud services.

Market Restraint

Lack of Technical Awareness

The greatest obstacle for the AI emotion/affective computing industry is unclear how affective computing will influence corporate applications and procedures. Cutting-edge affective computing is superior to many other existing technologies, such as sentiment and AI-based computing, in that it offers a much more comprehensive range of benefits. Technology is also subject to a great deal of hype, but business executives haven't yet figured out how to distinguish it from the promise it offers. This technology's social and economic impact has also not yet been studied. There is much ambiguity regarding what affective computing can and cannot achieve.

Market Opportunities

Increased Use of Computing in the Automotive Sector

Presently, the automotive sector has some of the most commercially available technologies for affective computing. Most market participants offer at least one good or service for automobile applications. In the automotive industry, affective computing is frequently used to create better driver assistance systems (ADAS). The two categories of ADAS functions are comfort functions and security features. By notifying and warning the drivers, the main affective computing applications in the automotive industry also aid in reducing accidents. The WHO (World Health Organization) estimates that 20–50 million people suffer fatal injuries in traffic accidents yearly, killing around 1.3 million people.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development sets lofty goals for reducing road traffic injuries, including affective computing technology in the automobile industry, using proven methods to lower the risk of accidents and fatalities. Two leading software businesses, Eyeris and Affectiva, place cameras in cars to track the actions and feelings of the driver and other passengers. Driver drowsiness is monitored via emotional technology. It can start alarms, postures, and positioning, connect to intelligent seats to increase passenger comfort, prevent driving rage and impatient accidents, and more. The industry is expected to grow due to affective computing's rising popularity and developments in automotive technology.

Regional Analysis

By region, the global affective computing market comprises North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Rest of the World.

North America Dominates the Rest of the World

North America will command the leading market position, growing at a CAGR of 29.9% over the forecast period. Some of the most active research organizations building technologically advanced computing equipment are in North America. Additionally, the region has been consistently enhancing its infrastructure with AI to provide a mature infrastructure suitable for the implementation of affective computing. It is also among the top regions for the extensive adoption of next-generation and AI-based technologies. Another aspect that significantly boosts the regional market's development is the region's growing usage of robotics. Besides startups like GestureTek, Kairos, Affectiva, and Eyeris that are providing affective computing solutions in step with the changing needs of the customers, the region is also home to highly sophisticated and well-established enterprises.

With the United States as its leader, North America is the largest market for affective computing globally. The region features some of the most active research organizations producing affective computing devices for healthcare, market research, and automotive applications. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has conducted numerous research projects and efforts. The primary motive is to assist those who are not succeeding or at risk of not prospering. The research at universities ranges from developing new methods to predict and prevent depression to developing fresh ways to assist extraordinary people who struggle with communication, motivation, and emotional regulation issues to creating robots and computers that behave naturally around people. Furthermore, several Canadian businesses are concentrating on developing new solutions for gesture and speech recognition, among other things. Thereby increasing the region's market share.

Europe is expected to advance at a CAGR of 30.69%, generating USD 76 billion by 2030. The market expansion is most likely fueled by the ongoing development in gesture recognition, facial expression recognition, and speech analytics. Germany is home to several top manufacturers of security systems and surveillance cameras. In this region, there has also been an increase in demand for wearables like smartwatches, fitness bands, and connected clothes. In the European region, numerous industries are implementing affective computing technology. For instance, doctors, offices, and hospitals use healthcare biometrics extensively in various European countries to monitor patients.

Additionally, the choice of related devices across many end-user sectors and ongoing development enable technologies to propel the growth of the European market. Some of the most prominent affective computing markets exist in Europe. Due to a substantial presence of businesses engaged in affective computing, Europe also has a high level of research and development activities. The region's demand for affective computing is also growing due to government programs to help the local economy and technical advancements in the healthcare sector.

Segmental Analysis

The global affective computing market is classified based on end-user, hardware, software, technology, and region.

By end-user, the global affective computing market includes Healthcare, Automotive, Retail, and Others.

The Retail section is projected to advance at a CAGR of 29.6% and hold the largest market share over the forecast period. Technology is crucial in the substantial transformation of enterprises. Retailers seek to use technology to their advantage to stay ahead at a time of intense competition as the use of smartphones, smart gadgets, and tablets increases. Retailers can examine demographic data and emotional responses using emotional AI-powered computer vision technologies. With the ability to combine computer vision, facial recognition, and emotion analytics, emotion AI technology can assist brands and merchants in better understanding consumer behavior. Regardless of industry, the importance of developing an emotional connection with clients will propel emotion AI into its next intriguing stage.

The Healthcare section will hold the second-largest market share. Healthcare organizations are concentrating on innovations and significantly improved patient monitoring solutions that are often based on facial recognition methods to monitor the patients. One well-known company in the healthcare sector, Empatica, for instance, provides wearable affective computing devices for medical applications. To track patients' conditions in real-time, facial, verbal, and body signals are used to decipher their moods. The market is projected to increase as affective computing solutions are increasingly used in healthcare applications.

By hardware, the global affective computing market includes Sensors, Cameras, Storage Devices & Processors, and Others.

The Camera section is projected to advance significantly and hold the largest market share over the forecast period. Cameras are installed in offices, governmental structures, and other public locations, which might be essential in affective computing solutions. The need for improved technologies for video and urban surveillance systems due to increasing stakeholder and governmental support for innovative city projects is anticipated to create attractive growth prospects for the cameras market.

By software, the global affective computing market includes Recognition, Gesture Recognition, Facial Feature Extraction, Analytics Software, and Enterprise Software.

The Facial Feature Extraction or Face Recognition section is projected to advance significantly and hold the largest market share over the forecast period. Since facial recognition ensures a high level of safety, it has gained widespread adoption in recent years. Facial recognition uses a linked or digital camera to recognize the faces in the acquired photos and compare their traits to those in the database. The market is anticipated to expand due to the rising demand for a high degree of safety and security and the capacity of face recognition technology to provide that demand.

By technology, the global affective computing market includes Touch-based and Touchless.

The Touch-based section is projected to advance significantly and hold the largest market share over the forecast period. Touch-based technologies are essential to the implementation of affective computing solutions. Hardware elements like sensors, storage, and cameras are often needed for a complete solution to record facial expressions and bodily gestures. Gyroscopes, accelerometers, or a pair of both are some of the most popular gesture-based or touch-based technologies used to detect or monitor human gestures.

Recent Developments

• 2022 - Nuance Communications Inc. and SCIENTIA Puerto Rico, Inc. established a partnership to increase physicians' and nurses' access to Nuance's Dragon® Medical One speech recognition system to enhance clinical documentation quality and patient outcomes while lowering administrative burdens that cause clinician burnout.