The top 50 companies in entertainment, media, sports, technology, and more. New workplaces, new food sources, new medicine—even an entirely new economic system. The apps, tips, tactics, and brain hacks to help you work smarter instead of harder. And last week, ahead of an expansion with 50 new buttons—Amazon now offers more than total—market research firm Slice Intelligence claimed that fewer than half of people who own a Dash Button have bothered to press it.

But to analyze Dash Button sales is to miss the bigger picture. The true goal, in all likelihood, is to generate data. We can only speculate on what Amazon could do in the future with Dash Button data, but here are a handful of possibilities:.

The common thread with all of these hypotheticals is that they rely on big data and machine learning. The company already offers hundreds of millions of products through its online store, and sells billions of items per year.

Amazon also uses tracking cookies to learn about the sites you visit, which in turn helps the company advertise products based on your interests. So you might see what other buttons are depressed nearly at the same time as another, and the cross-brand combinations that might come up.

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That may explain why Amazon is charging brands to be part of the program, as the Wall Street Journal reported last week. At best, manufacturers can get total sales numbers from grocery chains, and then rely on survey panels like Nielsen Spectra to try and understand the demographics.

Part of that process could involve testing different pack sizes to see which ones get a better response.

Vacuum storage pack maker FoodSaver is also hoping to get more out of the Dash Button than just a sales boost, says vice president of marketing food preservation Ofelia Silva. If you think this theory is far-fetched, consider that even Amazon downplayed the sales potential of Dash Buttons when the company first announced them.

Read More Life With The Dash Button: Good Design For Amazon, Bad Design For Everyone Else.

The next phase for Amazon will likely involve what it has learned to break out of those confined scenarios, and offer even more ways to buy stuff with minimal effort. Jared Newman covers apps and technology for Fast Company from his remote outpost in Cincinnati.

He also writes for PCWorld and TechHive, and previously wrote for Time. Fast Company Daily Newsletter.

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World Changing Ideas New workplaces, new food sources, new medicine—even an entirely new economic system. Work Smart The apps, tips, tactics, and brain hacks to help you work smarter instead of harder. By Jared Newman 6 minute Read.

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About the author Jared Newman covers apps and technology for Fast Company from his remote outpost in Cincinnati. Fast Company Daily Newsletter Sign Up. Related Stories Technology Bags That Are Beautiful And Functional?

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