Thanksgiving is here again, complete with family, food, and football. With the festive holiday season not far behind, this is the time of year to count blessings and be grateful for all the things that we have.
It’s been a great year for digital transformation and experience, with more organizations than ever discovering the need to develop customized, customer-obsessed capabilities to drive customer engagement. Here are the five things that we find ourselves thankful for as we pour our gravy into the mashed potatoes during this holiday season.
- Digital Experience is Getting Smart: Not only does customer-obsessed mean handling all customer needs, but also doing it in a timely fashion. While call centers and ticket escalation are still part of the customer fabric, we are thankful that artificial intelligence and cognitive solutions are also gaining traction. According to IDC, 40% of digital transformation initiatives will be supported by cognitive and artificial intelligence capabilities by 2019. Also in the mix will be chatbots.
- Analytical Skills Matter Now: Marketing has always been more of an art than a science, but that’s changing soon as big data and analytics make their way into digital experience solutions. IDC predicts that 85% of new technical hires in the digital experience field will require some kind of analytical background. For marketers everywhere, it’s gratitude towards digital experience activities that drive clicks and interest versus throwing ideas at the wall to see if they stick.
- Content is Still King: While the world is still a noisy place, content is still the way to get noticed and we’re thankful because tools like Watson Content Hub are finally available. The only question now is not if organizations need content, but rather what kind.
- Digital Experiences Merge with IT: Wearables were a big deal in the middle of this decade and could have been bigger if data and IT found a way to work together. With the emergence of Edge Computing, we believe that future is here. With the arrival of 5G and updated networking connectivity, consumer and enterprise IoT devices will finally be able to share user data and behavior needed for the right personal and business outcomes. We’re thankful for better data capture.
- The Multi-Platform Challenge Still Matters: I’m typing this blog post on a laptop, but will likely be read on a phone or tablet. As we head into this Thanksgiving season, we’re grateful that the omnichannel digital experience is a challenge still worth exploring into 2018, especially as customer tastes become more discerning.
Which digital experience trends are you most thankful for this year? Share them with us in the comments section below.
