NEW YORK (November 29, 2017)—Technology-driven competition is becoming fierce and unrelenting. Companies today can deliver seamless, high-quality customer experiences across the whole of their marketing, commerce and supply chain function. With the ability to tap multiple data sources while interfacing with knowledge workers using natural language, “augmented intelligence” systems leverage business rules, machine learning and advanced analytics to comb through mountains of data and help teams deliver end-to-end optimization. So what’s the remaining challenge?
According to a new report by Forbes Insights, in association with IBM, “Industry-Leading Customer Experiences: How to Identify Opportunities, Bridge Silos and Accelerate Results With Augmented Intelligence,” the use of myriad, single- or limited-purpose, and thus disconnected, technologies lead to a severe lack of interoperability. Processes remain optimized by function as opposed to enterprise-wide. Data that could guide strategic and minute-by-minute decision making remains locked within silos.
The key to optimizing results—and customer experiences? Augmented intelligence, which are systems that enhance and scale human expertise, partnering with people on well-defined tasks by combing through massive amounts of structured and unstructured data, detecting patterns, relationships and insights to drive innovation, optimize processes and accelerate and enhance decision support.
To better understand how companies are using augmented intelligence to innovate and optimize the customer experience, we surveyed more than 300 senior marketing, commerce and supply chain executives in the U.S.
“Companies are using these technologies to create smart ‘agents’ and processes that anticipate customers’ needs,” said Bruce Rogers, Chief Insights Officer and Head of the CMO Practice at Forbes Media. “If you can’t deliver on this, someone else will.”
"End-to-end collaboration across the marketing, commerce and supply chain is critical to optimizing the customer experience,” said Dario Debarbieri, Marketing Director, IBM Watson Customer Engagement North America. “Leading companies know this, and are breaking down silos across teams while using cognitive capabilities and augmented intelligence to master data challenges and create rich and personalized customer engagement models."
Some key findings:
- Improving the customer experience is an organizational imperative, but challenges intervene: Two-thirds of companies state that it is a priority for them to deliver a more personalized, transparent, consistent customer experience, but challenges remain. The top three impediments being the fact that the benefits of close cooperation across functions are not clearly understood (51%), business units or metrics are siloed (48%), and a lack of senior executive buy-in (47%).
- Augmented intelligence can help companies eradicate silos to improve the customer experience: Today, we know that marketing, supply chain and commerce are not effectively working together to deliver leading-edge customer experiences. But 53% of survey respondents state that the use of augmented intelligence will dramatically improve internal alignment among these three platforms.
- Only a fraction of companies are using augmented intelligence: Only 37% of companies today can point to a single, significant proof of concept or even proposal. And only 14% of companies describe themselves as “leading-edge,” meaning they are using the most advanced technologies and data sets to gain deeper insights and improve their customer experience.
- Augmented intelligence improves performance: 60% of companies believe augmented intelligence will help them obtain new customers, and over half of those surveyed believe these technologies will help significantly increase revenue.
- Companies that don’t embrace augmented intelligence will be disrupted: 47% agree that those who do not adequately invest in augmented intelligence face greater risk from the rise of new competitors and new forms of competition.
About This Research
The research for this study was conducted by Forbes Insights and sponsored by IBM. The findings are based on a September 2017 survey of 305 senior marketing, commerce and supply chain executives based in the U.S. The study represented a cross-section of industries. All participating firms had annual revenues of at least $100 million, with 34% having at least $1 billion in annual revenue.
About Forbes Insights
Forbes Insights is the strategic research and thought leadership practice of Forbes Media, a global media, branding and technology company whose combined platforms reach nearly 94 million business decision makers worldwide on a monthly basis. By leveraging proprietary databases of senior-level executives in the Forbes community, Forbes Insights conducts research on a range of topics to position brands as thought leaders and drive stakeholder engagement. Research findings are delivered through a variety of digital, print and live executions, and amplified across Forbes' social and media platforms.
Contact:
Forbes Insights Laura Daunis 212-367-4874 ldaunis@forbes.com
Download the report at https://www.forbes.com/forbes-insights/ibm/industry-leading-customer-experiences/.
