For many businesses, the pandemic was a forcing mechanism to improve digital services, identify and bridge gaps in digital capabilities, and accelerate digital transformation. While painful and challenging, this moment in time has now left many enterprises ready to move from reactive tasks to proactive strategic planning when it comes to growing and optimizing their business.
Enter data and AI innovations. These technologies are rapidly advancing in capabilities and accessibility and have become key levers for businesses looking to grow their capabilities, operations, and profits.
Keep reading as we explore just a few of the ways these innovations will shape businesses in 2022, and beyond.
- AI will become more accessible to internal teams. Certain machine learning and AI models that were once only accessible to tech titans such as Google and Facebook will become more readily available to mid-sized businesses with a rise in off-the-shelf options. This means that developers and IT teams will be able to access and leverage this technology to speed up operations and modernize practices. These teams can use AI tools to automate time-consuming and mundane tasks – such as analysis of legacy code – which can radically increase the time it takes to update platforms and services. Additionally, access will be enhanced by natural language processing interfaces, which are developing no-code/low-code applications. By using no-code/low-code platforms, businesses with limited coding knowledge can still create software to support app development, customer experience design, and workflow automation.
- The democratization of data. Most businesses have recognized the significance of data-driven decision making which means that more people than ever need access to data. Once only in the hands of data scientists, varying roles and teams will take ownership over data which will help eliminate silos and increase cross-cutting collaboration. To achieve this, more businesses will need to invest in technologies that will give employees better access to data and analysis tools, including data fabrics, which will also help manage unstructured data. Since AI relies on data to learn and function, data-first approaches will undergird a rise in the adoption of AI-powered technology in the near future.
- Comprehensive platforms over point solutions. Over time, many businesses have collected an array of data or AI tools that each address a single challenge. This can lead to operational bloat, not to mention conflicting information coming from each technology which can muddy the waters and make decision making more difficult. But with the advancement of data and AI tools, we’ve been seeing more holistic technologies available to businesses. This trend began in the digital experience analytics space in 2021, as the industry consolidated through a series of mergers and acquisitions. This type of widespread consolidation – and the need for more holistic approaches – will likely have a positive impact on business outcomes, organizational efficiency, and customer/end-user success.
- Ethics concerns will drive change. With the continued need for data collection and analysis, concerns over privacy and security have loomed large. Customers have grown increasingly worried about their information staying safe on digital platforms and government regulations around data collection and data privacy have tightened significantly. To address both legal and customer demands, businesses will have to take a proactive approach that puts privacy, consent, and security at the heart of their digital platform designs. Companies will need to find ways to give their customers hyper-personal experiences while allowing them to regain control over their data. AI tools can help businesses codify principles around data and security and use them for bias detection and to ensure compliance with internal and external regulations.
Data and AI will keep evolving
Just in the past few years we’ve seen businesses adapt and grow to the ever-changing technology around data and AI, and that won’t be slowing down anytime soon. As the benefits (and yes, the challenges) of these tools evolve, we’ll see them play a heightened role in how businesses operate, grow, and stay profitable.
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