According to Fred

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The AI Revolution: Why Every Company Will Be an AI Company by 2026

The whispers of “generative AI” and “ChatGPT” might have seemed like science fiction a few years ago.  Today, those whispers have turned into a groundswell, and businesses are rapidly waking up to a fact: Artificial intelligence isn’t just a passing trend – it’s the single most transformative force shaping the future of work.

If you’re still on the fence about AI’s significance, buckle up. I believe with absolute conviction that within the next three years, every successful company will become an AI company in one capacity or another. Don’t believe me? Let’s explore the driving forces behind this unstoppable wave.

2023: The Year of Discovery

Last year was a watershed moment for generative AI. The public launch of game-changing tools like ChatGPT, DALL-E, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, Claude, Llama, and Perplexity sparked a collective “a-ha moment” for businesses globally. It wasn’t the technology itself that was revolutionary – AI has been developing for decades – but the sheer accessibility and user-friendliness of these new tools.  

Suddenly, AI was not confined to the tech giants with teams of data scientists and PhDs. Its power became accessible through a simple text-chat window, prompting businesses to ponder its potential applications. This now raised the question: How can we put this tool to work for us?

So companies started to educate themselves and maybe put a small team together to define problem statements and define use cases.  The response varied: while some companies adopted a wait-and-see approach, others, including Coca-Cola, Walmart, EY, Accenture, McKinsey, dived in headfirst to gain a first-mover advantage.  

2024: Experimentation and Internal Revolution

2024 marks a year of bold exploration. Forward-thinking companies don’t just see AI as a shiny toy; they view it as a catalyst for reshaping their internal operations. This stage isn’t about launching AI-powered customer products just yet. Instead, businesses will focus on:

  • Streamlining tasks: Departments across the board, from marketing to HR, will experiment with automating repetitive, time-consuming work. The goal? Free up employees to focus on strategy, creativity, and human connection. 
  • Enhancing decision-making: AI’s capacity to analyze vast datasets will play a vital role in smarter decision-making. Expect real-time insights drawn from customer data, market research, and operational trends.
  • Upscaling employees: A focus on upscaling will take center stage. Businesses understand that AI isn’t about replacing workers; it’s about equipping them with an incredibly powerful co-pilot.

Each of these comes with the understanding that there are teams internally who are becoming comfortable with AI and GenAI.  These organizations probably have established an AI Centers of Excellence or task forces focused on the liability of using these tools.  However, the risks of putting out public facing GenAI solutions at this point has proven to be risky.  Sorry Alaska Airlines. 

If we think about this year, 2024, early adopters will begin to really see the benefits and understanding how to deploy GenAI solutions at scale.  Other organizations will start to wake up to the fact that they need to start taking GenAI seriously.  If nothing else, the tools that companies use every day will start to publish GenAI features into their products that address these three areas, thus forcing companies to address GenAI in some way.  

2025: Realizing Value and the Competitor Gap Widens

By 2025, early adopters won’t just be fiddling with AI: they’ll be reaping the rewards. This is where the competitive playing field takes a drastic turn. The proof points pile up:

  • Efficiency gains: Companies using AI to optimize workflows consistently outperform those that don’t. Reduced costs and faster turnarounds will be the hallmarks of success.
  • Data-driven innovation: AI will help identify potential areas for new products and services, based on a deep understanding of markets and customer pain points.
  • Competitive Pressure: Early AI adopters will set a new standard, forcing businesses in every sector to catch up or risk obsolescence.

New Large Language Models (LLMs) will have emerged, some being industry specific. Some companies may even build their own LLMs specifically to use with their own data. Additionally, every company will have tools in their technology stack that has AI features and functionality at the fingertips of their employees, and the value realization will start to become inevitable and evident.  Our risk tolerance will start to wane as AI literacy plateaus.  

2026: AI as the New Normal

In a stunningly short time, by 2026, we reach the tipping point where AI isn’t just an advantage—it’s table stakes:

  • Software eats AI: Popular business software from CRMs to design tools will have generative AI features baked in. Using them without AI capabilities will feel archaic.
  • The new AI workforce: AI-generated content, whether it’s draft emails, initial market reports, or social media copy, will be woven into workflows by a skilled human workforce trained to optimize the tool.
  • Ethics and the Human Touch: Ethical concerns and AI regulation will come to the forefront as businesses grapple with the balance between efficiency and the irreplaceable value of human judgment and empathy.

The playing field flattens and AI and GenAI will be second nature.  We will have moved into a state of normalcy and everything from your smart home device to your enterprise applications will be using GenAI in ways we can’t live without. 

It’s Not Just Hype

These predictions aren’t mere speculation. Studies support the accelerated pace of AI adoption:

Embracing the Inevitable

This AI-powered future can be intimidating. But for those willing to embrace change, it offers incredible opportunities. Companies that take AI seriously are the ones that will stay in the race. The next three years are going to be critical for every company as they address AI both internally for efficiencies, but also as they consider building products and services. Are you ready to make your company an AI company?

Disclaimer: Generative AI was used in the creation of this content.

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After a year of M&A where do the major DXPs go from here?

It’s a crowded marketing technology space and it gets worse every year. Startups are popping up it seems like every day to combat a specific niche need in the world of today’s digital marketer. To make matters worse (?? – intentional question), the SaaS platforms make it easier for companies to jump in and try/buy/use than ever before. The craziness around it all is that it only gets worse as you get bigger in size. But we also see that best-of-breed platforms are getting used as well, which leads me to the topic for this article. Where do the major digital experience platforms (DXPs) go from here?

Did that say billions?!

I always have some level of surprise when I see the headlines that “So and So” company bought another company for some big price tag. Let’s just use Salesforce and Tableau for example. Any time an acquisition in the MarTech space ends with a “B”, we all take notice. So when Salesforce dropped $15.7B, it’s not just an acquisition, it’s a statement. But like any acquisition, they are made for a reason, and the likely reason is that it fills a gap that the acquiring company has to either fuel further growth or immediate complementary services to add to the bottom line. Thus as you look at all the acquisitions of the last year (and into 2018) of all the major DXPs, you will see a pattern — fill a gap. There are some distinct differences in the gaps being filled and how they fuel further growth for each platform. However, gap filling is the main driver.

The acquisitions of 2019

Here is a quick list of the acquisitions in 2019 by the major DXPs.

Adobe

  • Allegorithmic – maker of 3d material and texture software
  • Adobe’s major acquisitions were in 2018 with Sayspring, Uru, Magento and Marketo.

Sitecore

  • Hedgehog – a professional services company with Sitecore specific IP
  • Sitecore’s major acquisition of 2018 was StyleLabs, a content marketing software company.

Salesforce

  • Griddable.io – data synchronization service
  • MapAnything – location based workflow software
  • Bonobo AI – conversational software
  • Tableau – data visualization
  • ClickSoftware – field service software

Episerver

  • Insite Software – B2B commerce software
  • Idio – a content personalization and analytics platform
  • Episerver was acquired by Insight Venture Partners in 2018, which is fueling the acquisitions in 2019.

Acquia

  • AgileOne – a customer data platform (CDP)
  • Cohesion – a low-code/no-code development platform
  • Mautic – a marketing automation platform
  • Acquia was acquired by Vista Equity Partners in 2019 as well, which is fueling the growth acquisition strategy as well.

SAP

  • None. All of their recent acquisitions were in 2018, the biggest and notable being Qualtrics.

Oracle

  • CrowdTwist – a loyalty software and service provider
  • Oxygen Systems – a NetSuite SuiteCloud Developer Network partner

OK, we got all that? So if you dig in, clearly the gaps are what is fueling the M&A. Some are rounding out their core offerings. Others are starting to get really niche in what they need to grow with.

So in my opinion, Acquia and Episerver are growing their core offerings to play with more established players such as Adobe and Salesforce. They both had recent ownership changes by private equity and they are fueling the growth needed to expand in their categories as well as grow into new spaces be it upper mid-market or lower enterprise companies.

Adobe’s sole acquisition of 2019 was very specific to content creation and in a world where they want to grow in the upcoming AR/VR space as that takes hold in 2020 and beyond. For Adobe, 2019 and going into 2020 it is all about integrating their big 2018 acquisitions of Magento and Marketo into a holistic platform with the rest of the Adobe Experience Cloud.

Sitecore’s acquisition of Hedgehog turned some heads in their partner ecosystem. Many thought this was going to change their partner relationship. Turns out it wasn’t so much that as it was to gain some proprietary IP and bolster their customer success efforts. The StyleLabs acquisition of 2018 was the big story of gaining a more robust DAM and marketing services technology.

For Salesforce, clearly the big news was the Tableau acquisition. Adding a big set of customers and adding a data visualization solution to their stack turned some heads, but maybe in jealousy rather than the actual acquisition itself. Data is complex. You can make it tell any story. But when you have the right tools to help decision makers make informed decisions, that makes business run faster and more efficiently. The difference of the other acquisitions of Salesforce is that they play in a lot of places with CRM being the hub. So whether it is conversational software or data synchronization or field service software with ClickSoftware, Salesforce is filling in specific gaps, not big ones.

Finally, I threw in SAP and Oracle only because they are big players, but they didn’t make any big noise in 2019. SAP did make some noise with the Qualtrics acquisition in 2018, but time will tell if that was a good move or not in the grand scheme of things.

Where do DXPs go now?

Disclaimer: Ok, this is where I have to make the statement that I work for a company in which we are alliance partners with many of the companies discussed here. However, all the information I’ve shared is public information. The next section is all personal opinion only based on the public information. I do not have insights into any M&A strategy by any of these companies or roadmaps through any of our partner agreements. All of these opinions are that of my own and not my employer.

It’s hard to say exactly where the major DXPs go from here. In some cases, several can fill in more niche gaps from the MarTech landscape. For companies like Adobe who also have other clouds in their product offering such as Advertising Cloud and Document Cloud, the acquisition front could shift to those to increase share of wallet on related services. Adobe Acrobat and Sign are great back-office softwares. Where else can they grow the back-office space? Adobe doesn’t have a CRM, but they do have a strong alliance with Microsoft with growing integrations of their Office 365 suite of services which includes Microsoft Dynamics.

For other companies such as Acquia, Sitecore, and Episerver, the play could be to continue to get to feature parity with Salesforce and Adobe. That’s a tall order as both Adobe and Salesforce play in so many places beyond the typical digital front-end these companies are known for. I personally also think this is why Adobe and Salesforce are public companies and Episerver, Acquia, and Sitecore are all still private. There just isn’t enough of an offering yet to be viable public companies.

For 2020, I think we will say a balance of a few things happen with the major DXPs.

First, those that have a mature offering will focus on integration of their offerings for better customer success and user experience. Marketers want (myself included) solutions that allow us to not have to rely on developers to create everything for us. We want to be able to do stuff on our own and bring in our dev teams as needed for custom experiences and solutions. So bringing these solutions tighter together to allow us to do our jobs better, faster, more efficiently and intelligently will be key.

Second, for the DXPs where they are playing catch up will need to decide how feature parity they want to go, and how they will differentiate themselves. What makes their offerings different than any of the others. Is it simpler to use? Better licensing models? Integrations with one or more of the thousands of other popular MarTech solutions out there?

Third, we will see more M&A. There are still some great solutions out there that are used by thousands of companies that will get gobbled up. I think anything around analytics and insights is fair game. Data visualization is fair game. Customer engagement solutions for better real-time response and data gathering. Really, any platform that is part of the overall customer lifecycle that can add data value to a DXP platform is fair game. Because with all the data privacy and collection laws coming into play, the more the DXPs can own the data source the better.

Final thoughts

I find the MarTech landscape one of the most fascinating spaces in the world of marketing. The technology to allow businesses to discover new audiences, create solutions, market to them, engage, and provide value is nothing short of amazing. It also makes marketing one hell of a tough job in 2020 as well. But as the landscape continues to shift to new channels, ways of engaging customers and prospects change with a changing demographic, the technology needs to keep up too. So whether you make your bet on wearables, voice, AR/VR, 5G, eSports or any of the plethora of channels, the one thing is certain — engaging with a customer base will require technology, data, and creativity. The companies that can offer solutions that fill those areas will find customers. The DXPs that can offer a tightly integrated platform around those areas will also win, but only if it works together and isn’t clunky.

Here’s to 2020 and the rollercoaster ride ahead. Cheers.

This post originally appeared as a LinkedIn published article.

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Welcome to the According to Fred – the Podcast

Here we go! I’m trying something new and that is I’m starting a podcast. I wanted a way to be able to document content, thoughts, ideas, in a more consumable format. Not that I don’t like blogging, but as you know, consistency isn’t my thing. I hem and haw over the content that I write and more times than not, I have thoughts that are spur of the moment and I want to document them. So going to an audio format seems like an idea to try and see where it goes. Below is the first episode. I have a few more in the works. I hope to publish weekly, but it may be every two weeks. We’ll see how well I keep that up. I hope you subscribe. I will be submitting to all the major podcasting networks soon. This is just my introductory episode, so I thought I’d publish this one first. Looking forward to your feedback as I go along on this new format journey. Thanks!

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2019 Predictions: CX

Hello, 2019!! Now that we’ve put 2018 behind us it is time to focus on what will drive the future of customer experiences. While I know this is a little later than “normal” for a predictions posts, but it is still January so I’m calling it still fair game.  While I’ve personally done these in the past this year I’ve asked some of my industry peers, really my friends that I’ve come to know via social media, met at conferences, etc. to share their opinions.  I’ve tried to bring together a perspective from all facets of Customer Experience for this predictions post.  From technology, social media, governance, engagement, customer service, and more.  I hope you enjoy the fun exercise of predicting the future.  So let’s dive in! First up, is Katylyn.

Social Media 

Katelyn Brower
Kateyln Brower

Katelyn Brower

Digital Marketing Manager – Global Social Media & Employee Advocacy at Dun & Bradstreet
@BrowerKDnB
G

I am thrilled to see what is in store for us on social media in 2019. My prediction is that we will continue to see big things from Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn moving into the new year. In the areas of live video and analytics, brands will be able to strengthen relationships with customers, prospects, partners, and employees on social media.

Live Video: Instagram and Twitter already have the live video capability, but 2019 will be the year LinkedIn releases their own version of live video. LinkedIn Company Pages recently got a facelift, and the reasoning behind the new look and feel positions LinkedIn to add live video. Instagram should pull back focus on IGTV and look to merge the Stories and IGTV features, this can bring further advancements for Instagram Live. Twitter needs to continue progressing their live feature. I am a fan of newly added “live audio,” but video needs to mirror competitors like Instagram and make it easier for live hosts to interact with their audiences.

Analytics: As marketing continues to become more digital, marketers need to have better analytics to make key decisions and analyze performance. After Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn, we started to see an advancement in the analytics provided for both personal and company pages. One thing we need to see in 2019 is the capability to export personal and brand data. Companies can do this via third-party tools, but the capability needs to come from LinkedIn directly. Twitter is on a mission to increase engagement and drive meaningful conversations, but in order to do that, they need to map out what those goals mean analytically – I hope to see more defined metrics from Twitter in 2019. If my prediction of Instagram merging stories and IGTV (dare to dream, right?!) comes true, then we need to see better analytics on stories and Instagram Live. With video, marketers need a better understanding of average time/percent watched – I predict Instagram to roll this out with all video options in 2019.

There’s a lot we can see from all 3 platforms next year, and while I hope it is all of my wants and desires, I know whatever comes out will help brands strengthen awareness and relationships.

Virtual Reality

Christoph Trappe
Christoph Trappe

Christoph Trappe

Chief Content Engagement Director
Stamats Business Media
@CTrappe

New types of content assets are worth trying. VR is one. Virtual reality is really an underused tool and partially that is because not all consumers have the headset. But given that you can watch virtual reality videos as 360 versions on a phone or app, and not very many events are using them yet, it’s the perfect time to jump right in and make this strategy a big differentiator for your company. You can now buy cameras for under $100 and they work!

Augmented Reality

Emily Smith

Emily Smith

Digital Engagement Coordinator, Nelson Education
@EmilyRose780

In 2019, the line between the digital and the “real” will become less and less significant. As developments in the technology allow us to access, create, and share AR objects of our own with just our phones, AR will become more and more integrated into our everyday lives. We’ll use it for everything from buying Ikea furniture, to learning to count, learning to dance, and learning a language. This may be the year I’ll buy my first smart glasses. If I do, it will be because they’ll add value to my life not only through features like AR directions to new places, but because they’ll allow me to look up from my phone and have better interactions with the people around me. It’s my hope that AR developments will take us in that kind of social interaction direction in 2019. One thing we can all count on next year is that the amazing people working in augmented reality will surprise us. By this time next year when we’re making 2020 predictions, they’ll have come up with something that none of us have even dreamed of as of today.

Digital Policy & Governance

Kristina Podnar
Kristina Podnar

Kristina Podnar

Principal, NativeTrust Consulting, LLC
@Kpodnar

Digital transformation failures of the past several years and the recent shifts in data privacy awareness (driven by global laws & regulations) will cultivate new digital practices in 2019. We will see more rigor in digital strategies and the development of honed digital policies. This will ensure that marketing and operations are aligned with the organization’s perspective of digital opportunities and risks, which tactically translate into building of personal relationships and moving away from historical messaging around products and pricing.

Customer Service – Bots and AI

Al Hopper

Al Hopper

Principal, Nagurra Networks
@alhopper_

I see 2019 as a year of internal changes for customer service, which will speed up the response times for customers working with agents. Companies are going to spend more money on continuing to improve agent access to knowledge bases through the use of improved search engines, or what some will call AI. This will enable agents to find answers quicker and in a more centralized and controlled manner. I also see decision bots being deployed for simpler tasks. An example of this is creating a bot logic to determine if a credit can be granted to a customer instead of having to escalate the request to a next level agent and waiting in queue for the answer. In some cases, these bots will be able to respond via chat or Messenger channels instead of engaging an agent at all, leaving the human agent to manage more complex concerns.

Mobile Disruption

Dio Favatas
Dio Favatas

Dio Favatas

Managing Director, Digital Marketing
Truth Initiative
@DioFavatas

My big prediction really is that 2019 will be the year of mobile disruption, and with 5G coming online, the media landscape, as well as smart cities and IoT/IIoT applications will finally come to fruition. And I believe the laptop/desktop is just about dead, and we’ll see renewed interest in tablets and phablets as alternatives.

My Prediction: Customer Experience Becomes a KPI

I love all the predictions of my friends. For my prediction, I believe that focus on customer experience will start to become a KPI that is measured at the highest level in an organization. We will take key metrics from different areas of our organizations from call centers to web to mobile to path-to-purchase and loyalty and use these to fuel a new KPI. I don’t know if this is a new measure of a NPS or something more complicated, but senior leadership will start to want to measure the totality of CX for their organization and how it impacts them.

So Where Will 2019 Take Us?

Take any industry and you will find the topics above are relevant. Technology is driving so much change in customer experience development that the ones we’ve been hearing about for years (AR/VR) will continue to come of age. New technology like 5G will enable more devices than ever to become part of the Internet of Things (IoT), and even more so with IIoT for manufacturers of all types of devices and machinery. Social media and the effectiveness of these channels for marketers will continue to be a staple with the increased consumption of video.

All of this won’t be effective for organizations without some rules of the road and governance. I think Kristina’s topic is one that is the unspoken part of any digital transformation and improvement of customer experiences. Finally, Al hits it on the head when it comes to customer interactions because after social media, a call center as a first line of defense for any brand. But how will bots and AI make this experience better? So let’s bring on 2019 and all its changes. One thing is for certain, everyone will be focusing on customer experience.

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Welcome to Retail’s New Holimonth – November

Well, it was bound to happen.  First, we had Black Friday, the day in which retailers would traditionally go “in the black” in revenue for the year as they lead up to the holiday spending season.  Then it became a shoppers holiday when marketers found a way to capitalize on it to kick off the spending season.  Next came Cyber Monday when e-commerce exploded and places like Amazon became a “go-to” place for holiday shopping.  Let’s face it, two days a year isn’t enough.  

In 2018, welcome to the new retail holiday which I’m deeming the “holimonth” (holiday month) of November.  While I’m sure we can probably argue the holimonth is really between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, I feel this year it is now the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving.  In the last two weeks alone I’ve been seeing headlines about retailer’s Black Friday deals starting to leak.  Get your credit cards paid off folks–spending is about to kick into high gear.  However, today’s mail brought me the Costco Holiday ad.  Big and bold on the cover “Holiday Savings starting November 6, 2018.” Wait, what?!  Sure enough, as I flipped through the ad, looking at the TVs, game systems, mozzarella sticks (I mean, who doesn’t need 5 lbs of mozzarella sticks for the holidays…if they even last that long!), and deals on 4 tires, it struck me that these deals were spread across the next four weeks leading up to Black Friday.

Share of Wallet Means Starting Earlier

As marketers, we need to be more creative to get the coveted “share of wallet.”  At some point creativity isn’t about a gimmick or cool ad or experience, it is just flat out offering deals sooner than the competition. 

Remember when you can get together for Thanksgiving and not worry about running home to get the kids to bed and pre-game your shopping binge run?  When Black Friday started to get traction, it was all about who was open at Midnight to get the deals.  How many of you have sat in line, in the cold, hours before a retailer opened to be one of the few who got the “hot deal” before they ran out?   That game system that little Johnny wanted.  Or the doll that little Suzy had to have.  I see you’re hand raised (and your “no not me” shaking of head).  We’ve all either done it or put serious thought towards it. 

Retail shopping mall.
Let’s go shopping!

However, Midnight wasn’t enough.  It didn’t take long before the stores started opening up on Thursday at 11:00 pm, then 9:00 pm, and now 6:00 pm!  It’s gotten so bad that stores are now saying “Nope, we’re closed on Thanksgiving…spend time with your family. We’ll be open tomorrow.” It is the anti-holiday as a sign of “good faith” for your shopping behavior.  The irony of that list is that Costco is closed on Thanksgiving.  Maybe that’s why the deals are rolling out weeks ahead of time.  However, even if you aren’t shopping in their stores, you’re online buying gifts from them.  E-commerce never sleeps.  

The Disease We All Exploit…Getting the Deal

Marketers and companies are no fools.  They know how the game is played,  especially retailers.  The game is this, human behavior loves a good deal.  The emotional feeling, the dopamine rush of getting the deal.  It is literally a legal drug that retailers, game makers, and marketers all exploit.  Do what you can to let a hit of dopamine to be released in your brain.  The “feel good” drug that everyone has in their body.  Get the deal.  This week only.  Only this time, don’t wait for the Black Friday deals to happen on Black Friday, get them weeks earlier.  

In light of all of this, I firmly believe that retailers will now use the entire month to grease the wheels for the mad dash run of sales between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve.  It’s going to be the new trend. Welcome to November, the “Holimonth.”