Digital Lifescapes

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been steadily transforming business, now a new wave is poised to make a seismic impact: Generative AI (GenAI) tool adoption. In fact, we may have already reached the inflection point. Unlike traditional AI that analyzes data, GenAI goes a step further. It applies analysis to create entirely new content, be it realistic images, marketing copy, or innovative product designs. A recent Gartner study revealed that GenAI is the most frequently deployed AI solution in organizations. This is marking the dawn of a new global era in human-machine collaboration. "GenAI is acting as a catalyst for the expansion of AI in the enterprise," said Leinar Ramos, senior director analyst at Gartner . "This creates a window of opportunity for AI leaders, but also a test on whether they will be able to capitalize on this moment and deliver value at scale." Global Generative AI Market Development Gartner's survey found that, on average, only 48 percent...

The demand for smart traffic management systems has grown due to rising urban populations and increasing vehicle ownership. With more people and cars concentrated in cities, problems like traffic congestion, air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions are pressing issues. Since the early 2000s, government leaders have been exploring ways to leverage advances in IoT connectivity, sensors, artificial intelligence (AI), and data analytics to address these transportation challenges. The concept of a Smart City emerged in the 2010s, with smart mobility and intelligent traffic management as key components.  Smart Traffic Management Market Development Concerns about continued climate change, as well as cost savings from improved traffic flow, have further motivated local government investment in these advanced systems. According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, they found that by 2028, smart traffic management investment will be up by 75 percent from a 2023 figure...

The growth in Artificial Intelligence (AI) software could lead to many benefits. As more organizations adopt AI, they may become more efficient, productive, and able to offer improved products and services. The global job market could also expand, with demand growing for roles like AI engineers and technicians. Plus, AI apps could enable breakthroughs in fields like healthcare, transportation, and energy. The worldwide AI software market will grow from $64 billion in 2022 to nearly $251 billion in 2027 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 31.4 percent, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). AI Software Market Development The forecast for AI-centric software includes Artificial Intelligence Platforms, AI Applications, AI System Infrastructure Software (SIS), and AI Application Development and Deployment (AD&D) software (excluding AI platforms). However, it does not include Generative AI (GenAI) platforms and applications, which IDC recen...

The global financial services market continues to evolve. With the rise of digital payment options, the ability to facilitate payments quickly became a vital element in the current convenience-driven Fintech landscape. Payment cards have previously been the end products of complex payment systems. They have also been instrumental in advancing the underlying payments technology infrastructure, constituting the cornerstone of a fully functioning payments ecosystem. Regardless of their evolution and popularity, plastic cards now stand at a crossroads and face new competition from purely digital payment platforms. The most prominent examples of such platforms are Digital Wallets and Superapps.  Fintech Payments Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, the number of payment cards issued via digital platforms will reach 1.3 billion annually by 2027 -- that's up from just 500 million in 2023. This growth of 170 percent reflects the growing int...

Based upon my own observations, as a beta test user of the original Dell IdeaStorm platform four years ago, I witnessed three primary benefits from customer co-creation activity -- new product or service concepts, existing product or service enhancement, and business process or marketing related suggestions. eMarketer reports that those three scenarios are still valid. Customers want to form meaningful relationships with a select few companies that they care most about. Given today's consumer culture of increased online participation, savvy business leaders are rising to the challenge, realizing that customer collaboration can be very rewarding. "Co-creation begins with focusing on customers," said Jeffrey Grau, eMarketer principal analyst. "Companies tend to take an inside-out approach to co-creation, but those that take an outside-in approach -- by listening to and observing customers -- are in a position to discover ways to create mutual value." Cus...

In a recent IDC end-user survey of 2,077 IT decision makers in organizations with more than 20 employees in Western Europe, 37 percent of respondents said they would invest in software as a service (SaaS) in the next 24 months to replace or supplement the functionality of existing ERP solutions. Regarding CRM solutions, 35 percent said they would replace or supplement existing solutions in 24 months; 32 percent said they would do so for supply chain management (SCM) solutions. These positive and ambitious spending indications by Western European end users were not limited to a particular country or company size segment -- they highlight a positive attitude across all segments. Large enterprises were most positive about ERP solutions, while for CRM solutions midsize companies lead in SaaS spending plans. By country, Spain and Italy are more bullish than the U.K., Germany, and France when it comes to SaaS. "We were somewhat surprised that European end users are so positive when it c...

According to the latest market study by Senza Fili, the attention of WiMAX operators is on both business and residential subscribers. Will they embrace mobile broadband with the same enthusiasm they have shown for cellular voice? How much are they willing to pay for it? Which devices will they use? Most of the business models employed by WiMAX operators do not prioritize -- or even contemplate -- vertical markets such as transportation, utilities, health, education, safety. In fact these sectors are often seen as a distraction or a niche. Many operators devote all their resources to the business and consumer markets and plan to address vertical markets on an as-needed basis, or at a later stage when the network is completed and business and consumer acquisition is well under way. Vertical players have just started to assess the WiMAX opportunity and still have to quantify the potential cost benefits and performance advantages, as few commercial WIMAX networks are available to conduct t...

According to a CMO Council market study, the significant disconnect between vendors and their channel, on one hand, and customers, on the other, begins with a basic disagreement about what it means to be customer-centric. Customers say that, above all else, centricity begins with the strategic alignment of a vendor's organization with the customer. Yet, among vendors and the channel, strategic alignment with customers is neither their top priority nor a real competency. When asked what three qualities best characterize a customer-centric company, some 52 percent of customers cite "organizational, operational and cultural alignment around the customer," compared with only 40 percent of marketers and 35 percent of channel respondents. Perhaps even more importantly, vendors do not believe they are particularly well-aligned with customers. When asked how well they are aligned with the customer -- the customer's own yardstick for measuring customer centricity -- only 21 p...

ComScore released the results of a study using its comScore Segment Metrix tool, which showed that heavy users of U.S. blog sites -- heavy bloggers -- are significantly more likely than the average Internet user to consume news and entertainment content online. "As blogs continue to grow in both quality and audience size, both traditional and non-traditional advertisers are increasingly putting their online ad dollars towards reaching this group of consumers," said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore. "This highly informed, tech savvy, and entertainment-oriented consumer segment is consistent with the profile of an influencer, which is of course a particularly attractive audience to reach." For purposes of this study, heavy bloggers are defined as the heaviest 20 percent of blog visitors who account for 84 percent of all the time spent on blogging sites. Given that blogs can often be described as both informative and entertaining, it is not surprisin...

The inability of most telecom network operators to deploy robust subscriber information management platforms could put them at a serious marketplace disadvantage -- compared with next-generation service providers that are primed to attack the telecom services sector with Web 2.0 based technologies, according to the latest market study from Light Reading. "Network operators have a wealth of information about their subscribers, and as they broaden their next-generation service portfolios, they are in a position to collect even more information about subscribers' service preferences, usage, and transactions," says Caroline Chappell, research analyst with Light Reading. "But operators have a short window of opportunity to put in place a strategy and architecture for managing all the subscriber information they possess and using it to more fully capture their customers by personalizing the customer experience." As over-the-top communications services become more deep...

In-Stat and Wainhouse Research have combined their high-tech market research and data to create the first comprehensive unified communications products and services forecasts. As the worldwide supply chain for labor, goods, and services has been flattened, accelerated, and globally dispersed, companies of all types and sizes are acknowledging the competitive need to streamline the flow of knowledge and information worker expertise throughout the organization. Unified communications provide a framework for doing so. A unified communications system includes elements of presence, instant messaging, IP telephony, audio conferencing, web conferencing or data collaboration, unified messaging (a common message store for voicemail, email, and faxes), mobility, and/or video conferencing -- all accessible through a single client interface or within an embedded application interface. In-Stat and Wainhouse Research market study found the following: - Many of the largest vendor corporations in the ...

Broadband service providers are migrating to a Web 2.0 service creation environment that borrows heavily from frameworks and processes first developed in the IT sector. However, the pace and direction of that migration is likely to vary widely from company to company, according to Light Reading. The report entitled "SDPs & Service Components: The Web 2.0 Effect" analyzes service delivery platform (SDP) vendors that are providing the foundation level of software service components and examines their strategies for broadening the appeal of these components and associated reuse. "The concept of building systems out of reusable components has a long history in the IT industry, with Web 2.0 application development being the latest manifestation," says Caroline Chappell, research analyst with Light Reading's Services Software Insider and author of the report. "This concept is now being adopted by convergence-minded network operators that want to bridge tradit...

The media and communications industries are in chaos, according to a Yankee Group market study. Traditional business models are being severely disrupted as new innovations emerge and take advantage of the low market entry barriers created with Internet Protocol, MPEG and internet browser technology. Yankee's notion of an "Anywhere Network" is a framework for navigating the developing chaos and profitably delivering services to the Anywhere Consumer and Anywhere Enterprise. The Anywhere Network is a vision of a seamless and always-accessible intelligent infrastructure that provides a connection for everyone to everything from anywhere. Internet connectivity moved this control to companies such as eBay, Google and Yahoo! The framework also encompasses community-led and user-centric solutions, which affords the users increased autonomy, service variety, flexibility and personalization. In particular, the Anywhere Network: - Will demand carriers implement solutions that incre...

The controlled traditional environment in which people are forced to use a variety of isolated devices to consume pre-packaged entertainment is beginning to fade away. What is replacing that bygone era? Within the interconnected and liberated marketplace that is emerging, consumers can increasingly choose the way they purchase, use, and manage their media, according to a new insightful white paper that's published by ABI Research. The white paper is based on a survey conducted of more than 1,100 U.S. consumers. Research director Michael Wolf says, "While the convergence of different networks, the enabling of networked and broadband consumer electronics devices, and the vast array of content available to buyers, are all creating a new generation of empowered consumers, many are having a difficult time accessing and managing this content in any cohesive way." Some major players have worked to create solutions to help consumers access and manage the wide variety of content a...

It's no secret that poor cable TV service quality, coupled with a lack of personalized customer support, will combine to create real and lasting customer dissatisfaction. These are the kind of flaws that inevitably steer subscribers toward other service providers. And at present, this scenario is translating into a major growth opportunity for telecom video services, according to a recent market study by ABI Research on the IP set-top box (STB) market. "There is a real opportunity in North America -- and to a lesser extent, Europe -- for quadruple-play services," says Stan Schatt, vice president and research director. "We're starting to see more bundles of voice and data integration offerings, and we have seen promotional pricing to capture the market. But there is such discontent among CATV subscribers that telcos are able to move in and steal customers." Verizon and AT&T are beginning to expand their homes passed as well, building out their network upg...

Wireless network operators are failing to make their high 'average revenue per user' (ARPU) subscribers in North America feel special, according to a new market study by In-Stat. More than 60 percent of these mobile phone service users do not believe that their wireless operator appreciates their business, and 80 percent believe that operators should do more, the high-tech market research firm says. "The kind of appreciation these users would like to see include loyalty programs where subscribers earn points for awards, free or low-cost directory assistance, and free batteries and travel chargers," says Bill Hughes, In-Stat analyst. "The good news for operators is that these three awards could be turned into even more revenue. For example, directory assistance directly encourages more calling, and offering more batteries and charging options ensures that heavy users can always make a call." To date, the U.S. mobile service provider 'customer retention st...

The worldwide market for Location-Based Services (LBS) is expected to reach nearly $1.5 billion in 2007 as an ever increasing number of cellular and other wireless carriers provide customized mobile services based upon a location-awareness of their subscribers. According to a new market research study from The Insight Research Corporation, location-based telecommunication services are most popular in Asia-Pacific countries, where they provide wireless subscribers with tailored information based upon their current physical location. The Insight Research report entitled "Location Based Services Market 2007-2011," notes that location-based services are part of a worldwide push by mobile phone carriers to create new IP-enabled services for consumers and business users. The study notes that consumers of mobile telecommunications services in leading markets are adopting location based services along with other IP-enabled services such as video telephony, fixed-mobile convergence, f...

Cable operators have traditionally regarded node-splitting -- the addition of more capacity to existing cable network nodes -- with fear and loathing. Now, according to ABI Research, some of them may have to bite the bullet. But for those providers offering advanced services such as high-definition TV, there are rewards as well. Some cable operators, following demand, have built out their networks piecemeal, without much regard for the long-term capacity of the nodes which form an integral part of the cable plant. The result: in some neighborhoods -- particularly in North America and Western Europe, where the strong growth phase of cable networks is over -- nodes are unevenly distributed relative to population. That in turn means some customers are getting better service than others. "Cable companies want to distribute nodes -- each serving a number of households -- as evenly as possible throughout their networks, so that there are similar numbers of homes being supported on each ...

Enea and Kontron jointly announced the "IPTV Experience" -- a global, broad-based industry initiative created to address the major design, technology and business challenges impeding widespread adoption of IPTV services. Kicking off this initiative during NXTcomm, Enea and Kontron will host a number of activities including a panel discussion moderated by Steven Hawley from the at Multimedia Research Group (MRG). Participating companies in this panel include Intel Corp and RADVISION. "Our recent research estimates that there will be 63.6 million IPTV subscribers by 2011, and they will demand the highest Quality of Experience (QoE) in order to remain loyal," said Steve Hawley, senior IPTV analyst at MRG. "Industry initiatives like IPTV Experience provide a unified and systemic view of the complex IPTV ecosystem, helping to ensure the highest-quality implementations to support subscriber demands." The IPTV Experience initiative provides guidance, information ...

Digital home product enhancements and increasing marketing investments have resulted in several key custom integration brands moving up the list of preferred installing dealer products, according to new market study. This study, the first joint study from Parks Associates and EH Publishing, identifies Control4 in whole-house automation and lighting control, JVC in microdisplay rear-projection TVs, and both JBL and Polk for in-wall/ceiling speakers as having significantly improved their positions in this channel. "This research documents the fact that certain brands are well-entrenched as the market leaders in their specialty categories," said Daryl Delano, EH Publishing's research director. "Members of the 'Hall of Fame' that consistently measure high rankings for brand familiarity and use include Denon for receivers and amplifiers, Russound for multiroom audio distribution, Monster for A/V wire and cables, Lutron for lighting control, and Crestron for whole-...