Digital Lifescapes

The evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the sales profession in ways that few could have imagined even a few years ago. Gartner’s recent prediction -- that by 2028, 10 percent of sales associates will use Generative AI (GenAI) tools to covertly manage multiple jobs -- highlights the profound workforce disruption unleashed by this technological revolution. As an independent advisory consultant in the business technology sector, I see this as a pivotal moment for vendor leaders to rethink their sales strategies and the very nature of work, productivity, and employee trust. The AI-Driven Sales Role Transformation The integration of GenAI into sales workflow is already a present-day reality. According to recent market studies, 81 percent of sales teams are either experimenting with or have fully implemented GenAI tools, with some reporting up to a 15 percent revenue uplift and a 10–20 percent increase in sales ROI. The rapidly emerging technology is now considered essen...

The global marketing and sales landscape is evolving rapidly. New business technology is a game-changer, promising to automate tedious tasks and unlock new levels of optimization. But is the market truly ready to embrace this technology? IDC predicts that by 2026, half of medium-sized businesses in the Asia-Pacific region excluding Japan (APEJ) will be using Generative AI (GenAI) based applications to automate and optimize marketing and sales processes. According to their latest worldwide market study, 47 percent of the midmarket segment in APEJ is already either exploring potential use cases or investing in GenAI tools. SMB Generative AI Market Development Also, 43 percent of companies in the midmarket segment anticipate that the technology will have the most impact on commercial marketing applications. Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (SMBs) and midmarket segments in APEJ have taken notice of the GenAI potential to revolutionize workflow in various industries. However, companies ar...

Societal shifts have affected how retail customers shop. The move toward a 'cashless' society was accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to more eCommerce transactions and online spending. Meanwhile, in-store retail Point of Sale (POS) terminals transformed. Traditional hardware-based POS systems evolved into specialized solutions, which provide compact mobile terminals. However, the arrival of software-based 'Soft POS' solutions will disrupt this market. Soft POS Market Development All POS systems process payment transactions by forming a connection between a buyer’s and a seller’s respective bank accounts for the transaction to occur, and actioning the exchange of funds. According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, the global transaction value processed via Soft POS solutions will reach $11.8 billion by 2028, which is up from $1 billion in 2023. New growth will be driven by Apple’s launch of 'Tap to Pay', coupled with the Soft...

ChatGPT is trained to follow instructions in a 'prompt' and provide a detailed response. Prompt Engineering is a concept in artificial intelligence (AI), particularly natural language processing (NLP). While this topic has gained much attention, it's merely a sub-sector of the greater AI market upside. According to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), global spending on AI -- including the software, hardware, and services for AI-centric systems -- will reach $154 billion in 2023, that's an increase of 26.9 percent over 2022. The ongoing incorporation of AI into a wide range of products will result in a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27 percent over the 2022-2026 forecast period, with spending on AI-centric systems expected to surpass $300 billion in 2026.   AI-Centric Systems Market Development "Companies that are slow to adopt AI will be left behind – large and small. AI is best used in these companies to augment human ...

Although the rise of electronic commerce has slowed somewhat since the initial explosive growth, the overall volume and value of eCommerce transactions continue to climb. There are several drivers supporting this growth. A key driver is the international adoption of a Global Networked Economy. According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, the value of international cross-border eCommerce is forecast to exceed $2.1 trillion in 2023 -- that's up from $1.9 trillion in 2022. International eCommerce Market Development This growth of over 13 percent in a single year reflects the increasing success of online marketplaces that offer goods across borders, as well as the rising viability of cross-border sales as an eCommerce model.  The new research study found that as eCommerce models diversify -- including models such as buy now pay later and click and collect -- cross-border options must also keep pace, by enabling local distribution and payment partnerships. Juniper...

Enterprise demand for data analytics insight and IT optimization continue to drive applications for business intelligence solutions. Meanwhile, CIOs consider new use cases for neural networks, machine learning, and natural language processing. Overall spending on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the United States will grow to $120 billion by 2025, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26 percent over the 2021-2025 forecast period. Moreover, all 19 U.S. industries in the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC) are forecast to deliver AI spending growth of 20 percent or more. The U.S. also accounts for more than half of all AI spending worldwide. Artificial Intelligence Market Development Retail will remain the largest U.S. industry for AI spending throughout the forecast, while Banking will be the second-largest industry. Together, these two industries will represent nearly 28 percent of all AI spending in the United States in 2025 and will ac...

Savvy vendor CEOs know that every employee that comes into contact with a customer can potentially impact new growth. And, they're raising the bar of expectations. Sixty-four percent of customer service and support leaders now report "grow the business" is their most critical priority in 2022, according to the latest market study by Gartner. The results of Gartner's survey of customer care and support leaders, conducted in August-September 2021, indicate a significant shift towards "adding value" and growing existing clients that have become a top priority for forward-thinking organizations. "Business growth as a goal is well-aligned with the idea of value-added customer service that creates more value for the customer beyond simply resolving their issue," said Brad Fager, research director at Gartner . Reimagine Customer Service Value Creation Adding value in customer service interactions can lead to new revenue streams while also protecting exis...

Prepackaged mobile applications reached a plateau during 2013, but with more exciting advancements expected in 2014, North American companies are once again deploying a wide array of mobile worker software. According to the latest market study by Frost & Sullivan, 48 percent of business decision makers report that their companies already deploy one to ten apps for employees on mobile devices. They also found that the mobile app viewed as "most necessary" by businesses is wireless email, followed by mobile sales force automation. The Frost analysis measures the current use of and future decision-making behaviors toward mobile enterprise apps -- specifically mobile asset tracking, mobile sales force automation, mobile workforce management, and wireless email solutions. Convincing companies of the fundamental business necessity of mobile worker app solutions is critical to a provider's success. Specifically, among the four mobile apps featured in this research,...

A new global market study by ABI Research finds that integration with social networks will add significant value to enterprise machine-to-machine (M2M) strategies in the coming years, as more savvy company leaders discover the innovation enabling potential of the Internet of Everything. Initially, this trend will concern internal social channels -- such as Salesforce.com’s Chatter -- which is forecast to be actively used by 60,000 enterprises at end-2013. Going forward, the emphasis will shift towards Facebook and other consumer-facing networks, which ABI Research forecasts to cover 2.9 billion users by end-2018. "There’s an intriguing intersection developing around social networks and M2M services. At this stage the activity is nascent, but over the next five years we expect the relationship between the two to become increasingly synergistic," said Aapo Markkanen, senior analyst at ABI Research . The innovations it results in will add a strong social ingredient to th...

If you're a marketer and you envision mobile device platforms as simply one more advertising opportunity, then you're likely going to be disappointed -- assuming that's the extent of your mobile consumer engagement strategy. According to the latest market study by eMarketer, the mobile web and apps are like parallel highways, with distinct rules and scenery and their own versions of congestion and confusion. The more effort you invest to fully understand these differences, the more you'll benefit. "The day may come when HTML5 matures to the point that the experience of using a web app differs little from a native app," said Noah Elkin, senior analyst at eMarketer . "Ultimately, however, focusing on the underlying technology in part misses the point about what makes apps popular." According to Elkin's assessment, app users are drawn to the encapsulated experience that improves content delivery and draws on the hardware features of smart d...

comScore and EXPO released the results of a study on the synergy of professionally-produced video content and related amateur video used in marketing campaigns. The study evaluated an actual campaign that included a combination of a professionally-produced “how to” video and a user-generated product video that was created and submitted by a product user. The results of the study indicate that professionally-produced video content and user-generated product videos are complementary, driving higher levels of sales effectiveness when used together. “This study aimed to answer a critical question for today’s digital advertisers: how do user-generated videos complement professionally-produced content, if at all? What we found was strong evidence of incremental benefit with exposure to both forms of media,” said Frank Findley, Vice President, Research and Development at comScore . In the sample campaign, professionally-produced content and product videos drove strikingly higher lifts w...

As online retailing matures and expands, the number of choices available to shoppers grows exponentially. Moreover, offering more product choice can result in a confusing clutter that slows down or inhibits the purchase process. Despite the online retailer quest to find the ultimate automated, personalized recommendation system, there has been a simultaneous rise in sites that provide hand-picked item selections and online retail models offering fewer products -- instead of more. "Curated ecommerce is becoming recognized by both retailers and shoppers for its simplicity and ability to help fill an online void," said Krista Garcia, eMarketer analyst. There will always be a place for comprehensive, multi-category retail sites, but fine-tuned collections enhanced by personal touches also perform a necessary function in the ecommerce ecosystem. Sites surveyed by the e-tailing group in Q4 2011 reported online curation was a growing merchandising tactic with savvy retaile...

The role of a typical Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at a technology, media or telecommunications company is very challenging -- especially if they're skilled in the practices from the bygone era of legacy mass-media marketing. Many struggle to adapt to the needs of today's forward-thinking interactive online marketing environment. According to the latest global CMO survey by Heidrick & Struggles and Forrester Research , CMOs need to contribute to substantive business strategy, but many need to raise their marketing technology IQ first -- so that they can become more credible as leaders in their organization, and clearly demonstrate that they're not obsolete. Based on a survey of nearly 200 global marketing leaders, the market study attempted to measure CMOs' influence within their organization, their business objectives, and their skills and competencies necessary to survive in a rapidly changing realm of digital marketing. Unskilled in Meaningful Business Str...

Companies in various industries seek to reduce their operational costs, increase revenue opportunities and improve customer service by deploying interactive kiosks to assist their customers. They typically use this market development strategy as an additional communications channel -- to enable their customers with convenient self-service options that don't require employee involvement. Demand for new kiosks will increase at a steady pace. The number of interactive kiosks in operation will rise from approximately 1.6 million deployed in 2011 to nearly three million deployed globally by 2016. "The self-service technology trend has been occurring for several years, with consumers increasingly seeking greater convenience in the channels that they choose to utilize," says Sam Lucero, practice director, M2M connectivity at ABI Research . At the center of this self-service trend are interactive devices that are located in public places. Kiosks are not a new channel. In ...

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...

HDTVs are rapidly being enhanced with access to over-the-top (OTT) video services. Retailers, such as Best Buy, Walmart, and Sears-Kmart introduced online services and are actively promoting the new connected TV sets to compensate for the significant decline in DVD sales. To counter these initiatives, legacy U.S. pay-TV service providers -- no longer in denial of the market shift -- have begun deploying hybrid set-top boxes (STBs) that support both broadcast and online video viewing -- without the need for smart consumer electronics (CE) devices. Why Blocking and Tackling Isn't a Winning Strategy TV content producers are attempting to block access to popular content -- in the hope that they can stall the inevitable market transition to on-demand viewing. "The boundaries between market segments are blurring," says Keith Nissen, Principal Analyst at In-Stat . Today, manufacturers, retailers, service providers, and content producers are all reaching beyond their tradi...

eMarketer reports that executives are taking time to view business-oriented video, according to the findings of a market study by Forbes Insights. In some cases, they may prefer video content to text -- for learning about new products and services. A majority of businesspeople surveyed by Forbes in October 2010 said they watched more online video than a year earlier. Nearly 60 percent of all respondents said they would watch video before reading text on the same webpage, and 22 percent said they generally liked watching video more than reading text for reviewing business information. Three-quarters of all executives said they watched work-related videos on business websites at least once a week, and more than half did the same on YouTube. Video can be highly effective for vendor marketing. The executives surveyed reported taking a wide variety of actions after watching online videos, with about two-thirds visiting vendor websites subsequent to viewing and more than half searchi...

We now know that 2010 will go down in history as the first time that marketers invested more in online advertising than newspaper advertising, according to the latest eMarketer forecast. Total newspaper spending, including advertising in print and online editions, will fall to $25.7 billion in 2010, a decline of 6.6 percent. Spending on print newspapers alone will fall more steeply to $22.8 billion. Meanwhile, a rise of 13.9 percent will push U.S. online ad spending up to $25.8 billion by year's end. The spending gap will widen significantly next year, as total newspaper advertising spending falls again to $24.6 billion (including $21.4 billion for print) and online climbs to $28.5 billion. "It's something we've seen coming for a long time, but this is a tipping point," Geoff Ramsey, CEO of eMarketer, told The Wall Street Journal. Despite a drop in the dollar amount of online newspaper spending in a down economy, online has been accounting for a growin...

eMarketer reports that according to a market study performed by Network Solutions and the University of Maryland, small-business social media marketing use has apparently plateaued in the U.S. at 24 percent adoption. The study of American small to medium businesses (SMB) found that most primarily use Facebook (82 percent), and that common activities are maintaining a "company page" on a social network and posting status updates or links to interesting content. About half of those businesses that used social media also monitored social networks for mentions of their company and/or product names. As small business gains experience with social media, some have realized their expectations are not in tune with reality. As most begin to look at social media as a channel more for customer loyalty than for prospect acquisition, they're also finding that hopes for increased brand awareness and attracting new customers have not been fully met. However, while fewer small b...

Both the fixed and mobile broadband service provider markets will continue to grow in revenues -- up to $416 billion in 2020 -- according to the latest market study published by the Telco 2.0 Initiative at STL Partners . Their report finds that broadband service providers will benefit from both new types of broadband wholesale and more sophisticated direct-to-consumer retail propositions and service tariffs. They believe that recent introductions of new tiered and capped wireless Internet data plans are early evidence of this trend. Key findings from the Telco 2.0 report include: - Global broadband access is forecast to increase from $274 billion in 2010, to $416 billion in 2020, an increase of 52 percent in revenue terms. - More than half the revenue growth will come from wholesale and two-sided fees for improved access capacity and quality. - By 2020, mobile broadband will be worth $138 billion, or 32 percent of the total broadband industry revenues. - Three new revenue s...