#39: personalisation is a new challenge, and could be AI generated??

Happy?Friday?and welcome! We're bringing you our roundup of industry news summarised in an exclusive LinkedIn newsletter. For more detail on any news featured here, check out 'This week in CX' on the?Customer Experience Magazine (CXM)?website .

This week, we're looking into new research on personalisation, AI integrations, and GigCX.

Nine in ten businesses are using AI-driven personalisation to drive growth

According to the latest report on the state of personalisation by Twilio , 92% of global businesses are now using AI-driven personalisation to drive business growth. 81% of organisations also believe recent AI technology has the potential to positively impact CX.

However, a disconnect exists between this enthusiasm and the comfort level of consumers. Only 36% of European consumers are comfortable with companies using AI to personalise their experiences. Just 49% trust brands to keep their personal data secure and use it responsibly.?

50% of global companies report that getting accurate data for personalisation is a struggle. 31% of businesses cite poor quality data as a major obstacle in leveraging AI.?Reassuringly,?97% of companies surveyed are taking steps to address consumer privacy concerns – demonstrating a commitment to responsible data use.?

As digital natives, Gen Z are both more influenced by personalisation and more willing to embrace AI. In fact, a third of Gen Z consumers already expect AI to be used in their experiences with brands. For example, 72% of Gen Z consumers say that personalised experiences have influenced them to make a purchase. This compares to 66% of millennials, 57% of gen X and 42% of boomers.

Meanwhile, only 15% of Gen Z consumers report being uncomfortable with AI being used to help brands personalise their experiences. This is notably lower than millennials (24%), gen X (34%) and boomers (43%).

Personalisation is now retailers’ greatest challenge and driver for success

Red Ant have released their newest survey on UK retailers. 68% of retailers claim personalised services is their key driver for tech investment in 2023. Personalising the customer experience has overtaken data integration to become brands’ biggest challenge (for 30% of respondents).?This year, siloed data came a close second – 23% identified it as their biggest challenge.

On a positive note, 20% of respondents claim their retail budgets have increased in 2023. Reassuringly, 77% of retail tech budgets stay the same as 2022. While challenges remain similar to last year, the developing investment in new technologies, such as AI, indicate that retailers are under pressure to do much more with the same.

In fact, of the 72% of retailers who claim they have already adopted AI and data analytics, 24% of these have ambitions to increase adoption. This is despite the biggest barriers to AI adoption being lack of strategy (for 26% of respondents), and costs (for 23%). The complexities of regulation and compliance were a significant barrier to adoption for 18% of respondents. Among these challenges to embrace AI featured a not-insignificant company culture (9%) and data requirements (8%).

This survey highlights the shift in retail tech priorities towards personalisation and the customer journey/experience, leaving omnichannel strategy ranking in fourth place. This raises concerns around whether retailers have done enough in the year since Red Ant’s 2022 survey. In this,?just less than a quarter of retailers confirmed that they have ‘a well-established omnichannel strategy that works with collaborative tools and platforms and goes beyond multichannel’.

83% of customer service managers have added, or plan to add, GigCX talent in the next two years

Limitless?research has revealed that 83% of customer service managers have already added – or plan to add – gig talent to CX operations within the next two years. This is a significant increase from 2022, where the figure stood at 72%.?

The survey of 400 respondents in the UK and U.S., also found that customer service managers using GigCX increased by 149% since 2022. 65% of those surveyed see gig in customer service as a great model for customer service. In the same period, those that “know very little” about GigCX or had “never heard of” GigCX decreased by 43%.?

Over half believe brand reputation is critical and embedded into the way organisations hire, train, and coach. 44% identified empathy as the most important factor. Additionally, 65% think prospective customers would be more likely to buy a product if they could speak with a fellow customer before purchasing.

80% of contact centres have increased their budget for direct hiring or outsourcing in order to meet staffing minimums.The majority have increased their budget by more than 10%. The survey also revealed that the greatest cause of concern regarding service staffing in 2023 is the demand for flexible working (29%).

• A new study by M-Cube has found that 86% of retail leaders believe having a strong in-store omnichannel strategy is important for success.?It found that 76% of businesses believe omnichannel retailing is key to success in the next five years. 62% of retail leaders also prioritise omnichannel capabilities over other strategic initiatives.?59% believe that physical stores will remain important in the omnichannel world, with 21% saying this importance will grow. In fact, since implementing omnichannel strategies, 69% of businesses have seen an increase in sales or revenue.?
• boost.ai research has found that 67% of banking customers would leave their providers if they experienced consistently bad customer service. Insurance customers were close behind on 62%.?Furthermore, 69% of customers were unwilling to wait longer than 20 minutes to speak to a customer service operator. 81% of respondents said they would switch providers if they consistently had to wait 30+ minutes. However, 61% of people would talk to a chatbot if it meant spending less time waiting for their enquiry to be resolved.
• Grammarly are the next company to join in with generative AI.?GrammarlyGO is a new tool which uses ChatGPT’s AI model to generate text. With GrammarlyGO, users can draft documents, compose and reply to emails, edit writing for tone, clarity, and length, and ideate concepts or outlines for a project, within the apps they’re working in.
• Slack have integrated ChatGPT to become Slack GPT. It will?enable users to create AI-powered conversation summaries and leverage writing assistance within the platform itself. Customers can also build no-code workflows that embed AI actions with simple prompts at each step.

CXM articles of the week

Are you caught up on the top articles we published this week? Give them a read if not!

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