When business leaders plan and budget for the upcoming year, they ask themselves: How do I know what is a buzzword versus what’s important?
Business leaders need to remain flexible to thrive, despite the fact that it is difficult to predict what will happen in 2023 due to volatile market conditions.
Automating the mundane
Companies that automate their workflows in the next year will have a competitive advantage. They can reduce human dependency on mundane tasks, such as sending out welcome emails to new employees, setting up follow-up reminders and getting contacts subscribe to newsletters.
Automating mundane tasks can increase employee satisfaction, as they spend more time on the things they like and are less likely to make mistakes. This is especially relevant for the retail sector, as wages are continuing to rise and labour shortages continue to grow.
Complicated, over-bloated systems are not only detrimental to the employees, but also a financial burden on businesses. Businesses should adopt tools powered by AI and ML to stay on top of the game.
47% developers require tools to create applications quickly enough to meet deadlines. Businesses should consider low-code or no-code platforms. These platforms are written by AI engines which can intelligently create their own code. This allows businesses to accelerate innovation by reducing development time by 90% with fewer mistakes.
Businesses can automate their processes by implementing low-code platforms and chatbots. They will also benefit from personalised customer service, simplified IT requests, and reduced workload for service agents.
Customer experience expectations
Innovation is required to meet the changing needs of customers. In order to meet customer expectations by 2023, businesses should prioritize the adoption of technologies and tools that support and provide efficient options for self-service. Customers expect instant responses in today’s fast paced world and will not wait more than a few minutes for the help they require.
Conversational AI chatbots can learn and improve from each conversation by leveraging deep-learning. They process and analyse information effectively to give customers relevant suggestions, solutions and recommendations.
Software is designed to simplify the lives of employees, but they are overwhelmed. Freshworks conducted a recent study that found the cost of using overly complex tech stacks to be more than $122 Billion AUD per year. More than half of the global participants in this research study stated that their organization pays for SaaS capabilities that their IT team never uses and 40% said too much of their technology stack is difficult to use.
Retailers are under increased pressure to improve their efficiency and equip employees better to serve customers due to global supply chain disruptions. It is important that the industry moves quickly to retain a workforce that is often in flux. They want to be able interact with their software easily.
Aberdeen Strategy & Research found that organisations who rely on AI have achieved 3.5-fold increases in customer satisfaction and lower costs, while maximizing agent performance. One chatbot can answer thousands of questions at once, allowing employees to prioritise their most important tasks while being confident that the simple ones are being answered.
Businesses can simplify their processes by investing in technology. This will make it easier for the customer to find what they are looking for. It could be implementing chatbots, self-service kiosks, or using mobile apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger to enable customers access information and make purchases on their preferred platforms. It is essential to put customers first. Businesses will increase brand loyalty by ensuring that customers have a positive experience.
Resilience during a recession
Innovation will still drive the tech and software industries, even if businesses prepare for a difficult economic year. Expect to see the emergence of new platforms and technologies, as well as an evolution of current technologies.
Automation is important, but so is ensuring that your employees have the best tech stack. It is vital that businesses stay on top of these changes and keep up with the market to survive these difficult times.
Business leaders can stay on top of the technology landscape by leveraging tools like AI and ML. These tools help them to be agile, to understand the gaps in the market, and to make data-driven business decisions.