Competition through Ecosystems
In the first week after the new year, the big news in my world usually comes out of CES in Vegas. This year was no exception.
My Interesting Conversations
Four Things To Share
Insights Video: Driving AI Transformation: Mindset for Leadership and Operations
Join The Personalize Academy For Free!
1. My Interesting Conversations
In the first week after the new year, the big news in my world usually comes out of CES in Vegas. This year was no exception. What really caught my eye, aside from a lot of useless AI integrations (sorry, but I do not need an intelligent refrigerator that would just have more opportunities to break down), were big announcements about INTEGRATED ECOSYSTEMS, aimed at providing breakthroughs in customer experiences.
The biggest one was from Delta Air Lines, whose Delta Concierge is the clear manifestation of the ecosystem trend that we predicted in the "Personalized" book. With a relentless eye on EMPOWERING their customers, Delta is lining up partnerships with Uber, Joby's Electric Air Taxi service, YouTube, and others to enable an end-to-end travel experience where they can provide a complete, personalized solution using several angles of AI. Seamless transport to/from the airport, notifications about your passport status and how to get more quickly through immigration when you land, connections on board to relevant video content, etc.
This will be a trend. More ecosystems of various types will evolve. GenAI's ability to write code that makes it much easier to move data, in a controlled way, across parties. It can spot triggers and patterns for action. It can generate the messages to guide you, and have the agent capability to actually execute a transaction that would be helpful. It is not one AI, but several working together.
From a strategic perspective, AI is unlocking a new front in competition, where brands aim to be at the center or at least a key participant, in an ecosystem aimed at a major customer need. We will see these evolve in health care, home services, B2B services, retirement planning and coordination, automotive, advertising, and many others. The question for business leaders will be whether you can be at the center, a participant, or locked out. Depending on your strategy, you'll need to get ahead of the data capabilities, AI engines, and management processes involved. The management issues are not so simple. Coordinating across an ecosystem is not a skill many companies have built, at least not for their service delivery. Other aspects, such as privacy and security management, assessing the quality of experiences, managing the flow of funds, etc., are all part of the package.
So Personalization's future, yet again, as we have said, is becoming much more than Marketing. It is a strategic imperative where the way one competes is at stake. And if you follow it through, where many new muscles need to be developed, beyond the core data and tech capabilities.
Where are you in your discussions about the strategic implications of AI? Are you still just focused on personal productivity, or is your team exploring the broader implications for competition and growth? Are you looking at the full customer experience in your domain and challenging yourself on the compromises customers are facing? Compromises that will require several parties to solve? Is it possible to get an aligned ecosystem to deliver something breakthrough? I am seeing this now play out with clients of mine in B2B Industrial Services, Health Care, and Home Services. I'd love to hear examples of others getting ahead of this wave.
2. Four Things To Share
ICYMI – Check out my new book with Boston Consulting Group (BCG)’s Mark Abraham, “Personalized: Customer Strategy in the Age of AI” to learn how to innovate a company by scaling personalization.Buy Here!
ICYMI: Listen to my episode on the MarTech podcast with Benjamin Shapiro to learn how companies can gather and utilize data more effectively to create lasting, personalized customer interactions. Read Here.
Today’s consumers expect brands to deliver tailored experiences in real-time. Forbes shares how hyper-personalization powered by AI will take center stage in 2025 via Cheryl Robinson: Read Here.
There are efficiency opportunities across almost every function and area of a business. Watch my video to learn more!
3. Insights Video: Driving AI Transformation: Mindset for Leadership and Operations
4. Join The Personalize Academy For Free!
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You can reach out to me directly on the detail below, and I look forward to how we can learn together!
Thanks,
Dave
Contact Me:
I work with a range of companies, from large $5+bn enterprises who are trying to grasp the opportunities that AI offers, to marketing businesses who are bringing exciting innovative solutions to market.
You can reach me here:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daveedelman
Website: https://www.edelmanadvisoryservices.com/
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