Digital Transformation Trends For 2023

Keeping up with the breakneck pace of customer experience (CX) technology can leave any company breathless. But when digital transformation is a critical part of an organization’s success, it’s never been more important to become familiar with it.

And as customer expectations evolve, technology that was essential yesterday may not deliver the same great experience tomorrow. In a fluid landscape, keeping up with emerging trends in digital transformation means maximum confidence in the future of a business.

What Is Digital Transformation?

Digital transformation means using technology to operate more effectively in a digital economy, integrating it into all areas of a business. A successful digital transformation helps a company deliver better customer experiences and earn lasting loyalty in the process.

When an organization invests in digital transformation, it puts customers and their needs first. By refocusing people, processes and technology to serve the customer, every moment is relevant and personalized. Additionally, employees gain greater efficiency and creativity as automation frees them from manual marketing tasks. And when companies move workflows from paper to digital files, they become more sustainable.

6 Digital Transformation Trends For 2023

From e-commerce retailers to the supply chain, all businesses benefit from digital transformation. And with the right technology, you can meet your customers where they are, in real time and at scale. The latest digital transformation trends include Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), cloud and everything-as-a-service (XaaS), hybrid working, automation, cybersecurity, and customer data platforms.

1) Everyday Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)

For customers, efficiency and speed are no longer an advantage, but rather an expectation in every type of environment and encounter imaginable. As AI and ML become more widespread, the standard of excellence will continue to push the limits of a human team alone. But incorporating these technologies can amplify the power of the team.

An Artificial Intelligence system shines when used to automate repetitive manual tasks or retrieve relevant information at a moment’s notice, freeing up employee time to focus on driving business impact. And with the ability to work around the clock, the AI operates without the limits of working hours or time zones.

Layering in Machine Learning is a way for AI and other programs to continuously improve and adapt performance, learning from any and all data it has access to. The more information that is gained over time, the faster the ML system can discover information like who the best performing customers are.

2) From the Cloud to Everything as a Service (XaaS)

This technology is on track to emerge in amazing new ways next year. While connecting data through a digital hub is commonplace today, more and more organizations are moving entirely to the cloud to access information anywhere, anytime. Embracing technology makes collaboration second nature on a company scale, while also making physical hardware costs a thing of the past. And with widespread user adoption, cloud-native applications are meeting the increased demand with scalability and improved results for organizations.

Reflecting this development, many companies are also beginning to shift to everything as a service (XaaS), which means that all of their products and services are available as cloud-based subscription services. Instead of a fragmented offering, everything from storage to security to communications is digital.

3) Hybrid Work: It Is Here to Stay

After the remote work mandate in 2020, many companies began to slowly bring employees back to the office. Only now, with a foundation for remote infrastructure, has hybrid work become the most successful work schedule for many companies. In fact, 54% of employees who work remotely at least some of the time say they would split their time between working at home and in the office. And almost 60% say they have worked on some type of hybrid model since COVID-19, a number that shows that companies can still achieve their objectives with this model.

Centralizing and simplifying technology improves the way your teams collaborate so you can stay competitive well into the future. When all team members use the same workflow, you can increase efficiency and deliver great work at scale.

4) Automation Speeds Up

With no signs of slowing down, automation is on the roadmap for every business looking to free up valuable employee time and reduce errors. Teams are often held back by the volume of low-effort tasks, such as vendor invoice management, information tracking, or document management. With automation, organizations can seamlessly scale while reducing operating expenses.

There are some affordable and cost-effective ways to start introducing automation to a business:

• Robotic Process Automation (RPA). Use software bots to automate repetitive tasks like data entry, onboarding, or payroll processing.
• Low-code or without code development. Empower teams with development tools that automate code writing through intuitive drag-and-drop and drop-down interfaces.

Whichever method a business chooses to explore, most automation efforts complement AI efforts with ease.

5) Building Trust with Cybersecurity

As more and more companies move their data to the cloud, protecting that data becomes more crucial. And with hybrid work it’s easier than ever for these to be rendered insecure through simple tactics like unauthorized sharing or phishing scams.

There’s no question that data should always be secure, but customer data is an especially vulnerable area because the stakes are so high. When people’s personal addresses, credit card numbers, and emails are on the table, it only takes one data breach to lose customer trust forever.

Even if data security is strong, it pays to build trust with customers by being transparent about how their data is used. To do this, you must clearly share the privacy policy and only access personal and financial data with explicit permission. Proper handling of customer data is a prerequisite for analyzing it and making insight-based business decisions.

6) Customer Data Platform (CDP) as a Personalization Engine

From a customer’s first click on social media channels to checking out an order via the website, every interaction is a valuable source of information. Organizing and translating thousands of data points along the customer journey into useful information is a daunting task without the right tools.

A CDP unifies all customer data in a single view, connecting it to the human through a real-time profile. With data centralized and secure in a database, decision makers can easily analyze insights and act quickly to drive conversions. Tools like CDPs are powerful in gaining a complete understanding of the customer, enabling exceptional customer experiences.