Unlocking AI and creating unique Customer Experience Value. By Prasad Ballari

(About: Prasad has more than 2 decades of experience in Customer Experience and Digital Transformation & advises to CDOs, CTO, CIOs on Salesforce & Customer Experience Transformation)

Summary: Enhancing AI capabilities can create a massive competitive advantage until your competition catches up with you. The game of “Digital” all started 20 years ago. Now all well-known organizations are “Digital” in some form or shape. ( Some are only existing due to new Digital Business Model) Some are in the upper quadrant of “Fully Digital” & many are still between “Partially Digital” “Barely Digital”. So the question is - how different are you in the market for the value you deliver.

When we move the needle from Digital to Metaverse*, many companies will vanish. These companies would never be able to gauge AI and effectively derail acceleration, particularly in Customer Experience.

*A metaverse is a persistent online virtual environment that incorporates a broad range of Internet functions. In futurism, the term is often described as a hypothetical iteration of the Internet as a virtual world that is facilitated by the use of virtual and augmented reality headsets - Wikipedia

As per Wallstreet and Credit Suisse,

“the rise and fall in listed companies in the U.S. from 1976 to 2016. Because new lists heavily outnumbered delists, especially in the late 1980s and 1990s, more than 2,500 companies were added from 1976 through 1996. The pattern reverses after 1996, as delists outstrip new lists and the population of listed companies falls by 3,650 companies. The pattern holds for stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market.”

I believe companies could not adapt to changing landscape of business models, Digital models or financial cashflow mismanagement issues, or purely ethical, integrity issues). Let's focus on Digital Models for our conversation.

If you were told about having mini-computers/personal computers in 1975, then you would have not agreed with that paradigm in the mainframe world. Today Mainframes have already come under severe threat of extinction from personal computing & cloud computing. Similarly, Kodak got hit by Digital. Some organizations will disappear from the map by not adopting Digital and some soon will disappear by not adopting Metaverse.

But what is the key difference between Digital and Metaverse? it is a similar difference between the 747 and SpaceX Falcon rocket. Both fly but one is meant for air travel and the second is meant for outer space movement.

So some wise men suggested, never to overlook any aspects of possibilities, who knows if 747 transforms to have rocket boosters/some brilliant innovation to move you in outer space. 

But the question is when? What can help us to shift our organizations to the next league of acceleration? 

So far machines have been assisting us in computation, organization of data, aiding decision making, helping us to alert on maintenance or executing algorithms which we designed & developed. But next league will need Intelligence along with data. Autonomous decision to drive a car safely, Automation decision control to run our kitchen at home & based on our mood prepare delicious food & surprise us! 

There is an aspect of human experience currently for whatever we want to achieve. Humans are the end customers. But in Metaverse machines can be end-users. Your virtual visit to a restaurant overlooking the Himalayas may be run by AI Avatars (& Algorithms) who will order food while you are in the restaurant and drone deliver food to you at a physical location. (Food prepared by AI Robotics Kitchens). But Food retail AIs will have to look for Restaurant AIs to order food supplies. So we shift humans one level up the value chain but a lot of day-to-day decisions will be taken by AI Avatars. Humans' evaluation hinged on Comfort. We invented beds to sleep well, we invented cars to travel fast and comfortably. You cannot take away Comfort from the human race. Our whole existence is building next-level comforts.

There are 3 levels of experience which we can think of

1. (AI to AI) Algorithm to Algorithm ( this is already happening to many extents with integration between Travel portals to Airline booking systems. Payment Gateways. But these are initiated by Humans. In Algorithm to Algorithm, the event is triggered & maintained by the Algorithm.

In this mode, you have a different level of experience. Your purchaser AI may want to understand your quality of food material by scanning through Blockchain. So in the AI world, you need something to TRUST. In the real physical world, we do positioning in the minds of the customer to gain Mindshare and Trust. In AI to AI world, you need to understand what value you are delivering because machines are not emotional decision makers yet. 

2. (AI to Humans) – This is to render key information, decision assisting information to the customer. Customer experience improving hints. Help to serve the customer to the customer better. Provide analytics with insights. 

3. (Humans to Humans) – This is a current model with a lot of variations in experiences. We use Algorithms to some extent to improve the experience but human intervention is always required. For Example, Hospitals

Now think about all possibilities of experience you can render to your customers. Build that foundation now. Being digital is not a choice, it is the way that leads to many greater possibilities of experience. 

Now how to start. AI is a big, unknown territory for many. I strongly suggest starting small with one Experience-Driven Persona case & building it, Experimenting with it. Target it to young customers who will always be open to experimenting. 

Maximize the use of platforms so that you can leverage various technological advancements. However, Technology is just only one part of the equation. 

All starts with Customer Experience & Ends with Customer experience. All in-between is what you need to be managed. You need to have 3 types of leaders in your eco-system

1. Leaders who can visualize new possibilities in experience

2. Leaders who can accelerate (Execute) the experience implementation, sell the experience.

3. Leaders who connect all & keep sustaining things with cashflow management

If you get one leader who can do all 3 three, then you have embarked on massive acceleration. Just not Stop it.

See you in the Metaverse!!!

LinkedIn:  https://in.linkedin.com/in/prasad-ballari-78322ba

Tweeter: Prasad Ballari (@PRASAD_BALLARI) · Twitter