For the second year running, artificial intelligence (AI) was the hottest topic in the world of customer experience (CX) in 2019.

You don’t have to look far to find major players touting AI-driven CX as the next big thing. For example, IBM recently published a report which predicts that AI will unleash a new approach to CX strategy, design and development. IBM calls the shift a ‘seismic’ one, comparing it to the changes that were ushered in during the 1990s at the advent of the internet.

Personas and empathy mapping are CX tools which share the common goal of helping you to better understand your customers. As the importance of highly personalised and even predictive experiences rises across channels, the ability to leverage these tools is becoming critically important.

I recently arrived at the tail end of a presentation about backups. Rebecca Fitzhugh, Principal Technologist at Rubrik was wrapping up a small group discussion and Q&A about Rubrik technology and for me the final take-away message was simply, the practice of backing up should be boring. 

It was a pleasure attending the Experience Avaya event at the beautiful Pan Pacific Hotel in Singapore last week. As the company charges forward leaving its Chapter 11 woes behind, it seems Avaya is well poised to achieve a moderate level of growth over the next few quarters. New hardware and software releases as well as focus on R&D will be key areas of development for ensuring revenue growth beyond 2019. So, what’s driving growth and what’s next for the company?

- Boomi Shares Insights on Importance of Employee Experience.-

I recently attended Boomi World Tour in Sydney. These types of events always start out exciting with colourful lighting and sick beats, and so according to Boomi, the future is bright and filled with opportunity. So it seems clear that the hype around cloud migration and artificial intelligence has passed on to where we are now - the stage of transformation and integration. No clearer example of the power of these systems was more evident than in the recent eye-opening experience Boomi itself encountered when trying to solve its own on-boarding process.

The aged care industry is in a period of sustained change. Changes to legislation, increasing security threats, demands for greater transparency, increasing consumer demands for better CX mean that the industry has no choice but to adapt. 

Dr Kevin Cheng, Founder, Osana, says his company aims to fundamentally disrupt how primary care operates and is funded, by shifting the focus from activity-based care (number of patients and consultations) to providing good health outcomes. So what does disruption look like for Australia's aged care industry?

Whenever an opportunity presents itself to help a friend through the work I do, I’m always happy to jump in. Last week I attended a book signing for a new book release that is already receiving high accolades from reviewers and critics across the country. I Can’t Remember the Title but the Cover is Blue: Sketches from the other side of the bookshop counter by Elias Greig is a brilliantly satisfying snapshot from the flip side of customer service.

Education in Australia is and will likely remain a contentious issue into the foreseeable future. In a recent roundtable discussion with experts from Jamf, Frost and Sullivan, Tribal Group and Ricoh, concerns were raised over the fragmented nature of the education sector in Australia and what’s riding on it to remain competitive, relevant and deliver a greater CX in such a highly competitive market.

Enterprise cloud computing company Nutanix announced last month that it has been named as a leader in Forrester’s Research recent ‘Hyperconverged Infrastructure’ report which evaluated 11 vendors across strategy, market presence and current offering.

According to Forrester, Nutanix hasmaintainedits position atop the hyperconvergedinfrastructure(HCI) market throughinnovation,R&D investment, strong sales momentum, partnerships, and the acquisition of new customers.

Today’s C-suite and board have access to a forest of data regardless of business size. Navigating and determining what to use and how to use it at precisely the right time is a challenge experienced by many business leaders and managers. The mountain of data is only too often a problem that exists in tandem with disparate systems. Having too much information scattered in too many places and a lack of processing power then simply becomes useless for predicting business outcomes.