GenAI-powered Shopping Must Be Seamless Across Physical and Digital — Guest Speaker and Forrester Principal Analyst

(US & Canada) Guest speaker Chuck Gahun, Principal Analyst, Digital Business and Strategy at Forrester, speaks with Søren Lundtoft, Senior Director, PDX, at Stibo Systems, in a video interview about the role of APIs in bringing services to markets, his opinions on business value generation, dynamic experiences, the future of shopping, the digital experience ecosystem, and about his current favorite app.

Forrester is a leading global market research company that helps organizations exceed customer demands and excel with technology.

Drawing from extensive experience, Gahun states that more and more business teams are bringing their services to market through APIs. Business has gone beyond connecting legacy systems and more about modern front ends and getting prepared for the future.

Based on his research, Gahun shares the experience of a global animal health company, Covetrus. The company partnered with 28,000 vet clinics to fulfill prescriptions. To remove the friction, he suggests buying medicine from a shared website where both Covetrus and vet clinics share experiences.

Apart from removing friction, it also enhances digital marketing efforts, as the clinic and prescription side of the house sends better-coordinated messages to patients while existing in a digital ecosystem.

With such frictionless outcome-oriented experience, the pet owner would be more willing to share information with both parties, says Gahun. More importantly, API acts as the glue that brings all of this together, he adds.

In a single digital experience, API brings both the business services to market, says Gahun. This transitions into more of a partnership rather than separate business entities going after the same consumer. He further states that this aids the pet owner in getting a singular product experience, manifesting across one set team that drives value for two businesses.

When asked about his take on business value generation, Gahun states that on one end it translates to top-line revenue growth for businesses. On the flip side, he believes that it is about better experiences driven by customer obsession.

However, Gahun affirms that it boils down to adding value not only in customers’ lives but also in businesses. He reiterates that therefore much of his research focuses on the value-generation side of generative AI (GenAI) rather than operational efficiencies.

Discussing dynamic experiences, Gahun explains that these exist in various states that could be contextual, personalized, or adapted to suit the channel or device. Nevertheless, the core idea behind dynamic experiences is leveraging GenAI or AI computing to drive business growth.

The prime example of such an experience, according to Gahun, is an API call that goes out for a product detail page, where multiple systems like CMS, PIM, and DAM work together to render it back. However, with the intelligence of AI computing, these experiences will become increasingly dynamic and customized based on the data available or the data the customer has agreed to share, he adds.

Commenting on the future of shopping, Gahun states that according to recent data, consumers have returned to in-store shopping. Having discussed all about product experiences, he notes that the future of shopping powered by GenAI must be seamless across physical and digital channels.

For instance, the product experience should continue on the phone after exiting the store, to the extent that upon returning to the store, the sales associate would be aware of the customer’s interest. This kind of seamless experience would drive the future of shopping, says Gahun.

Next, he highlights the digital experience ecosystem as a consumer-driven ecosystem that will be rich in product discovery through their own data and knowledge of their own content. Elaborating, he affirms that consumers will create their personal digital ecosystem, maybe on a device or computer, wherein they will share data with specific brands.

This, in turn, will help customers unveil more experiences with their ecosystem, says Gahun. Furthermore, he opines that although these ecosystems will be powered by AI computing and AI-powered applications, they will also be fueled by content and data shared by consumers. Summing up, Gahun mentions that the digital ubiquity lives in consumers and their comfort with it continues to increase. Having said that, he shares that his recent decision to learn to play the guitar has gotten him hooked on an app called Simply Guitar.

Amazed by the app’s features, Gahun affirms that even within this experience, there are countless opportunities for additional offers, product experiences, and upsells. In conclusion, he states that there is huge potential for the app to expand its offerings and gradually grow into his ecosystem if it succeeds.

CDO Magazine appreciates Chuck Gahun for sharing his insights with our global community.