GenAI’s Real Power Will be Unleashed as Models Create Top-line Growth — 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 operational efficiency and business value generation use cases of generative AI (GenAI), and strategies to eliminate friction points.

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

Sharing use cases around maintaining personalization without compromising authenticity, Gahun states that authenticity primarily carries different meanings for different consumers and enterprises. Moreover, he notes that data plays a critical role in the evolution of such use cases.

On this premise, Gahun delves into discussing some use cases and how he approaches those. From the perspective of research that he conducted, he states that there are operational efficiency use cases and business value generation use cases.

Elaborating, he says that Forrester puts massive emphasis on operational efficiencies after bringing in GenAI capabilities. After conducting deep Content Management System (CMS) and Product Information Management (PIM) evaluations, he is certain that the systems have the ability to generate copy even for product records.

While some nascent capabilities like rich media asset generation still demand more work from models, Gahun confirms that they are getting better.

Moving forward, he shares that GenAI has also helped in the PIM segment by filling in the missing product data to create mappings. Gahun maintains that there is a larger underlying set of operational efficiencies between automated workflows, quality and compliance management, content translations, and code generation.

Sharing an instance of his conversation with a shoe manufacturer based out of Latin America. Gahun states that the manufacturer concurred with faster expansion across geographies after building GenAI capabilities in its PIM.

Moving on to value-generation use cases, he mentions real-time campaign optimization and identifiable automated customer segments. On top of that, there is dynamic experience delivery. Gahun believes that the real power of GenAI will be unleashed as the models start creating top-line growth, generating new business value, and helping address product challenges and personalization needs.

After two years of operational efficiencies, he says that there is an evident shift and companies are exploring ways to make Gen AI use cases more business value-oriented. Circling back, Gahun states that content, data, and product information experiences are the core pieces that would drive the commerce side in the market.

Speaking of friction points and how to eliminate them, he reveals that according to the research, consumers are on a watch for aggregators and experiences that continue to foster frictionless experiences.

The research data indicates that upon finding such experiences, the customer goes the extra mile to refer the business across networks, says Gahun. Now, for enterprises to make that happen consistently across the board with their products, a PIM, or product experience, plays a crucial role at the core.

Customers are on the lookout for richer, consistent aggregators of multi-brand experiences and markets, to the extent that they would willingly share personal data, which in turn, could fuel certain ecosystems.

To make these frictionless experiences happen, it is imperative to present product information to a customer in a way that adds value, says Gahun. He refers to weaving a product into the fabric of a consumer’s life, and it requires making the customer feel comfortable enough with the brand to discover more products.

For instance, Gahun mentions how many brand manufacturers have replaced putting catalogs, brochures, and information booklets in their products with QR codes, which is gradually becoming standard.

Even with the numerous efforts to create frictionless experiences, the challenge remains with inconsistency. Gahun opines that the personalization and ability to deliver contextualized content are missing.

For instance, he shares that many consumers end up receiving digital marketing offers for products they have already purchased. While much remains to be done, GenAI can enable faster sifting through data, and there are operational efficiencies that have become foundational in delivering a frictionless experience.

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