The CEO’s role in digital transformation: predictions for 2019

Over the last several years we’ve heard about digital transformation and businesses’ various strategies to meet the demands of today’s technology-driven world. However, how many businesses are actually well positioned to put their plan into action? Digital transformation requires cohesion and connection across departments from IT and customer service to HR and marketing. The only way for digital transformation to permeate all departments and be successful is for it to start from the top with the CEO.

Here are my six predictions for how the C-suite will lead digital transformation in 2019.

1. CEOs and their fellow C-suite executives will step up to start turning digital transformation plans into reality.

According to a 2018 survey by Tech Pro Research, 70 percent of respondents said that their companies either have a digital transformation strategy in place or are working on one. Over the next year, business leaders will finally start putting their digital transformation plans into action by setting the scene for success in each department. Specifically, CEOs will need to prioritize hiring, reorganization and reskilling to help execute the digital transformation plans that they have been discussing for years. CEOs will also implement advanced technology such as artificial intelligence to help make these decisions and set an example for the rest of the organization.

2. Companies will harness the collective power of disruption, innovation and transformation.

AI and deep learning technologies are completely changing the way organizations are able to analyze data. Without deep learning capabilities, employees are doomed to search through endless files to find the information and answers they need, but predictive models make it possible to pull insights from previously hard to analyze data such as videos, images, voice and natural language. The deep learning revolution is eliminating repetitive, tedious, time-consuming manual processes by automatically connecting the dots between multiple data sources, across departments within an organization.

3. Business processes will be transformed by faster access to information.

An HFS Research study shows that most respondents feel departments such as human resources can benefit from machine learning by using it to augment humans’ ability to perform certain tasks to generate revenue (37 percent) and free humans from performing certain tasks to reduce costs (25 percent). The best applications of AI technology are supplemental tools that augment employees’ capabilities, make their lives easier and help them work better, rather than replace humans. Machine learning can speed up backend processes in HR and customer service, for example, by providing easy access to answers to employees’ everyday questions rather than just information without context. The overall digital employee experience in every department must be refined in this way because how employees work day-to-day ultimately affects every area of the business.

4. Customer experiences will get better by getting faster.

By speeding up the digital employee experience on the backend of the customer service department, AI technology and automation will also improve the customer experience at multiple touchpoints. In addition to helping employees solve customer problems and answer questions faster through on-demand insights, AI technology will cut out unnecessary steps for customers, making interactions more personalized and efficient. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2020 customers will manage 85 percent of their relationship with the enterprise without interacting with a human, so businesses must be equipped with the digital capabilities to serve customers in whichever way they prefer.

5. Interfaces become conversational.

One way in which customers and employees will interact with businesses using AI technology will be through conversational interfaces. Conversational computing and search will be used to answer the “why,” “how,” “where” and “when” questions, by pulling context from various data sources to provide a more holistic view that’s a step beyond the basic search result. Digital conversations require natural language processing, which helps employees and customers get things done now, not later, without spending time searching multiple different avenues or various keyword combinations.

6. Digital twins and 360-degree views move organizations closer to Unified Everything 4.0.

Unified Everything is a concept that emphasizes the value of enabling a connection between data from different sources because it makes it easier for organizations to see the big picture, make decisions, move faster and ultimately be more successful. One step businesses can take to achieve Unified Everything is creating digital twins, or digital copies of physical assets or data. Digital twins add new context to digital analytics and search from assets that could not otherwise be referenced as a data source, enabling more thorough analysis and action. For example, Gartner predicts that by 2021, half of large industrial companies will use digital twins, resulting in a 10 percent improvement in effectiveness for those organizations.

Digital twins and AI also contribute to a 360-degree view, because they help provide the full picture of the data by showing where it came from, why it matters and how it can be used to accomplish goals. These digital transformation tactics allow businesses to act on valuable insights pulled from all of the background information they have available, rather than just one data source and an assumption.

As CEOs adopt AI and deep learning technology in their own roles and implement it across various departments to facilitate digital transformation, it will also connect more data and create completely digital organizations. While some of this technology and execution may still be in its beginning stages, we will see a bigger impact in 2019 than ever before when it comes to AI, deep learning, conversational interfaces and data analytics. Digital transformation will change the way we work, manage information and interact with other humans, but to make this happen business leaders need to take initiative to transform each department and create a unified organization, or be left behind.