The Era of Cognitive Growth

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It is hard to predict the future but what can be said with certainty is that the future will certainly not become less customer centric. Business success stories will become increasingly dependent on the ability to create engaging customer experiences using all available channels and cognitive marketing which is based on real-time listening, understanding, reasoning and communication between the customer and the brand.

The change toward the cognitive omnichannel marketing reality has also revolutionized the value chain. As consumer preferences are changing and expectations are soaring, the value chain has evolved from a linear, push-basis to a consumer-driven ecosystem.

As your customers are behind the wheel, and the marketing function is the voice of the customer inside the company, the significance of the marketing department in understanding what makes the customer tick has increased and with that comes new responsibilities.

New cognitive customer experiences require marketing departments to be more interested in the capabilities of technology and how to augment it. In the old days, CIO’s made the decisions on technology investments. Now, the responsibility has to be shared. To be able to drive a better and more engaging customer experience, the marketing professional must be more aware of the possibilities that cognitive computing and AI offer. It is also crucial to make sure that data and insights are democratically available to all users in the organization or the eco system.

Retail is the second biggest industry within IBM. The end-to-end open policy solutions IBM offers are constantly tested in the toughest business battles all over the world. In addition, what used to be accessible only to big companies is now easily accessible for retail companies of all sizes. The cloud based, easy-to-use 360° information applications and analytic solutions deliver data from both inside and outside the company firewall. Your next competitive advantage might be currently hidden in dark corners of your company, waiting to be found.

IBM helps retailers of all types to explore, analyze and interpret data to drive customer loyalty and revenue, improve productivity, understand risk, deliver better customer experiences, and much more. We believe in data that makes sense. For example, customer service agents can now view information from multiple sources in a single view to assist their customers in making better choices, and researchers can quickly understand what’s being worked on elsewhere in the organization and leverage past projects. Cognitive marketing and AI are able to automatize self service and “short tail” questions with a high level of personification realizing more time for “long tail” questions. The cognitive possibilities in marketing empower the employee and enrich the consumer.

What was impossible five years ago can be more easily realized today. What is impossible to do today will be possible to realize in five years from now. Five years is a short time in brand building and in creating customer loyalty. To help our Nordic clients imagine and prototype future retail possibilities, we have launched the IBM Bluemix Garage in the region. The consultancy empowers companies, large and small, to quickly drive innovation into the marketplace and transform business at scale by leveraging Cloud advantages. IBM Bluemix Garage is able to rapidly identify, design, prove, and build the right innovative, scalable applications for the client’s target market on IBM Bluemix.

Without any doubt the influx of cognitive computing has and will change the retail sector, and what this change requires is a new way of thinking and working. There is no one universal recipe for success.

The future has never been so exciting for retailers. The time to act is now. Welcome to the new era of retail.

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If you have any questions do not hesitate to get in contact with me at bengt.eliasson@se.ibm.com or click here for my presentation – “New Era of Retail”