How can companies take better care of their customers during an economic downturn? Salesforce President and Chief Marketing Officer Sarah Franklin shares what C-level execs are prioritizing with tighter budgets, what it takes to be a customer company today, and the game-changing possibilities of generative AI at Salesforce. No matter the economic situation, customers have to be at the heart of everything you do. It was easy to become disconnected during the pandemic, but you really need to be a customer company and focus all your decisions around your customer, surround them with the latest technology, and stay true to your values so they trust you. Of course in this economic environment, everybody's looking to do more with less.

Though it's rarely discussed, its proper integration determines whether it will make customers' lives better than ever before OR become deadly dangerous if applied without human centricity. A radical paradigm shift is required to ensure that the hyper-personalization of AI banking is not compromised by a lack of expertise in AI, technology or customer banking experience. According to Temenos, 77% of banking leaders strongly believe that AI will be the biggest game changer of all advanced technologies. Amid the pandemic, 88% of customers expect companies to accelerate their digital initiatives, while 68% state that COVID-19 has elevated their expectations of brands' digital capabilities, according to Salesforce. We can see that, prior to COVID-19, experimenting with AI possibilities was more like a tick-box exercise to keep up with the slogan of innovation.

Customers love voice and chat assistants, the conversational interfaces that turn on the lights, help home chefs cook an egg to perfection, and make it easy for consumers to research and buy goods online. However, while customers are already building strong relationships with these conversational assistants, retailers are still learning how to best use conversational bots to drive engagement and strengthen their customer relationships. Nonetheless, these conversational assistants represent a fantastic opportunity for retailers to humanize their interactions with customers at scale, as long as it's done with proper understanding of what it takes to engage with customers and how to deploy voice and chat to drive growth and return in 2020. Conversational interfaces fall into two categories: voice and chat. Voice assistants are mediums that can be accessed through voice commands on a smart speaker or smartphone application. Examples include Google Home and Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, and Microsoft Cortana.

In the age of digital transformation, global insurance provider AXA has adopted a decentralised approach to innovation. AXA International and New Markets (AXA INM) takes charge of AXA's operations in emerging and developing markets, covering Eastern European territories, Latin America, the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), Africa, India, Singapore, Malaysia and more. "There's a significant amount of Transformation to deliver across the 20-25 entities," says Kuldeep Kaushik, Chief Operating and Transformation Officer at AXA INM. "We have very different maturity levels across the businesses and very different technology landscapes as well. Part of my role is evaluating each of those entities and defining programmes which are specific to their maturity, business strategy, and needs and capabilities."

Just like the air people breathe, some of the most important things in life are invisible. Now, can you imagine your company's supply chain becoming just as invisible as the air around us? We envision the supply chain of the future in the chemical industry will be self-driving, self-maneuvering and self-correcting, resulting in a seamless fulfillment capability that delivers chemicals at the right time, to the right place and with right quality--without manual human interaction. While leading retail giants invest in emerging technologies as a matter of course, historically this has not been the case for most chemical companies. However, the benefits of doing so are tremendous.

AI is helping retailers customize their offerings, create personalized experiences, and make shopping more convenient. Customer centricity -- putting your customer at the center of your strategy -- has long been considered the holy grail of retail marketing. In the digital age, customer-centricity revolves around data and smart technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). With the help of AI, companies collect as much data as they can about their customers' wants, needs, and preferences, and then apply it to customize their offerings, create personalized shopping experiences, and make the purchase process simpler and more convenient. An example of new tools available for understanding customer habits is the Personality Insights service made possible by IBM's AI platform, Watson.

Picture this: US-based banking and financial services major Wells Fargo started piloting an AI-driven Facebook chatbot early last year. It responds to queries from customers, like the current balance in their accounts, and even helps them locate the nearest bank ATM – all through Facebook Messenger. AI has emerged as a powerful disruptor in the Financial Services industry. And most players have already hopped on to the AI bandwagon. In another couple of years, widespread adoption of cognitive systems and AI is expected to boost worldwide revenues.

Users of Netflix, Spotify, or social media companies like FB and LinkedIn are already a customer of Hyper Personalization, where these companies are algorithmically providing extreme personalization to the users. Technology like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning is employed by these sites to cypher through consumers' likes, dislikes, interactions, and other related items to provide an experience which is unique to an individual. Idea behind Hyper Personalization is very simple... no two persons are alike, and providing them experience based on their unique behavioral persona would make them more satisfied and loyal. We as consumer must understand that we are being observed and analyzed (digitally in this case), for the system to provide this individualized experience. In other words, we are trading privacy for Hyper Personalization.

While it may seem like Amazon and commercial banks are worlds apart, Amazon's "Day 1" business model offers key success drivers for banks to consider. The Day 1 model, spelled out in CEO Jeff Bezos' 2016 shareholder letter, in essence means the company continually operates as a start-up. Also, Amazon--like other digital giants and fintechs--is raising customer expectations. And in small business credit, Amazon is competing directly with banks. Banks, instead, often operate like Day 2 companies and make good decisions slowly based on a maximum amount of data. While banks cannot completely emulate the Day 1 model due to their critical role in maintaining financial stability and security, and meeting attendant compliance constraints, they can adapt and adopt certain aspects of it.

Mobile World Congress turned 30 in February 2017 and heralded the elemental role of mobile as the primary force behind every emerging innovation. Though the role mobility has played in people's daily lives cannot be understated, the next iteration of technology's impact will be far more transformational. Society is at the precipice of the fourth Industrial Age and the rise of the era augmented intelligence and cognitive computing. What does this mean for the financial services industry? Financial institutions are challenged with innovating a century-old service model.