As economic concerns increase, many companies begin to reduce their staff to control costs; 88 percent of job loss in routine occupations occurs within 12 months of a recession. While economicda uncertainty continues, Veryfi has emerged as a trusted, reliable partner for companies seeking greater efficiency and stronger customer relationships, continuing its strong annual recurring revenue (ARR) growth. In the second quarter, Veryfi added over a dozen new logos and major accounts including a top supplier of enterprise resource planning software and one of the world's largest CRM/Direct Marketing Network companies. "As companies seek new ways to increase efficiency and manage costs to position themselves for a challenging economy, Veryfi is leading the way, applying AI to automate routine data entry and streamline business processes," said Ernest Semerda, co-founder and CEO of Veryfi. "In Q2, we welcomed over a dozen new customers and multiple strategic accounts spanning key use cases from loyalty marketing to intelligent automation for accounts payable. We are seeing cross-market demand for our Veryfi technology."

Most brands and retailers haven't even approached 1 percent of AI's potential. I agree with Bill's statement "Enhancing your analytics engine with AI can make it possible to optimize individual experiences at scale" but… that is only a first step and will fall short of meaningful personalization in the long run. The biggest blunder I see everywhere AI is employed in a consumer/user-facing scenario is keeping it under the covers away from users. AI is most often employed as a secret analysis mechanism which limits it to being only as good as underlying algorithms and the assumptions driving them. There is a complete fear of using those assumptions as a basis of asking consumers/users if the AI-generated conclusions are correct or if not, where they are wrong or what their preferences are.

Customer experience is at an inflection point. We are in a transformational moment where significant demographic and technological shifts have changed our expectations of brand interactions. Companies like Uber have reduced consumer patience with friction in the brand experience. Companies like Amazon and Warby Parker are scrambling our notions of online versus brick-and-mortar. Trends like big data and conversational commerce are disrupting our notions of the predictability of customer behavior, and the rise of Gen Z is causing everyone to question who owns the medium and who truly generates the most impactful brand messages.