With Microsoft Bing amped up with its own generative artificial intelligence (AI) chat programming, there is little doubt that we are now in the era of AI being publicly part of our world. All the hype aside, will AI-type chat become as pervasive as we are hearing? I believe we will certainly get there, but there is still a long road ahead before it can be done successfully. Digital transformation is the process of using digital technologies to fundamentally change the way a business operates, delivers value to customers, and achieves its objectives. With, at best, only 26% of digital transformation being successful, what can leaders do to make sure they succeed when incorporating new digital tools?

When digital transformation is discussed, technology is usually not far behind. Whether it's Internet of Things (IoT), cloud, or artificial intelligence (just to name a few), tech is changing how organizations around the world are doing business. While there's no question that technology goes hand-in-hand with digital transformation, there are other essential considerations that must come first in a digital transformation strategy. These include identifying value-driven business outcomes and developing a culture of change and collaboration. In our State of Industrial Digital Transformation report, our research analysts describe DX technologies as "levers or tools to support business value-oriented initiatives."

Digital banking transformation has enabled many financial institutions to become more prepared for the future as the world was disrupted by the pandemic. For those banks and credit unions that have become the most digitally mature, the focus on improving the customer experience, increasing the use of data and advanced analytics, and deploying new technologies has positioned them at a competitive advantage. Despite the progress made, all financial institutions will need to increase investment in digital banking transformation initiatives, responding to marketplace expectations and adjusting business models to reflect a highly altered banking ecosystem. A great deal of the focus in 2022 will need to be on back-office processes that are highly outdated and have slowed the progression of all digital banking transformation efforts. The future will also see a greater involvement of banking staff in building humanized experiences for transactions that were initiated digitally.

There has been more than a modicum of buzz around what IDC calls intelligent process automation and what Gartner calls hyperautomation. In both cases, these terms refer to the integrated deployment of digital technologies such as robotic process automation (RPA), intelligent business process management suites (iBPMS), artificial intelligence, process mining, etc. Integrating digital technologies is far from a new concept. MIT and Deloitte advocated this approach back in the day when everyone was focused on social, mobile, analytics, and cloud (SMAC). Digital transformation is a complex undertaking. Frankly, the track record on digital transformation success is dismal, with as few as 30% of such initiatives succeeding. The integration of digital technologies may just be the lever that leads to more success.

Forrester Vice President and Principal Analyst Kate Leggett blogged the emergence of what she calls "digital-first customer service solutions." These types of solutions are characterized as delivering automated interactions over digital channels. She contrasts these with what she calls traditional customer service solutions that offer workflow-based inquiries, case management, and guidance for customer service agents. Diverse sales models and the changing needs of both customers and the business means most companies will find themselves adopting a mix of both. And while these solutions might seem different, they share a key similarity: a dependence on workflow and automation, some of the fundamental building blocks in digital transformation.

While the potential benefits of digital technologies are well documented and accepted by a majority of bank and credit union leaders, the deployment of digital banking transformation does not appear to be keeping pace, according to the Innovation in Retail Banking 2019 report, published by the Digital Banking Report, and sponsored by Infosys Finacle in cooperation with Efma,. This is concerning given that the pervasiveness of required digital transformation is moving beyond the IT area of banking to include virtually all areas of the organization. Financial institution executives surveyed indicate that budgets are increasing for almost all digital technologies and that the technologies being impacted are expanding. At the same time, the ownership of both digital transformation and innovation are moving up the organizational hierarchy, with cross-functional teams being leveraged to break down legacy silo perspectives. When asked about the progress of digital transformation efforts, only 17% of organizations surveyed indicated that the transformation was'deployed at scale', with 41% stating that digital transformation was'partially deployed'.

Constant pressure on businesses to innovate and grow in a dynamic competitive environment has made digital transformation a top priority for businesses across industries. Organizations are devoting significant time, effort, and capital to digitally transform. Some achieve significant tangible results from these efforts. In search of the factors that lead to digital transformation success, we surveyed 1,200 senior executives knowledgeable about their organizations' digital transformation efforts. The findings from the survey, coupled with our own experience, show how organizations can structure their digital transformation initiatives to help ensure that they have a positive impact--in other words, that they're doing what it takes to become more digitally mature. In the pages of this report, we discuss in detail our findings on what tends to drive successful digital transformation. Digital transformation has risen to the top of organizational agendas. In a recent survey of US and European business and technology decision-makers, some three-quarters said their company had undertaken a digital initiative.2 But effort does not necessarily translate into benefit, and many organizations continue to struggle to translate the execution of digital transformation programs into tangible impact.

While the potential benefits of digital technologies are well documented and accepted by a majority of bank and credit union leaders, the deployment of digital banking transformation does not appear to be keeping pace, according to new research conducted by the Digital Banking Report. This is concerning given that the pervasiveness of required digital transformation is moving beyond the IT area of banking to include virtually all areas of the organization. Financial institution executives surveyed indicate that budgets are increasing for almost all digital technologies and that the technologies being impacted are expanding. At the same time, the ownership of both digital transformation and innovation are moving up the organizational hierarchy, with cross-functional teams being leveraged to break down legacy silo perspectives. When asked about the progress of digital transformation efforts, only 17% of organizations surveyed indicated that the transformation was'deployed at scale', with 41% stating that digital transformation was'partially deployed'.

As enterprises continue their rush to digitally transform their organizations, they're investing big in retooling their software development pipelines, new artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic process automation (RPA) technologies and low-code development platforms, as well as putting considerable money into customer engagement software. Yet, the extent of success following these investments remains unclear and varies significantly from industry to industry. To shine a light on the digital transformation efforts currently underway, as well as the degree of their success, we've collected a number of fascinating trends in the most essential areas of digital transformation. According to the consultancy KMPG, enterprise investments in AI, machine learning, and RPA will rise to $232 billion by 2025 from $12.4 billion in 2018. "Nearly two-thirds of respondents indicate plans to fully implement RPA within three years. As for cognitive automation, nearly half noted intentions to use these approaches at scale within 3 years, while 29% indicated selective reliance on cognitive automation capabilities. Some 10% said they would launch pilots and proof of concept projects," according to the report.

The report, in its second year having been piloted in 2017, identified artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) as technologies under the umbrella of digital transformation. The six factors for digital transformation success were determined following participation in an online survey by 1,535 c-suite executives at medium to large-sized companies based across Australia, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, the UK and the US. The six factors identified by Fujitsu were: Leadership, People, Agility, Business Integration, Ecosystem and Value from Data. The companies declaring positive outcomes from digital transformation showed showing strong capabilities in these areas. See also: Looking for leadership?