Tag: Artificial Intelligence

Singapore – Sitecore has announced the launch of ‘Sitecore Stream’, which leverages secure, brand-aware AI, enabling enterprise marketing teams to boost productivity and growth.

For the company, ‘ Sitecore Stream’ represents market-leading innovation and fulfillment of its vision for an Intelligent DXP (digital experience platform) that addresses the challenges and opportunities faced by enterprise marketing teams today.

‘Sitecore Stream’ leverages generative AI to simplify marketing workflows and enhance productivity through orchestration, content intelligence, and automated assistance. Sitecore Stream leverages Sitecore’s composable product architecture, enabling full interoperability across a brand’s existing martech stack, with built-in AI guardrails to help preserve brand compliance and data privacy. 

Moreover, it also includes brand-aware AI which helps align marketers’ actions, recommendations, and experiences with the organisation’s brand identity, values, and guidelines.

The platform also has AI-enhanced workflows that automates repetitive tasks to accelerate execution and boost collaboration. These workflows may be creating content, building a website page, or A/B testing a call to action to help marketers stay in a productive flow.

Lastly, it also has generative copilots dedicated for brand, brief, content, and experience creation and optimisation, which will help marketers stay true to their brand and brief as they complete their work.

Dave O’Flanagan, CEO of Sitecore, said, “Together with leading brands, we reimagined the content lifecycle from the perspective of what the customer wants and the marketer needs. Our work with brands such as Nestlé and Microsoft, in combination with Sitecore’s deep understanding of marketing workflows and digital experience best practices, has enabled the development of Sitecore Stream. With it, we’re delivering on our vision of the Intelligent DXP.”

Roger Connolly, chief product officer at Sitecore, stated, “With Sitecore Stream, we’re delivering a smarter, more strategic, and more secure way for marketers to create and manage content and deliver seamless customer experiences. Sitecore Stream leverages customers’ brand architecture to provide brand-aware AI but, critically, does not use your content to train the underlying AI models. With Sitecore Stream and our vision for an Intelligent DXP, we are addressing marketers’ pain points head-on, combining the power of AI with our deep experience helping customers with their digital transformations.”

Meanwhile, Shelley Bransten, corporate vice president of global industry solutions at Microsoft, commented, “As part of our long-standing, strategic relationship with Sitecore, we’ve collaborated closely with Nestlé and other enterprise customers to deliver entirely new AI capabilities to marketers. Leveraging the power of Microsoft Azure AI enables Sitecore Stream to understand an organisation’s brand, campaigns, content, and data – empowering marketers to do their best work.”

Lastly, Aude Gandon, global CMO at Nestlé, shared, “We have partnered with Sitecore and Microsoft innovation teams over the last year to pilot and leverage the power of generative AI with Nestlé brand guidelines and toolkits. Together, we’ve created an innovative new offering: the Sitecore Brand Assistant as part of Sitecore Content Hub with Sitecore Stream. This solution is specifically designed to facilitate brand and category knowledge within our organisation and supercharge our creative partners.”

Singapore – OpenAI, the company behind the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT, has revealed plans to open an office in Singapore later this year. This will be the company’s fourth international office and its second in Asia, following Japan. 

The Singapore office will act as a regional hub aimed at fostering collaboration and strengthening ties with local and regional governments, businesses, and institutions. OpenAI will also collaborate with AI Singapore, the city-state’s national AI initiative, on generative AI models tailored to the cultures and languages of Southeast Asia. 

During Singapore Tech Week, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman highlighted the country’s strong history in technology leadership and its role in advancing AI to address societal challenges and boost economic growth. 

He expressed enthusiasm about partnering with the government and the country’s growing AI community as the company expands in the Asia-Pacific region.

According to OpenAI’s careers page, they are opening jobs for its sales, customer success, technical success, and security teams for the Singapore team.

It’s worth noting that this follows a slew of publisher partnerships OpenAI has, including the Associated Press, Axel Springer, The Atlantic, Dotdash Meredith, Financial Times, LeMonde, NewsCorp, Prisa Media, TIME, Vox Media, Conde Nast, and most recently HEARST.

Earlier this year, Grab and OpenAI has announced a partnership, as both companies will design and deliver enhanced experiences for Grab users, partners and employees using state-of-the-art AI capabilities.

Chicago, USA – Mondelēz International has announced that it has teamed up with Publicis Groupe and Accenture to launch of a new platform designed to improve its global marketing capabilities while optimizing consumer experiences through expanded use of artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (GenAI).

The company’s new platform will enable faster, more efficient creation of personalised text, images and videos – helping the company’s brands stay a step ahead of rapidly changing consumer tastes and interests.

Building on its long partnership with Mondelēz, Accenture established a strong digital core enabling the company to collect and process real-time data — using GenAI to create new, contextualised insights — that can be easily accessed, shared and used by decision makers across the company. Going forward, Accenture will help scale and activate this platform through employee training and adoption strategies.

Meanwhile, Publicis Groupe will be responsible for leading execution and building the GenAI foundation that will power creative assets. Both organisations will work closely with Mondelēz marketing teams to realise the vision of redefining consumer goods marketing.

Jon Halvorson, senior vice president of global consumer experiences and digital commerce at Mondelēz, said, “Harnessing the power of gen AI will empower our people to play a proactive role in how our brands show up in the market. This drives real value for the business through creating, personalizing and distributing on-trend creative not only at pace, but also safely, securely and with brand integrity.”

Meanwhile, Venky Rao, Americas & AI lead and global client account lead for Mondelēz at Accenture, stated, “As curators of some of the world’s most iconic brands, Mondelēz marketers will be able to tap into the power of data, AI and gen AI to drive innovation, gather audience and market insights, improve behind-the-scenes processes, turbocharge measurement, conduct near-real-time testing and facilitate higher degrees of personalization at every consumer touchpoint.”

Lastly, Scott Hagedorn, global chief solutions architect at Publicis Groupe, commented, “Publicis is proud to be a transformation partner in this journey, as part of our broader Power of One solution for Mondelēz, and shares this same holistic approach – bringing the best capabilities together to deliver a truly game-changing solution, underpinned by best-in-class data and technology.”

Singapore – Lack of quality data hinders 76% of Singapore businesses from using artificial intelligence (AI) effectively, according to a report from customer platform HubSpot. The report unveiled various challenges being faced by businesses in elevating customer satisfaction and generating revenues.

While technology solves most problems faced by businesses, the lack of data has influenced AI use. According to the report, this may be behind 34% of Singapore businesses’ resistance to talk about the integration of generative AI in their operations.

Less than half (43%) of Singapore businesses who participated in the survey reported having data and systems that effectively provides extensive customer information. While the insufficiency delays customer interaction management, it also impacts customer experience. 

Businesses are also facing high costs, as cited by 44% of survey participants. Some raised the burden of intense competition (39%), rising costs of reaching prospects and customers (35%), and channel saturation (34%).

“Needing to switch between more than 50 applications to manage customer interactions is not only detrimental to efficiency, but could also lead to inaccuracies as businesses try to align insights across disparate data sources. Having a single source of truth for customer data is essential to build and maintain meaningful customer relationships. Technology can give businesses a helping hand, however our findings show that data connectedness and a unified tech stack are presenting significant opportunities for local businesses looking to improve prospecting and customer retention,” Dan Bognar, vice president and managing director of JAPAC at HubSpot, said.

“Operating in the world’s most competitive economy is no easy feat, requiring a delicate balance between manginging increasing costs, while delivering an impactful customer experience. At HubSpot, we are committed towards equipping businesses with applications that are easy to use, fast to implement, and delivered on a unified platform. This helps to align marketing, sales, and service teams with a unified view of their customer,” Bognar added.

Jakarta, Indonesia – GoTo Group has taken a significant step forward in enhancing productivity across its engineering teams by collaborating with Microsoft Indonesia to adopt GitHub Copilot, an AI developer tool.

GoTo’s move in integrating AI into the company’s workflow underscores its commitment to driving innovation while empowering its workforce to deliver impactful technology at scale. 

Hans Patuwo, chief operating officer at GoTo said, “Since June 2024, almost a thousand GoTo’s engineers have adopted GitHub Copilot, with full rollout expected by mid-October 2024. The adoption of this AI-powered coding assistant has enabled our engineers to enhance code quality and to accomplish more in less time.”

He added, “GoTo engineers have reported significant time savings averaging over seven hours per week, allowing them to innovate with greater speed and to bring more value to our users.”

GitHub Copilot aims to boost engineers’ productivity and happiness in daily coding tasks with its AI capabilities, from real-time code suggestions, chat assistance in the integrated development environment, to breaking down complex coding concepts using daily conversational language.

Andrew Boyd, general manager of digital natives and startups at Microsoft Asia, said, “We are proud to support GoTo in their mission to empower progress by offering technology infrastructure and solutions that enable everyone to thrive in the digital economy. By integrating GitHub Copilot into their engineering processes, GoTo equips their teams with the tools to innovate faster, enhance productivity, and ultimately deliver greater user value.”

He added, “Trust and technology go hand-in-hand, and this collaboration underscores our shared commitment to harnessing AI technology, creating meaningful opportunities for all Indonesians, and accelerating an inclusive digital transformation agenda as part of Microsoft’s Empowering Indonesia initiative.”

Meanwhile, Nayana Hodi, engineering manager at GoTo shared, “GitHub Copilot has significantly reduced syntax errors and provided helpful autocomplete features, eliminating repetitive tasks and making coding more efficient. This has allowed me to focus on the more complex elements in building great software.”

Lastly, Sharryn Napier, vice president for APAC at GitHub, stated, “We are thrilled to empower GoTo with GitHub Copilot, equipping their engineers with AI across the software development lifecycle. GoTo has implemented an impressive evaluation strategy, collaborating directly with engineers to collect first-hand measurements that showcase real impact. By quantifying the value of Copilot from the start, GoTo is building strong momentum for widespread adoption and accelerated learning across their engineering team. We’re excited to continue this journey, helping GoTo ship software ahead of the curve and accelerate the pace of innovation.”

Doha, Qatar – Qatar Airways has unveiled a new global ‘AI Adventure’ film which utilises state-of-the-art technology to reinforce its commitment to developing incomparable, immersive experiences for everyone.

In an industry-first, the campaign offers the opportunity to be part of its emotive story, by utilising advanced AI capabilities so you can place yourself within the film and become the star. This reaffirms the airline’s dedication to placing customers at its very heart.

As part of the campaign, viewers can select from multiple scenes within the film to star as the leading roles. Thanks to cutting-edge AI technology, the characters will be an accurate reflection of the viewer’s appearance, adapting to their facial features and skin tone. 

To be a part of the emotive AI adventure, users must visit: flyqatar.com and watch the film on the Qatar Airways YouTube channel.

Engr. Badr Mohammed Al-Meer, chief executive officer at Qatar Airways Group, said, “At Qatar Airways, we go beyond simply meeting customer expectations – it’s about anticipating their needs and crafting experiences that resonate on a personal level. The launch of this new brand campaign is a true testament to this and our ethos of providing incomparable superior customer experiences.”

Meanwhile, Thierry Antinori, chief commercial officer at Qatar Airways, commented, “Featuring pioneering AI capabilities unseen elsewhere in the airline industry, our latest campaign not only showcases the innovative spirit driving our brand, but also encapsulates our customer-centric approach, helping to turn every journey into an adventure. After all, there’s no limit to how far a dream can take you.”

Lastly, Babar Rahman, senior vice president of global marketing and corporate communications at Qatar Airways, stated, “With this latest campaign, we have been able to encapsulate our vision as an industry leader in innovation. Crafting an immersive brand experience where everyone can be the stars, has allowed us to create uniquely personalised connections with our audiences, ensuring every moment is truly unforgettable.”

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Local telco TM and Grey Malaysia have collaborated to bring the nation together via technology to celebrate Malaysia’s diversity by allowing Malaysians to now see and share themselves singing an iconic Malaysian song of unity in any of 17 different languages and dialects.

The AI platform, done by Grey Malaysia, utilises the tradition of celebratory song to create a universal invitation to engage with the potential of AI, furthering TM’s commitment to making technology accessible to all Malaysians. 

The campaign uses a combination of seven AI technologies to bridge language barriers and connect diverse voices, uniting the country and bringing everyone closer to a truly inclusive Digital Malaysia.

Housed on a microsite at https://sejutasuara.tm.com.my/, Malaysians now have the opportunity to sing their rendition of Gemuruh, a well-known Malaysian song, in various local languages and dialects effortlessly. This is made possible with the assistance of integrating seven cutting-edge AI and API platforms that specialise in lip sync and voice cloning. 

With the help of Kits.ai, HeyGen and SyncLabs, the microsite can trace and clone the voices of Malaysians to sing with pride, in their choice of language or dialect. 

The campaign was created alongside Directors Think Tank and Nacho Usual Collective to produce the first Malaysian music video that consists of AI-generated vocals in multiple languages and dialects.  Bringing to life the richness of our languages through the diverse expressions of Malaysians delivering their own versions of Gemuruh, making this the ultimate music video for Malaysian by Malaysians.

Lysha Zulkifly, senior copywriter of Grey Malaysia, said, “By exploring the complexity of AI voice mapping, we wanted to use the tech to our advantage by celebrating the diversity of our languages and dialects. It’s beautiful to hear how rich our country is in culture, through this platform. I believe this is just the beginning for us to make AI our ally.”

The outlook for e-commerce marketing strategies is more dynamic and complex than ever, as digital transformation accelerates and consumer behaviours continue to evolve. As marketing leaders, it’s crucial to recognise the shift from traditional, one-size-fits-all approaches to more personalised, data-driven strategies. 

The rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning enables businesses to analyse consumer data at unprecedented depths, offering insights that drive more targeted marketing efforts. Moreover, the increasing importance of mobile shopping and social media integration requires marketers to adopt a multi-channel approach, ensuring a seamless and engaging customer experience across all touchpoints.

Looking ahead, marketing leaders must prepare for a landscape where agility and adaptability are key. The growing demand for sustainable and socially responsible business practices also impacts e-commerce strategies, pushing brands to align their marketing messages with these values. 

As part of our E-Commerce Marketing 2024 series, we invited industry leaders to share their insights and advice on how to traverse the ever-evolving landscape of e-commerce marketing. From improving customer experience, hyper-personalisation, social commerce to influencer marketing, these are the insights various industry marketing leaders have shared to push forward the e-commerce marketing scene further into 2024 and beyond.

Check out the line-up of published insights by marketing leaders under the series:

For our first byline under this series, Eleanor O’Dwyer-Duggan, CX solution strategist for Southeast Asia at Qualtrics shares her insights on why delivering a superior CX is one of the most impactful, sustainable, and efficient ways to achieve greater business impact in challenging market environments. Learn more about her insights here.

To succeed in the world of digital commerce, Annie Yao, head of growth and market intelligence at Flywheel offers up advice of having a winning recipe that requires a data-driven approach, operational efficiency and the seamless integration of omni-channel strategies. Check out her piece here.

Brick-and-mortar stores and online versions are continuously growing in APAC–but how can brands create a seamless integration between the two? For Keith Ho, strategy lead at NP Digital Malaysia, the answer lies on finding the right model that fits both the needs and interests of a brand’s target demographic and meets them at their convenience. Check out his byline here.

Speaking of seamless commerce, Anson Bailey, head of consumer & retail at KPMG APAC notes in his piece that a seamless online-offline customer experience has now become a baseline expectation. Only by excelling in this domain can retailers expect to lead the market.

When it comes to retail media spend for brands, Sebastian Diaz, head of media innovation at Bench Media explains that marketers recognise the need to provide a personalised shopping experience and retailers are increasingly monetising access to ad spending across their websites and in-store activity. Check out his piece here.

In this piece by Vikram Kharvi, CEO at Bloomingdale Public Relations, he explains that AI-driven hyper-personalisation in e-commerce marketing offers numerous benefits, but it’s essential to address the concerns it raises and find a middle ground that satisfies both the business and its customers. Learn more about it here.

Speaking of AI-driven solutions, David Ko, managing director at Ruder Finn Interactive Asia (Ruder Finn Asia) notes that by embracing transparent and responsible AI practices, companies can unlock the full potential of personalised marketing while building and maintaining the trust of their customers. More of this here.

Ynes Nar, head of account, marketing strategy & client servicing at Tomato Interactive Singapore (BlueFocus company) focuses her piece on the fact that as this new era of social commerce unfolds, those who understand and harness its potential will not just survive but also lead the way in this new era of social commerce–thanks to KOLs who support their campaigns.

The future of e-commerce marketing–according to Francis Dy, head of innovation at Wavemaker Philippines–is set to be defined by an intricate blend of advanced technology, personalisation, and a commitment to sustainability, all while maintaining a human-centric approach. Learn more about this outlook here.

For Glenn Gore, chief executive officer at Affinidi, as the latest technology trends diving into how consumers’ lives continue to merge with the digital realm, personalised experiences are beginning to see even stronger demand. Check out his piece here.

Should marketers channel more resources into attracting the right audience, or should they optimise their websites to convert visitors into customers? In this piece by Sebastian Klett, general manager at Balance, he explains that brands must evaluate current strategies, make the necessary adjustments, and ensure that every step of the digital experience guides their audience toward becoming loyal customers.

APAC is witnessing a significant shift in consumer behaviour, with the rise of direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands becoming a major disruptor in the retail landscape. To ride this growing trend, Kevin Daniel Kuntoro, regional commerce head at Summer International explains that to ride this success, this depends on their ability to adapt to changing consumer behaviours; prioritise key trends and insights; utilise social media and influencer marketing to build trust. Check out his piece here.

In this last–but not least–piece of this series, Sorrel Kesby, head of global commercial operations at GumGum explains that capitalising on the e-commerce boom of recent years calls for a strategy that meets customers in the right place and in the right mindset.

As we move into 2024 and beyond, the outlook for e-commerce marketing strategies is both exciting and dynamic. Businesses will need to adapt to rapid technological advancements, such as AI-driven personalisation, voice search optimisation, and augmented reality, to create more immersive and tailored shopping experiences. The emphasis on data privacy and ethical marketing practices will also grow, as consumers demand greater brand transparency and trust.

Additionally, leveraging social commerce and influencer partnerships will continue to play a crucial role in driving engagement and sales. Overall, successful e-commerce strategies will be those that blend innovation with a deep understanding of consumer behaviour, ensuring brands remain agile and relevant in a constantly evolving digital landscape.

Advertising company Taboola has announced that Maximize Conversions, an AI-powered bidding technology, is now open to all advertisers.

Previously accessible to Taboola advertisers, Maximize Conversions has been leveraging Taboola’s conversion tracking methods and tools to enable efficient AI-driven campaign management while eliminating complexities such as manual optimisation. With Maximize Conversions now being accessible to all, the bidding process of any advertiser’s campaign can be automated. 

“We’re continuing to make it easier for advertisers to succeed on Taboola. The massive adoption we’re seeing from Max Conversions makes it clear that advertisers like the tech, and most importantly it works for driving results for performance campaigns,” Adam Singolda, chief executive officer and founder of Taboola, said. 

“We’re seeing 70% of advertisers use it, and keep using it. Today, we’re giving thousands more advertisers the ability to tap into this AI-powered technology,” Singolda added.

‘Maximize Conversions’ is increasingly being adopted by various brands, including Hyundai, ERGO, Leica Camera, Sonova, Peugeot Turkey, and Opel Turkey.

Hong Kong – SAP has officially launched its ‘Business AI Experience Center’ at its Hong Kong office, aimed at empowering enterprises to capitalise on AI opportunities and drive innovation.

The centre is designed to highlight the advanced capabilities of integrated Business AI, demonstrating its role in driving innovation, improving efficiency, and accelerating business growth through live use cases and success stories. It aims to guide enterprises from initial AI understanding to practical implementation, facilitating their digital transformation and helping them unlock the full potential of Business AI.

The Business AI Experience Center features four live demonstrations showcasing SAP Business AI technology across key functions. These include: Joule in ERP, which automates sales orders to boost performance; Just Ask, a conversational AI for deep sales insights; Talent Writing Assistant, which streamlines HR tasks like performance reviews; and Joule in Customer Experience, enhancing engagement and brand visibility through social media and interactive queries.

Esmond Tong, managing director of SAP Hong Kong and Macau, said, ” With the Business AI Experience Center, SAP aims to create a platform for enterprises and partners to exchange ideas and gain valuable insights that will enhance their agility and creativity. Enterprises can harness SAP’s cloud platform to unlock AI’s potential and achieve business benefits. With over 50 years of extensive expertise, SAP offers cloud solutions tailored to meet the diverse needs of businesses across industries, regardless of size or development stage, helping them accelerate business growth and development.”

Earlier this year, SAP fully integrated business AI into its cloud portfolios and began rolling out the generative AI copilot, Joule, which will handle 80% of common tasks. SAP is also strengthening partnerships with Microsoft, AWS, Google Cloud, and NVIDIA to advance generative AI in enterprises.