Tag: IDC

Singapore – A new report from IDC has predicted that by 2028, consumers will spend $32b via AI agents that run independently on their smartphones to programmatically shop for goods, services, and considered purchases. It also highlighted that CX executives will adjust their business strategies based on such initiatives and seek to incorporate a more AI-infused approach in their campaigns.

It also highlighted that around 40% of CX vendors will shift to new, outcome-based, pricing models making the value exchange for their clients more transparent and improving the monetisation of their AI investment.

Moreover, as AI implementations scale, human-in-the-loop approaches will be eliminated, resulting in 25% of CX teams creating new, dedicated roles for the systemic governance of AI by 2028.

The report also predicts that seeing value in referral growth and in controlling costs, by 2028, 30% of A2000 companies will have restructured and aligned their customer-facing teams under a CRO to optimise CX outcomes.

Lastly, around 20% of B2C A2000 companies by 2028 will enable real-time IoT-product data to notify customers of future failures, issue resolution recommendations, and help customers self-solve proactively.

Abhishek Kumar, associate research director and head of AP Enterprise Applications & CX at IDC Asia-Pacific, said, “Tech-driven CX enhancements have always been AP retailers’ top go-to differentiator in a highly commoditised market with indistinguishable products and services. A key challenge for them is to refocus IT and digital initiatives to improve operational efficiencies. Many look to AI to modernise and unify their underlying data infrastructure, breaking down existing organisational silos, moving towards a holistic experience-orchestrated (X-O) approach that creates meaningful value for all key stakeholders and not just customers.”

Singapore –  Only 10% of businesses in India, Singapore, ANZ, and North America have achieved the most advanced stage of becoming experience-orchestrated (X-O) enterprises, according to an IDC InfoBrief commissioned by Affinidi.

The report reveals that 58% of surveyed businesses aim to stand out by prioritising hyper-personalised products and services, surpassing traditional personalisation to meet real-time customer needs and enhance proactive experiences.

IDC predicts that Asian companies will prioritise personalisation to address rising competition, with 30% undergoing structural and technological changes by 2027 to focus on value outcomes and drive loyalty.

However, despite growing emphasis on leveraging customer data to enhance experiences, the report showed that only 33% of businesses can anticipate customer needs and deliver value-driven personalisation.

The gap stems largely from data collection challenges, cited by 56% of businesses amid rising cyberattacks and breaches. Customers, increasingly cautious, share data only with companies that have earned their trust.

Despite data protection regulations like GDPR in Europe, India’s DPDP Bill, and Singapore’s PDPA, 59% of businesses report ongoing customer security concerns during registration.

The report highlights that to stay competitive, businesses must become experience-orchestrated (X-O), leveraging data to integrate processes, applications, and channels for meaningful value exchange.

To become an X-O business, the report noted that companies must be transparent in data collection to build trust and ensure seamless data sharing through integrated systems. This transformation relies on key pillars: creating connections across systems and processes with a unified customer view; fostering an AI-driven culture focused on outcomes; interpreting data in context while maintaining trust; and actively engaging stakeholders by leveraging insights from integrated data.

The AI-driven era has heightened customer expectations, with the survey revealing that adapting to evolving demands is the biggest challenge for businesses in delivering value. To stay competitive, companies must embrace X-O practices to stay ahead.

 Recognising this, however, only 10% of businesses across India, Singapore, ANZ, and North America have reached advanced X-O maturity, hindered by fragmented customer data. A unified customer view is essential to unlock the full value of scattered data and drive meaningful engagement.

According to the report, key challenges in achieving a unified customer view include fragmented data across systems, complexities from evolving privacy laws, and scalability issues. Limited trust and real-time data gaps further hinder personalised experiences and secure data management.

To overcome these challenges and become X-O businesses, Affinidi and IDC recommend adopting holistic identity management solutions. These provide a secure, privacy-first approach to data collection and management, including identity verification, seamless onboarding, secure communication, and consent management. 

“Turning X-O will be pivotal for businesses to stay competitive in today’s digital landscape. It is no longer about just acquiring data but also knowing how best to utilise it to cater to customers’ needs and preferences. HI provides the scalability and flexibility businesses need to meet growing personalisation demands while ensuring their customers feel secure, valued, and in control of their personal information—fostering long-term customer loyalty and reducing data-related risks,” said Glenn Gore, CEO of Affinidi.

Singapore – In a world of accelerated uncertainty, the future of customer experience(CX) innovation will be driven by brands that go beyond mere transactional interactions, focusing instead on creating relationship-based experiences that align with delivering customer value and fulfilling trusted customer preferences to achieve business goals.

That being said, this shift in innovation is brought about by digital-native customers today who are demanding greater value, more memorable and immersive experiences, as well as greater control over how they engage with brands, becoming equal stakeholders in the CX ecosystem.

To help navigate through this phenomenon, global cloud communications platform Infobip, with market intelligence firm IDC, have teamed up with MARKETECH APAC to present the report, ‘Revolutionizing Customer Experience through the Power of Conversational Commerce’, providing guidance to marketers and brands on how to get started and accelerate the journey towards customer-centric business resilience.

‘Revolutionizing Customer Experience through the Power of Conversational Commerce’ discusses the rising role of conversational commerce and omnichannel communication platforms in delivering a superior and contextualised customer experience throughout the APAC region.

The report highlights the value of conversational commerce in customer-centricity by giving readers an overview of its significance, showcasing how the future of CX is efficiently redefined through fostering meaningful engagements by using methods such as leveraging conversational mediums and communication platform as a service(CPaaS), showing examples of its use and effectiveness in the current industry.

Furthermore, the report also gives insights as to how marketers and brands can future proof their business through current and future advancements in conversational commerce, as well as the right standards for choosing a partner to embark with on the conversational commerce journey.

Lastly, several touchpoints for the utilisation of conversational commerce are explored geographically across APAC, displaying the industries encompassed as well as its nature of use across different markets in the region.

Teddy Cambosa, regional editor at MARKETECH APAC, said, “As businesses navigate the digital realm, the art of meaningful conversation becomes the brushstroke that paints lasting impressions. In the canvas of customer experience, the brush of dialogue not only shapes transactions but also crafts relationships. In this ever-changing business landscape like this, this report offers actionable insights for businesses to recognise the power of conversational commerce, which in turn paints a portrait of personalised service, resonates in the hearts of customers, and creates a masterpiece of loyalty and satisfaction.”

To access the report, you may download ‘Revolutionizing Customer Experience through the Power of Conversational Commerce’ here.

Singapore –  A staggering 70% of banks in APAC failed to achieve digital transformation for their banking platform, as reported by Backbase. 

The latest report challenges the long-standing default approach of building in-house solutions for digital engagement banking platforms. 

According to the data, 65% of mid- to large-sized banks in the region have opted to build their engagement banking platform in-house to attain digital transformation. And of this number, 70% of these projects have failed due to costly and lengthy in-house efforts. 

An overwhelming 80% of digital engagement platforms built in-house with a budget of $10 million also face underperformance and have not yielded the desired ROE in their digital initiatives. 

Despite having embarked on digital transformation since the 2000s, many banks in APAC remain at an early stage, failing to fully capitalize on its benefits and deliver compelling digital customer engagements.

Furthermore, the latest report also highlights a crucial disconnect between banks and their customers, where most banking products and offerings are deemed “me-too” and limited, resulting in shortfalls in digital experiences. 

As banks focus on locking in a high amount of resources to get banking platforms into shape, they fail to prioritize the creation of differentiated upstream customer journeys and experiences. As a result, customers face challenges accessing multiple services through disparate interfaces, lack a unified view of their portfolios, and endure lengthy onboarding processes. 

The demand for instantaneous approvals and streamlined digital processes remains unmet, while personalized experiences, segmentation, and relevant promotions based on customers’ lifestyles, life moments, and goals continue to elude them.

Additionally, backend operations suffer due to the lack of intelligent assistance in contact centers, leaving customers repeating information to different service officers due to the absence of a 360-degree unified customer view. 

However, the current report also found that the “Adopt and Build” approach is a pragmatic solution for banks to accelerate their go-to-market efforts, differentiating where it matters instead of reinventing the wheel by building from scratch. 

By adopting a collaborative platform and building upon it, banks can achieve a 40% faster time-to-market, where digital engagement banking platforms can be launched within 11 months, as compared to the traditional 20 months with a full “build” approach. In addition, “Adopt and Build” had proven to be more cost-effective, offering 2.3 times more than the traditional in-house “build” option.

The “Adopt and Build” approach was rated highest and had shown tangible advantages across six key metrics: market fit and differentiation, legacy risk, build risk, time to market, modernizing talent and IT skill sets, and regulatory compliance. This is in comparison to the “Build” and “Buy” approaches.

The in-depth report draws insights from 125 banks and 316 CIOs in APAC to offer a full regional perspective on digital transformation. Backbase commissioned IDC InfoBrief for the report. 

Ashish Kakar, research director of financial insights at IDC Asia Pacific, said, “Building in-house has been a de-facto strategy by banks, but it’s no longer feasible to deliver to the pace and scale that is required to be competitive. The complexities that come with the extensive amount of data layers, channels, features, upstream and downstream integration that needs to support legacy and modern systems to manage and orchestrate sophisticatedly is where in-house implementation breaks apart.” 

Riddhi Dutta, regional vice president at Backbase Asia, also shared, “A true platform comes with all the hygiene requirements from market fit, to security and regulatory compliance, to being versatile and customizable to support each bank’s unique customer needs. The platform is a composable fabric providing modularity and re-usable data and journeys for banks to help banks futureproof at scale.” 

Kuala Lumpur – The shift in customer communication preferences has been found to lean noticeably towards conversational interactions, making more companies expand and invest towards conversational commerce. This was according to the latest data from an InfoBrief provided by global cloud communications platform Infobip, and IT market research and advisory firm IDC. 

The InfoBrief by Infobip and IDC suggested that the potential of conversational commerce is now being employed and recognized, with tools such as CPaaS and SaaS enabling businesses to provide a seamless, customer journey that’s visible across multiple touchpoints.

The increasing popularity of customer-centric business strategies among brands in the Asia Pacific region reflects consumers’ present attitudes and expectations. 70% of organisations in the region plan to increase communication platform spending in 2023–2024, despite the fact that only a few countries use CPaaS on average at 50%–59%, in order to offer distinctive customer experiences to the region’s expanding social media users, who are primarily young, active, and conscious of the power of their own influence.

All nations intend to spend money on CPaaS and SaaS solutions in the near future, but their reasons are claimed to be very different. Businesses in Indonesia and Singapore strive to improve customer experiences and develop new revenue streams, while those in China, Thailand, and the Philippines are driven to expand their domestic and global markets as well as improve and mobilise their business operations. This is probably owing to the latter countries’ booming retail and e-commerce sectors and overall greater adoption rate of CPaaS solutions, which is around 60% and above.

Nikhil Batra, research director of telecommunication for IDC Asia/Pacific, said that CPaaS solutions are increasingly recognized as crucial catalysts for enabling conversational commerce experiences.

“In fact, 27% of businesses in Asia Pacific are actively partnering with CPaaS platform providers to deliver contextualised customer interactions that not only boost profitability but also foster emotionally fulfilling engagements. This trend highlights the increasing importance of leveraging these technologies to meet customer demands and achieve business success,” he added.

Meanwhile, Velid Begovic, vice president of revenue at Infobip, commented, “Businesses position themselves to forge ahead, leveraging AI technology to create connections and unlock new growth opportunities, whilst organisations need an actionable, customer-centric strategy and the ability to invest in the right tools to grow the business and keep customers happy. By aligning their strategies with conversational commerce, businesses can proactively meet customer expectations, enhance engagement, and establish long-lasting relationships.”

Singapore – With changing consumer and retail trends as well as more inclusive payment options, e-commerce spending is estimated to rise by 162% to reach US$179.8b by 2025, according to data from a joint study by market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) and global payments platform 2C2P.

The largest markets for e-commerce payments are forecast to be Indonesia (US$83b), Vietnam (US$29b), and Thailand (US$24b).

The report also noted that digital payments are expected to account for 91% of total e-commerce spending by 2025, up from 80% in 2020. The Philippines,Vietnam and Thailand markets are projected to have noteworthy shifts with declining cash usage and increasing digital payments usage by 2025.

For Aung Kyaw Moe, founder and CEO of 2C2P, there is an opportunity to ride on the growth of digital payments and provide secure and reliable financial services to meet the ever-changing needs of consumers in the region. 

“Digital payments are no longer a nice-to-have but a must-have, and a key part of every company’s business strategy. The ability of businesses to optimize their payment capabilities and operations according to geographical reach will also determine how they stay competitive, agile, and successful across the region,” Moe stated.

In terms of digital payment preference, local payment options like mobile wallets are preferred for ease and convenience across Southeast Asia. From 2020 to 2025, mobile wallets and BNPL in the region are expected to grow 30% and 58%, respectively. Indonesia alone is predicted to welcome over 100 million new mobile wallet users by 2025.

“Southeast Asia’s payment landscape is incredibly fragmented, and payment systems and their adoption, as well as regulations, can vary from market to market. To help businesses understand and navigate the region’s complexities, we’ve put together this comprehensive guide to the region’s payments landscape featuring regional and local payment insights,” said Michael Araneta, associate vice president and head of research and consulting at IDC Financial Insights Asia-Pacific.

Singapore—Small-medium enterprises (SME) in Asia Pacific are slowly making their way into being adoptive to today’s business changes across the digital transformation sphere, according to a report from IT and networking company Cisco and market intelligence firm IDC.

With more than 1,400 respondents across APAC SMEs, the report found out that there is a significant increase for digital adoption, showing a 16% growth for SMEs willing to integrate more digital transformation strategies, compared to the 11% growth last year.

On the other hand, 53% of SMEs showed initial willingness to be ‘observant’ at first for their small modern digital changes, while 31% of SMEs showed reactiveness to move into the digital market and are slow in their own transition.

The current COVID-19 pandemic proved to be one of the major reasons for digital transition of SMEs, as statistics showed that 94% of SMEs showed reliance on technological measures for their businesses. In regards to using digital business measures as a way to make roundabout on disruptive events i.e. the pandemic, 55% percent said that such measures are important and are crucial for the business framework.

Some of the leading goals for digitalization of SMEs include market expansion, improved customer experience (CX), prototype kickstart/startup, supply chain, among others.

Cisco estimates that with willingness from SMEs to conduct business presence online, such enterprises are forecasted to   bring $2.6–$3.1 trillion in GDP across Asia Pacific, suggesting faster economic recovery by 2024.