Tag: Qualtrics

Singapore – Jollibee Group has entered a new global multi-year partnership with experience management leader Qualtrics to enhance customer experiences and fuel growth across its brands, including Jollibee, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, and Smashburger.

Under the multi-year agreement, Jollibee Group will leverage Qualtrics to strengthen customer relationships and respond more effectively to their evolving needs. By capturing and consolidating feedback from both in-store and digital touchpoints, the partnership aims to accelerate issue resolution and deliver actionable insights to enhance customer-facing operations.

Additionally, the new program is expected to support Jollibee Group’s global expansion and its ambition to rank among the world’s top five restaurant companies while enhancing and personalising its digital offerings.

“The multi-year agreement underscores our commitment to delivering exceptional experiences for our global store network. By leveraging Qualtrics, we can consolidate customer feedback from in-store and digital touchpoints, accelerate case resolution, and provide actionable insights for our customer-facing teams,” said Marcos Cadena, global chief technology officer of the Jollibee Group.

Jacqueline Fuentes, head of global customer experience of the Jollibee Group, added, “Qualtrics enables us at the Jollibee Group to better understand our diverse customer base, helping ensure that we meet their evolving needs and expectations. Qualtrics provides the capabilities and insights we need to continuously enhance our customer experiences and build stronger connections with the millions of customers we serve worldwide.” 

Through its multi-year partnership with Qualtrics, Jollibee Group will leverage the platform to enhance customer experiences across its brands in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

“Companies that win and succeed in today’s fast-moving markets prioritise delivering great experiences their customers love,” shared Brad Anderson, president of product, UX, and engineering at Qualtrics. 

“Thousands of organisations across the globe, including the Jollibee Group, are using Qualtrics to improve their customer experience by capturing feedback from multiple channels to deeply understand the needs and expectations of their customers and take fast, targeted, and proactive action when and where it matters most,” Anderson added. 

Singapore – Singaporean consumers have grown wary of artificial intelligence (AI), with only 36% trusting AI amidst data privacy concerns, according to a new Qualtrics report. 

With consumers becoming increasingly hesitant to share personal information, confidence in AI among Singaporean consumers has dropped by 11% in the past year. It marks a shift from consumers’ initial excitement in AI use to increasing skepticism. 

Customers’s growing concerns surrounding AI use contribute to this waning trust. Many customers prefer interacting with human agents (52%) while some are worried about how their personal data will be used (49%). Meanwhile, many consumers have low trust in how organisations will use AI (64%).

“There is no excuse for getting the fundamentals of good customer experience wrong, but too often consumers are saying this is what’s happening with poor communication and service issues. High-performing industries continue to raise the bar on what good customer experience looks like, and with more than half of bad experiences ending in a spending cut businesses and governments can no longer afford to fall behind,” Isabelle Zdatny, customer loyalty specialist at Qualtrics, said.

Though fewer consumers report poor customer experiences, their trust, likelihood to recommend, and satisfaction have declined in the past year.

The report also highlights an increase in the silent treatment, where consumers avoid sharing feedback, both positive and negative. Singaporean consumers are 7% less likely to voice their complaints about negative experiences compared to 2021.

“Customers are giving brands the silent treatment, and if organisations don’t find a way to fix this issue we could see more disgruntled consumers in Singapore. Customers are expecting a better experience, but simultaneously they’re not willing to share the insights brands need to deliver one. Overcoming this gap requires brands to rethink how they engage with customers, and go beyond the traditional feedback survey,” Zdatny said.

Additionally, the report shows a paradox in personalisation and privacy. While 72% of consumers prefer personalised experiences, only 40% trust companies to use their personal information responsibly. It highlights businesses’ need to build trust and maintain transparency. 

“Giving customers what they want is not a conversation about privacy or personalisation. It’s about trust. Brands need to identify what they need to do to win trust back without overstepping the mark and turning customers away instead. It’s dangerous to assume that existing customers will stay loyal without intentional effort to keep them. To deliver a great customer experience, following through on the most basic commitments and delivering what’s been promised is what’s most important to consumers,” Zdatny added.

“Following through on the most basic commitments carries the most weight with customers. New initiatives rolling out are outside customers’ comfort zones, so it is essential to have the basics in place and uphold them. Customers are more demanding than ever, and it’s dangerous to assume that existing customers will stay loyal without intentional effort to keep them,” Zdnatny concluded.

Singapore – Bain & Company, Kantar, and Qualtrics have revised the Global Standards for Customer Experience (CX) after a wide-ranging industry consultation that aims to elevate CX practices.

The standards offer strategies for CX excellence, guiding businesses in crafting superior customer experiences. 

According to research from Kantar, companies with improved CX are 2.5 times more likely to increase their market share compared to those without enhancements. 

Meanwhile, Qualtrics’ analysis highlights the financial impact of bad CX. Organisations risk $3.7 trillion annually due to poor experiences, a 19% increase from last year’s projections.

Over 1,500 CX professionals from 23 countries participated in the consultation, leading to refinements of half the initial standards and the addition of three new ones. Key themes included applying standards in complex organisations, the cultural dimension of CX, measuring the return on investment (ROI) of CX programs, and leveraging technology to support CX improvements.

Rob Huijboom, global head of customer experience at Kantar, said, “The Experience Economy has caused a fundamental shift for businesses, and experience is now an important – if not the single most important – driver for growth. Our clients and the wider industry have responded positively to the Global Standards for CX, demonstrating that a set of common industry standards is long-overdue, and an enthusiasm for the growth our framework can unlock.”

“There’s work to be done now in winning over hearts and minds of the industry and generating critical mass behind the Global Standards for CX. In doing so, we aim to re-establish the role of CX within businesses; it’s more than just doing satisfaction surveys,” Stanford Swinton, executive vice president at Bain & Company and principal author of the standards, said.

“The real value of experience management is in helping organisations better serve their stakeholders. These global standards serve as a roadmap for companies aiming to build durable differentiation and the discipline to quickly adapt to the evolving needs of their market, their customers and their employees,” said Brian Stucki, President and chief operating officer of Qualtrics. 

Australia – Perceptive, Australasia’s technology-driven customer insights agency, has announced a strategic partnership with Qualtrics. This collaboration will empower Perceptive’s clients with advanced experience management solutions. 

Through this new partnership, Perceptive will standardise its existing programs using Qualtrics’ platform. This integration will provide Perceptive’s clients with direct access to Qualtrics’ advanced market research and experience management technologies, services, and expertise, empowering them to gain reliable insights into market trends, customer behaviour, and brand performance.

Perceptive will also join the global Qualtrics Partner Network, enhancing its capacity to support clients in managing their market research, customer experience, and brand experience programs. This partnership will enable Perceptive to offer a comprehensive, end-to-end technology platform optimised with expert program support and consulting services.

Dan Shaw, managing director of Perceptive, said, “Perceptive’s partnership with Qualtrics has been met with huge enthusiasm among our clients. It will take our industry capabilities to the next level to deliver more value and innovation to the 150+ clients we support while unlocking significant efficiencies across our business.” 

Meanwhile, Zoe Nicholson, head of ecosystems for Asia Pacific and Japan at Qualtrics, commented, “Qualtrics is at the centre of the experience management ecosystem, and key to this is our deep focus and investment to continually build and cultivate a community of trusted, expert partners—including Perceptive—that help organisations unlock significant value and drive meaningful innovation with experience management.”

Organisations across Southeast Asia are risking US$144b in revenue because of poor customer service, with consumers across the region increasingly cutting spending after receiving a poor experience.

This finding from Qualtrics XM Institute highlights the significant business value of great customer experience (CX). At a time when brands find themselves under pressure to drive greater business impact in challenging market environments, delivering a superior CX is one of the most impactful, sustainable, and efficient ways to achieve this. And within this context, the role and value of digital channels and e-commerce platforms cannot be overstated.

Consumers are ever more digital

Consumers continue to conduct more brand interactions through digital channels. For example, in the last year 56% of consumers in Singapore opened a bank account on their mobile phone – up from 48% a year previously; in healthcare 42% of people used a telemedicine service in the last 12 months, up from 35%; and 26% of superapp users say they use one every day, up from 22%.

Great digital support also has an outsized impact on consumer loyalty, with consumers more likely to return when they get great digital support compared to in-person. The challenge for brands, however, is consumers are less likely to be satisfied by their digital customer support experience compared to human support.

As brands, consumers, marketing and CX teams increasingly adopt and mature their e-commerce platforms and digital capabilities, organisations that invest in improving the services, support, and experiences delivered through them are well placed to pull ahead of the competition, unlocking greater customer retention, satisfaction, brand awareness, and ultimately revenue.

5 steps to e-commerce success and impact

Forge partnerships with digital stakeholders

For marketing and CX teams looking to drive improvements across e-commerce platforms, a critical step is identifying and getting to know potential partners across the business – such as web and app development teams, digital marketing, UX/UI, data analysts, product managers, and IT. Understanding the internal digital landscape highlights collaboration opportunities, generates organisational alignment and support, helps define roles and responsibilities, and enables faster-decision making to accelerate progress and business impact.

One of the most successful ways we see CX and marketing teams partner with digital teams to improve the performance of e-commerce platforms is when they begin their collaboration with a focused use case, such as high cart abandonment. As part of this collaboration, the teams combine CX insights from surveys, reviews, and support conversations with operational data, such as web analytics, and customer segmentation, to understand the issue, outline recommended next best steps to resolve it, and demonstrate the business impact to garner greater support in broadening the project scope.

Map the customer journey and understand their behaviours

To improve CX across digital channels and e-commerce platforms, brands need to understand consumer behaviours for these types of offerings, and their preferences when using them. For example, research shows the majority of consumers in Singapore prefer to speak with a representative directly when purchasing a TV compared to online or mobile. In contrast, when booking a flight the preference is to self-serve using a digital channel.

Most customer engagements span multiple channels and departments; for e-commerce these often include account management, purchasing a product, resolving an issue, research, and getting a status update. Taking the time to understand the customer journey and behaviours for specific use cases ensures teams prioritise their investments and efforts in areas where they will have the greatest impact. Looking at digital CX in the context of a complete journey helps teams remove siloes that might otherwise hinder progress and impact, cultivate strategic alignment, and uncover unmet needs and opportunities.

Capture customer feedback in the moment

Early in the partnership between CX and marketing teams with digital, it’s important to establish a set of passive listening posts across all digital channels and e-commerce platforms – these should supplement the existing customer feedback programs CX and marketing teams traditionally manage, such as surveys. Common examples of passive listening posts include having a visible and easy-to-use always-on feedback button, or using modern AI-powered experience management technologies to analyse feedback shared by customers across social channels, online reviews, and through calls to the contact centre.

Giving customers the ability to share feedback in the moment helps uncover authentic, targeted, actionable insights and enables teams with real-time, focused insights to drive improvements when and where it matters most.

Use digital analytics to understand online consumer behaviours

Digital analytics help teams capture behavioural data from all site visitors, such as rage-clicking, mouse thrashing, and click-paths. This data is more objective and accurate than traditional feedback data – it reflects what people actually did rather than what they think they might do – and it can be captured continuously and in real time. All these benefits make digital behavioural insights critical for helping develop a dynamic understanding of digital journeys and pain points. 

Take action on feedback when and where it matters

Using AI, CX and marketing teams can benefit from workflows that automatically route feedback to the right stakeholders to take action on. These automated workflows should integrate with the systems and processes stakeholders already use as part of their everyday role, such as Jira, Slack, or Salesforce, to ensure swift adoption. AI will also empower teams to instantly identify and support customers encountering difficulties online, such as using digital analytics data to flag customers that might not be able to find what they’re looking for, or advanced conversational analytics to escalate online chat conversations. 

AI will help teams deeply understand the emotion, intent, and effort behind every engagement, and become more pro-active and predictive to resolve problems before they arise. The keys to optimising the impact of AI-powered workflows is identifying the initial triggers driving action – which can be metrics including CSAT, effort, satisfaction, digital analytics, or even key words – and ensuring ticketing notifications are routed to the correct teams.

AI accelerates and expands e-commerce impact

As organisations and consumers increasingly adopt and embrace AI, there are significant opportunities to drive improvements across every aspect of the customer experience, including digital and e-commerce. 

Right now, organisations are focusing on where AI can have the greatest impact on their business – be it growth, productivity, or operational efficiencies. From these starting points we will see AI programs scale, and there will be a first-mover advantage for those leading the way. Organisations already using AI in their e-commerce and digital offerings – or about to begin – have a head start on the competition, and will be better positioned to deliver great CX in the moment, across every channel, and across every engagement.

This thought leadership is written by Eleanor O’Dwyer-Duggan, CX Solution Strategist, Southeast Asia at Qualtrics

MARKETECH APAC is leading the conversation on the future of e-commerce marketing strategies this 2024 and beyond with the E-Commerce Marketing in Malaysia 2024 conference on July 25, 2024 at Sheraton Petaling Jaya and the E-Commerce Marketing in the Philippines 2024 conference on August 14, 2024 at Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria. Join us and become an integral part of a dynamic community committed to pushing the boundaries of innovation and fostering unparalleled growth in the e-commerce domain.

Singapore – Experience management company Qualtrics has announced that travel retailer Flight Centre is now utilising their AI program to enhance customer experience and agent productivity through a new ability to analyse and respond to every piece of structured and unstructured customer feedback being shared with the company.

While traditional customer experience programs focus on structured feedback, such as satisfaction and post-sale surveys, Flight Centre is gaining a more complete view of its customers with the integration of Qualtrics.

Using purpose-built, AI-powered, advanced conversational analytics and natural language processing capabilities, Flight Centre can listen to and analyse customer feedback from a range of structured and unstructured channels – such as emails, chat, messaging, social and online reviews, traditional surveys and more – and understand the emotion, intent, preference, and effort behind every engagement.

The customer experience-specific insights enable Flight Centre to custom-craft and deliver tailored experiences addressing customers’ unmet needs and points of friction, creating opportunities to enhance the customer experience in the moments and channels that matter.

Notably, Flight Centre is one of the first organisations in Asia Pacific to go-live with Qualtrics’ AI-powered conversational analytics and natural language processing technologies.

Talking about this integration, Andrew Stark, global managing director at Flight Centre, said, “Flight Centre is able to deeply understand and respond to their needs better than ever before with Qualtrics. With these new capabilities we’re able to uncover even more actionable, specific insights that can help us deliver greater services, experiences, and products for our millions of customers.”

Meanwhile, Brad Anderson, president of product, UX, and engineering at Qualtrics, commented, “Using Qualtrics AI, organisations like Flight Centre are pioneering an impactful new age for experience management by deepening their ability to understand and meaningfully respond to their customers, which is driving greater outcomes for customers alongside bottom-line business impact.”

Singapore – Tolerance for bad customer service dwindles across Southeast Asia as consumers cut spending with a brand more than half the time after receiving poor service, research from Qualtrics XM reported. 

According to the report, consumers in SEA slash their spending with a brand after 53% of negative customer experiences, a number that is 2% higher than 12 months previously and slightly higher than the global average (51%). 

This increasing and worrying cut in consumer spending threatens a US$144 billion annual loss for Southeast Asia. 

The report revealed that nearly one-fifth, or 15%, of consumers’ engagements with brands in the region result in a very poor customer experience. The data is similar to the volume of reported poor experiences globally (14%), but is down from the previous 2022 data, when 18% of brand interactions resulted in poor engagements.

Qualtrics XM’s research showed that Thailand is second globally in terms of reported poor customer experiences, with 19% of interactions falling short. The country also recorded the largest increase in negative experiences among the 23 countries surveyed, with a rise of 6%-points.

Furthermore, organisations in Thailand also have the highest sales at risk index (11%), a number that is almost three times higher than Singapore (4%) and twice as high as Australia (6%), the US, and the UK (both 5%). 

The research also showed that, on a global scale, Filipinos are most likely to reduce their spending with an organisation (47%) after a bad customer experience. 

Meanwhile, countries in SEA like Indonesia and Singapore have seen some of the biggest reductions in reported poor experiences, with a 10%-point and 8%-point decrease, respectively.

Government, hospitals, parcel deliveries, auto dealers, and credit card and insurance providers are among the industries that have recorded the highest volume of bad customer service in Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand. Meanwhile, in Singapore, government and hospital services rank the lowest in providing bad customer experiences.

The continuous bad customer service is leading to a loss of revenue, putting 8% of sales at risk in the region as consumers across all markets are reducing or cutting spending entirely after a poor experience. 

The report also emphasised that organisations must address consumers’ fear of losing the human connection as more AI is being incorporated into customer interactions. 

Southeast Asian consumers are some of the most comfortable with AI when engaging with brands, with more than two-thirds, or 69%, in Singapore believing it will improve customer service levels through faster service times, resolving complaints and queries, and faster deliveries. 

With this, organisations must ensure that AI positively impacts the customer experience in the region, prioritising human connection in the engagement, with consumers’ biggest concerns with the technology being a lack of human connection, misuse of personal data, the possibility people will lose their jobs, and service quality.

Moira Dorsey, head of Qualtrics XM Institute, said, “Customer service is in the spotlight like never before, and our research reveals how consumers across Southeast Asia are increasingly voting with their dollars. All it takes is one bad experience or wrong move for an organisation to be punished, which is why in 2024 companies need to be more careful than ever not to mistreat customers.” 

“Customers are placing a premium on human connection, and the most successful AI strategies are designed for this. By understanding how customers and their employees want to use AI, organisations can tailor their offerings and models for their preferences, and those that do will be rewarded with increased sales, more satisfied customers, and highly engaged and productive employees,” she added. 

Singapore – The Singaporean government has announced a S$1b investment plan on AI in five years, a move that was announced as part of the nation’s Singapore Budget 2024 presented by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong

“Part of the investment will be used to ensure that Singapore can secure access to the advanced chips that are so crucial to AI development and deployment. We will also work with leading companies in Singapore and around the world to set up their AI Centres of Excellence here. We want these Centres to spur industry collaboration and innovation, and drive greater value creation across the whole economy,” he explained.

In the budget, Wong stressed how Singapore is already recognised as a serious player in AI development. Furthermore, he noted that they aim to go further–to build new peaks of excellence, and crowd in private sector investments.

Following this, MARKETECH APAC sought insights from various marketing industry leaders to learn more about their perspectives on this recent government move, and how the industry can use this to move forward.

Dan Bognar, Vice President & Managing Director, JAPAC, HubSpot

It is encouraging to see Budget 2024 committing more than S$1 billion over the next five years to accelerate Singapore’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption and innovation. We have arrived at a fascinating intersection where technologies like AI have the potential to play a pivotal role in nation-building and in helping to catalyse economic resilience. 

The reality is that AI provides an opportunity to enhance the future-readiness of Singapore’s growing digital economy. With its ability to improve productivity, AI represents a long-term, sustainable solution for firms to deal with ongoing economic challenges such as rising costs and increased complexities as the business grows. This will be especially relevant for SMEs, where technology can empower them with the means to compete with larger industry counterparts.

As the adoption of AI tools grows, organisations will also require targeted guidance to streamline their technology platforms and data sources. As many business leaders can attest to, a fragmented set of technology platforms, often a result of adopting multiple point solutions alongside legacy platforms, leads to disconnected systems that impede data, productivity and workflows. These shortcomings will likely increase overall operating costs, compromise the customer experience, and negatively impact business outcomes.

Continuous learning has become essential in ensuring that Singapore’s workforce remains in step with technological changes. As the digital economy grows, enterprises who are well-equipped to understand AI’s potential, and able to move quickly to lay a robust foundation for its adoption, will stand to reap the most benefits. These programmes will enhance businesses ability to reinvest in their employees as they capitalise on this change.

Mao Gen Foo, Head of Southeast Asia, Qualtrics

It’s pleasing to see Singapore’s continued commitment to upskilling initiatives, as highlighted in this year’s Budget, along with a significant investment in local AI capabilities and skills.

The newly announced SkillsFuture Level-Up initiative, aimed at supporting mid-career workers in acquiring new skills and competencies, is particularly encouraging. Programmes like this recognise the crucial role this demographic plays in our economy and the need for support in helping our nation’s workers adapt to evolving demands and technological advancements.

The increased focus and investment in AI capabilities, talent, and industry development is also exciting and important for Singapore to strengthen its position as a business and innovation hub. Singapore boasts one of the highest global acceptance rates for AI in the workplace, which supported by the government’s ambitions to set up new AI centres of excellence and investments in upskilling programmes, will empower a new cohort of talent and create high demand for skilled professionals.

Moreover, to ensure Singapore can attract and retain the talent needed in the future, this investment and focus on skills must be complemented by ensuring workers are provided with employee experiences that enable them to do their best work and create high-performing, highly productive teams.

Organisations that embrace this people-centric approach and empower their teams to excel in a period of technological and societal change will be the true standouts, propelling the nation towards a prosperous and competitive future.

Smith Leong, Havas Play Lead at Havas Singapore

Like any other industries, there are 3 things that matter to clients in advertising – Speed, cost, and quality. Based on the trends and what we have observed over the last few months, we can safely say that AI tools have shown us the possibilities of answering all 3 factors when used right. We have already started using some of these tools and they have definitely improved our quality of work at Havas.

We welcome the investment by the government in training as we can foresee the potential increase in productivity and quality of jobs. Talents will be able to do more, and better within a shorter time. That also means the potential increase of profit in relation. The challenge for such transition has always been due to the initiation cost and resources involved for both businesses and individuals.

With the initial investment by the government on AI, we can see the potential of Singapore being at the forefront of things which will help us attract both overseas talents and businesses trusting us with their investment, and that will continue to fuel the industry which higher interest and demand.

Kamal Brar, Senior Vice President, APAC, Confluent

I am glad to see the increasing local investments and upskilling support for Singaporeans and businesses to train and make the best of AI innovations. We live in an incredible time for innovation today where AI is driving significant productivity improvements for businesses in Singapore. While AI can’t replace the intentionality, creativity, or awareness of a human, it can automate the menial day-to-day, allowing employees and companies to focus on the most valuable tasks.

As consumers, we have already tasted the convenience of mobile apps that can process requests immediately, reducing waiting time from days to seconds. With AI, we can also expect businesses to operate closer to the speed of life, that is, in real time. Minister Wong aptly reflected that emerging technologies will change the way expertise is defined and how value is created. One good example is in customer engagements. The ability to access data in real time, supported by AI to analyse previous interactions, individual preferences and behaviours, will help to make the business feel more human. Other possibilities can also include preventing fraud for a fintech app or handling an online retail order and marking out the most efficient delivery route.

Such value of AI is deeply dependent on having clean, trustworthy, up-to-date data. Organisations can tap on real-time streams of accurate data to keep up with AI-driven change. For this, companies in Singapore (small or big) should actively help employees to retrain and upskill in data management with the SkillsFuture Level-Up programme and new grants, especially as we see more AI centres of excellence open up here. 

Eileen Chua, Managing Director of SAP Singapore

The increasing need for employees’ training in AI, reflects on Singapore’s Budget 2024 focus and anticipates an ever-evolving business landscape. With the rising demand for AI expertise in this digital economy, building skills-centric organizations where expertise and know-how take precedence over roles and titles will improve business agility and employee experience. In order to achieve this, companies must have a holistic view of their workforce and ignite potential by providing opportunities for growth and development. 

In line with the Singapore’s National AI Strategy 2.0, SAP has also named SAP Labs Singapore as a global AI hub, with the aim of developing reliable, relevant and responsible business AI applications for customers and partners globally, while fostering innovation through a private, public partnership approach.

Sanchit Mendiratta, Managing Director, Merkle, CXM Group, dentsu Singapore

Over the past six decades, Singapore has consistently positioned itself at the forefront of global innovation and economic growth. From capitalising on its strategic geographic location to foster trade to diversifying its economy from manufacturing to cutting-edge fintech, Singapore’s journey is a testament to foresight, adaptability, and relentless pursuit of excellence.

In the last 14 months alone, the world has witnessed unparalleled advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI), signalling a pivot that promises to redefine our way of life, work, and interaction with technology. This era of rapid technological evolution underscores the power of individual creativity and potential to generate significant impact. In light of emerging narratives about the possibility of ‘one-person unicorns’, it is clear that the ability to drive change is increasingly democratised, residing not only within VC-funded start-ups, big tech, or established multinational corporations but also within the reach of every individual connected to the internet.

The Singapore government recognizes the transformative potential of AI and is committed to ensuring its benefits are accessible to all. By empowering Singaporeans with SkillsFuture credits and monthly training allowances, alongside initiatives designed to encourage companies to adopt AI, the government is fostering a dual approach to innovation. This strategy ensures a comprehensive understanding and application of AI across all levels of society and the workforce, from the ground up by the people and from the top down by companies.

We are on the cusp of a new era where AI is not just a tool for operational efficiency but a catalyst for societal advancement and the empowerment of every individual. The government’s efforts to evangelize AI capabilities reflect our dedication to preparing Singaporeans for the future, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to navigate and shape the emerging new world order.

Thus, the future Singapore envisions is not merely a forecast, but a reality Singaporeans will actively create.

Rebecca Nadilo, Managing Director – Iris Singapore

There’s still so much to learn about the applications of AI – and most importantly – there’s much to teach about it. Singapore’s investment in tech, training and infrastructure means we’re in the best position to beta test its application and understand where, how and who is best to use it.

Tin Sanchez, Executive Creative Director – Iris Singapore

Change is scary – and AI marks a change in the way we do and make things. The budget can allow mastery of AI and overcoming our unease around it. My hope is that it boosts human creativity even more.

Singapore –Yahoo has partnered with American experience management company Qualtrics to launch PurpleLab, an innovative solution designed to address the challenges of speed and quality in the market research industry. 

PurpleLab brings together Yahoo’s extensive data capabilities, cutting-edge technology, deep consumer relationships, and the ability to rapidly turn around robust panel data. 

Additionally, it is also powered by Qualtrics’, providing the platform with faster and easier access to nationally representative consumer insights across the region. With Qualtrics, it will also have access to industry expertise, ensuring market research programmes are tailored to deliver optimum value and outcomes.

This platform builds upon Yahoo’s use of Qualtrics tools to conduct its own internal market research, promising brands a way to acquire and apply consumer insights faster and more accurately to marketing campaigns. 

Dan Richardson, head of data and insights at Yahoo AUSEA, shared, “For too long, brands faced the dilemma of compromising either speed or quality in market research insights. PurpleLab addresses this challenge by delivering high-quality, accurate results from real humans with a rapid turnaround time.” 

He continued, “By partnering with Qualtrics, we have created peace of mind for our clients that these insights are from real humans, not AI-powered bots, and by leveraging our own robust data stack, we can control the process to ensure it is fast and efficient. This platform is a testament to Yahoo’s commitment to being a trusted partner, empowering brands to execute sophisticated and effective marketing campaigns across the media funnel.”

“We’re excited by the results we’re already seeing from PurpleLab. It’s not just a tool; it’s a strategic ally in empowering brands with data-driven decision-making capabilities,” Richardson further added.  

Ali Henriques, global director of research services at Qualtrics, also explained, “Market research is one of the most important strategic growth drivers in every organisation. With in-depth, trusted human insights, such as those from Qualtrics and Yahoo, brands can understand evolving consumer expectations and uncover unmet market needs to confidently and precisely make decisions that drive customer loyalty and satisfaction, market share, and ultimately revenue growth.”

Singapore – Super apps – mobile applications that can offer multiple services within a single app – are here to stay, with around 51% of Singaporeans reported to have used them at least a couple of times every week. This is according to the latest data from Qualtrics, with support from SAP and Center for Experience Management in Singapore.

According to the data, the most frequent use cases are shopping for general items, buying groceries, ordering food and ride-hail services, paying for items in-store, and arranging for items to be delivered. 

In terms of which super app features are mostly used, digital wallets come out on top. Around 59% of respondents said they have used a digital wallet to make a physical purchase in the last 12 months, and 64% said they intend to use a super app to make a physical purchase in the next six months.

Meanwhile, it is also revealed that consumers have less intent to use a super app for listening to music, messaging friends, playing games, and buying insurance.

When it comes to factors that would increase super app usage, feedback suggests overcoming consumers’ concerns with privacy and security is one of the main areas to address. The study also revealed that consumers are looking for improvements in mobile app ease of use and payment options, across many of the brands and apps that they interact with.

“Equipped with the right customer insights, brands can tailor how they deliver services via super apps to ensure this new channel complements their customer experience for the people that are using them, while maximising the investments they’re making in the space. And simultaneously, by knowing what customers aren’t using super apps, organisations can take important action to ensure no-one is left behind by the change underway,” the research noted.