Happy Friday! ‘This week in CX’ brings you the latest roundup of industry news.
This week, we’ve been looking at emerging consumer trends as the holiday season approaches, as well as is CX now at the crossroads.
We’re also discussing new updates from Google, NFL, LVMH and more!
Key news
- Companies including Google, Amazon and Microsoft (LinkedIn’s parent company) are investing substantial amounts of money into nuclear power in the hope that it can fuel their artificial intelligence ambitions. AI systems such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini are trained and supported by rows-upon-rows of energy-hungry servers in datacentres. These facilities are putting a strain on grids around the world. In Ireland, datacentres consumed 21% of the country’s electricity in 2023. But the tech giants don’t want to slow down in what has become a fierce AI race so they’re now embracing another form of power: nuclear.
- The National Football League and Cisco, have announced that the NFL is now leveraging Cisco’s industry-leading enterprise networking and cybersecurity solutions to connect and protect the NFL International Games. Through the agreement, the NFL will continue to rely on the same Cisco technology and expertise used for the Super Bowl, NFL Draft and NFL Kickoff to bolster their operations across a growing slate of international games, which includes matchups in São Paulo, London and Munich in 2024 and Madrid in 2025.
- LVMH shares dropped 7% after the company reported a 3% decline in third-quarter sales, primarily due to weak consumer spending in China and a challenging global economic landscape. Its core fashion and leather goods division, which includes brands such as Louis Vuitton, Dior and Givenchy, saw a 5% sales decline, the first since 2020. Shares of other luxury groups, including Richemont, Kering and Hermès, also fell, reflecting broader concerns across the sector. However, some experts on LinkedIn caution against overreacting to negative headlines and stock fluctuations.
CXM news stories
Here’s the full news stories that CXM have reported on in the past week. Learn all about the latest research in consumer behaviour, CX standards, and attitudes to AI usage.
AI takes the reins: consumers embrace artificial intelligence for holiday shopping
According to a 2024 Holiday Survey conducted by TalkdeskⓇ, Inc., a global provider of AI-powered customer experience (CX) technology that serves retail enterprises of all sizes, which found 90% of shoppers are using AI in some form this holiday shopping season, up from 88% in 2023. Moreover, 62% of respondents plan to use AI-powered product recommendations to provide personalized gift recommendations, proving the future of gift-giving is here, and algorithms, not elves, power it.
Among retailers responding to this shift by adopting AI, 59% of AI-adopting retailers are using it to support customer service. Other AI-based technologies retailers planned to deploy include predictive analytics to identify consumer spending trends (61%), systems to customize product pages and promotions based on analytics (51%), AI-generated product listings or images (49%), and AI-generated product listings that allow shoppers to edit and customize product images (46%) quickly.
However, not all retailers are jumping on the AI bandwagon. According to the survey, 39% of retailers not using AI are unconcerned about providing a lower-quality holiday shopping experience compared to their competitors that have embraced the technology. Furthermore, 41% of these retailers are not worried about missing out on sales opportunities or losing market share to AI-powered competitors during the holiday season.
The Talkdesk 2024 Holiday Survey was conducted via the online platform Pollfish in August 2024. It asked 1,500 American consumers and 400 retailers about their perspectives on AI and its role in assisting in the holiday shopping experience.