Happy Friday! Here’s the latest roundup of industry news from this week in CX.
This week, we’re looking at a new generative AI assistant by Zoom, a new partnership between Genesys and Salesforce. We also look into the new Digital Markets Act by the European Commission and explain what it means for some of the big tech companies.
Let’s dive into it!
Key News
- The vast majority (82%) of UK respondents are aware of the metaverse, while one-third (33%) have both heard of it and know what it means. These findings suggest consumer understanding of the metaverse is still on the rise in the UK, especially when compared to global levels, where 42% of consumers are both aware of the metaverse and know what it is, reveals Toluna in their report published this week.
- Genesys and Salesforce have launched CX Cloud, an AI-powered solution that seamlessly integrates data and communication channels to meet growing customer demands for personalised experiences. According to Genesys’ report from April 2023, CX leaders (44%) noted that the biggest challenge to delivering fluid experiences is the lack of carryover of customer context from one channel to another. With CX Cloud from Genesys and Salesforce, organisations can improve customer personalisation, announced Genesys yesterday.
- After a sexist act of Rubiales kissing Jenni Hermoso on the lips, Spain and the world joined Spain’s #MeToo movement to protest against unacceptable behaviour and misuse of power. Rubiales has been placed on a 90-day suspension, and Montse Tomé has been named Spain’s first female head coach. This is an important victory for the world of female football, but also a great act of bravery and fight against bullying, sexism, and unfair workplace environment.
Commentary share : latest retail figures showing a rise in consumer confidence
Jat Sahi, Retail Consulting Lead at Fujitsu discusses how the latest figures seem to be a positive indicator of economic recovery:
‘The retail sales surge in August is undeniably a positive indicator of robust economic recovery. This substantial boost underscores the retail sector’s resilience and shifting consumer sentiments. The takeaway? Retailers that pivot with empathy and flexibility not only weather the storm but also thrive.’
Zoom introduces new generative AI-powered assistant ‘AI Companion’
Zoom Video Communications announced the company’s generative AI digital assistant, Zoom AI Companion (formerly Zoom IQ). Since Zoom introduced generative AI in early June, thousands of companies have benefited from free trials of Team Chat compose and Meeting summary.
Beginning this fall, Zoom will significantly expand its generative AI offering across its platform with the launch of AI Companion, at no additional cost with paid Zoom user accounts.
In their announcement, Zoom says AI Companion will reinforce the company’s vision to deliver limitless human connection on one platform and empowering people by increasing their productivity.
‘We are transcending the hype in generative AI by delivering tangible products and disrupting the industry’s pricing model, making it easy for businesses and people like you and me to leverage generative AI’s full benefits in our day-to-day work,’ said Smita Hashim, chief product officer at Zoom.
How will Zoom AI Companion transform modern work?
AI Companion makes it easy and frictionless to collaborate and become more productive, removing repetitive tasks and distractions. It also incorporates several new real-time AI capabilities immediately, with additional capabilities expected to launch over the next few months.
AI Companion is transforming modern work in the following ways:
● With Zoom Meetings, users can watch recordings faster through highlights and smart chapters, so they can easily catch up on a missed meeting. Post-meeting, hosts can receive an automated meeting summary to share with attendees and those who were unable to attend a meeting. These capabilities help team members who may be in different time zones catch up asynchronously.
● Zoom Team Chat allows users to quickly draft messages based on the context of a chat thread, as well as change tone and length, so they can spend less time composing replies. In the coming weeks, users will be able to catch up on long chat threads through generative AI summarization.
● Zoom Whiteboard users will get help from AI Companion with generating and categorising ideas. Zoom predicts that by spring 2024, users will be able to harness their whiteboard content to generate images and populate whiteboard templates.
● Zoom Mail users will be able to get draft email suggestions.
How will AI Companion make meetings more efficient?
○ Pre-meeting preparation: Ask AI Companion to find the status of key projects to prepare for an upcoming customer meeting. AI Companion will be able to surface knowledge from meetings, chats, whiteboards, emails, documents, and, with users’ permission, from third-party applications on behalf of the user, to provide the latest updates.
○ In-meeting real-time support: Ask AI Companion real-time questions during the meeting to catch up on key points in the discussion, create and file a support ticket on an issue raised during a call, or provide a draft response to a question raised during the meeting.
○ Post meeting: Ask AI Companion to summarise the meeting that was held, automatically identify action items and key stakeholders, and surface the next steps to the relevant stakeholders in Team Chat or, with users’ permission, in their third-party applications.
What is the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and how will it impact the biggest tech companies?
The European Commission published an official list of tech companies (‘gatekeepers’) that must accept and implement the new Digital Markets Act (DMA) rules. Let’s start by unpacking some of the terms and explaining how these new roles will shake up the market.
What is the Digital Markets Act?
The European Commission defines the Digital Markets Act (DMA) as ‘the EU’s law to make the markets in the digital sector fairer and more contestable‘. This is one of the first tools to regulate the power of large digital platforms.
In other words, it establishes clearly defined objective criteria to regulate large digital platforms providing core platform services. Another term used to identify these companies is gatekeepers. The European Commission published a list of seven gatekeepers in July 2023, explaining the terms and conditions under which these tech companies must operate from September this year.
What are ten core platform services encompassed by the DMA?
- Online intermediation services;
- Online search engines;
- Online social networking services;
- Video-sharing platform services;
- Number-independent interpersonal communication services;
- Operating systems;
- Cloud computing services;
- Advertising services;
- Web browsers;
- Virtual assistants.
Let’s now take a look at some of the regulations identified gatekeepers will have to follow.
Gatekeepers will no longer:
- treat services and products offered by the gatekeeper itself more favourably in ranking than similar services or products offered by third parties on the gatekeeper’s platform;
- prevent consumers from linking up to businesses outside their platforms;
- prevent users from un-installing any pre-installed software or app if they wish so;
- track end users outside of the gatekeepers’ core platform service for the purpose of targeted advertising, without effective consent having been granted.
In a nutshell, the companies listed by the EU will have to obey the rules and implement behaviours that make the markets more open for their competitors. Will this regulation make the world experience more fair behaviour and space for new players to enter the game?
In their official announcement, the European Commission states that in case a gatekeeper does not comply with the obligations laid down by the DMA, the Commission can impose fines up to 10% of the company’s total worldwide turnover, which can go up to 20% in case of repeated infringement.
Thanks for tuning into CXM’s weekly roundup of industry news. Check back next Friday for the latest updates of the week!