Author: Peggy Smedley
Roughly 71% of companies believe AI (artificial intelligence) offers the best ROI (return on investment) for customer engagement—but are we running too fast and furious at a solution that might not ultimately yield the best results? That is the question I would like to explore this week. Apply Digital surveyed 500 senior leaders from large enterprises across North America about what customer engagement tactics are proving most successful. Certainly, AI entered the conversation and was cited as the most valuable. But where AI is being used in customer engagement is interesting to consider. The Role of AI in Customer Engagement…
This is the time of year to peer into that crystal ball and take a closer look at what is to come in the year ahead. Many analysts and construction companies are throwing their predictions into the ring, helping paint a picture of how 2025 will unfold. Today, let’s take a close look at where we are today—and then look at where we are headed in 2025. Where We Are Now JLL suggests the first three quarters of the year brought consistency in costs and the start of interest rate cuts, along with high levels of construction activity. In 2024,…
Last week, companies all around the world came together at Microsoft Ignite to look at how technologies are transforming business, and one technology took center stage. You guessed it: gen AI (artificial intelligence). IDC suggests gen AI usage jumped from 55% in 2023 to 75% in 2024 and worldwide spending will reach $632 billion by 2028. For today’s blog, let’s take a look at some powerful case studies and what’s in store for 2025 and beyond. To start, let’s better understand the impact of gen AI in particular. For decades, companies have been working with structured data, which is typically…
Last week I had the opportunity to attend Procore’s Groundbreak event, where we looked to the future of technology in the construction industry. The biggest takeaway: AI (artificial intelligence) is here, and it is going to completely transform how the construction industry does business. But let me be the first to caution all my construction readers not to rush into AI without having a plan. Let me be clear about this before everyone freaks out. I say play with GenAI. Get a good feel for it. And then plan your strategy. Perhaps this doesn’t come as a big surprise. We…
No one company can achieve success alone. This has proven to be an undeniable fact. Many industries often have had to painfully learn that it takes collaboration and collective participation. To achieve great innovation, it truly takes a village. Partnerships, alliances, and ecosystems, all working in tandem, are essential to ensuring long-term success of any technology implementation. We are all beginning to witness this unfold repeatedly, especially with the rise of gen AI (artificial intelligence). In research conducted, Gartner finds 59% of CEOs and senior business executives acknowledge AI as the new technology that will impact their industry most in…
2024 will be wrapping up soon and we will ring in 2025. With the New Year comes new opportunities. New opportunities to grow our workforce, grow our adoption of technology, and, in turn, grow our businesses and bottomline. But the question always lingering at this time of year is: what technology will rise to the top of the CIO’s priority list in the year ahead? Perhaps the first point goes without saying, but let’s just lay the foundation for this discussion. In the past few years, gen AI (artificial intelligence) has taken the world by storm. In fact, it has…
Gen AI (artificial intelligence) brings significant opportunities for businesses in nearly every vertical market, but achieving the promised outcomes requires quite a bit of planning and strategy. As with any new technology implementation, it must start with a core business objective, followed by a strategy for how to leverage technology to meet that objective. Businesses must follow an AI roadmap to be hugely successful. For this blog, consider for a moment how this roadmap might look like for your organization. Here’s a few steps to consider along the journey when implementing gen AI into your organization today, including: Step 1:…
Is the 2024 labor market in construction strong? Has work slowed to a grinding halt? What is the outlook for 2025 and beyond? Is there a shortage of labor? Are young workers curious about construction or shying away from it? All these questions are weighing heavily on top of the minds of many construction company executives today. Despite all the hype, ABC (Associated Builders and Contractors) is sounding the alarm bells because construction is plummeting and sadly this shouldn’t be happening when it’s an industry that should be ripe with opportunity. Let’s look at some of the recent numbers from…
Over at The Peggy Smedley Show last week, I took a deep dive into the history of manufacturing, walking through the four industrial revolutions, looking at the evolution of manufacturing and technology. The hope was to identify how to move forward, amid the latest advances in AI (artificial intelligence), machine learning, deep learning, and more. To help examine this further, Simon Floyd, general manager, manufacturing and mobility, Microsoft, joined me to discuss the history of manufacturing and technology. He shared with me about when we saw the first big analog dials turning up in manufacturing, plastic injection molding, PLCs, (programmable…
Technology brings big opportunities, if done right. Consider the example of the digital twin. Roughly 75% of companies who say they are familiar with the digital twins also think the technology can deliver immense value for their organization. Think cost savings, better insights, and improved risk management, just to name a few. Hexagon recently released new insights in its The Digital Twin Industry Report. The report used data from the company’s Digital Twin Value-Maturity survey, which questioned 660 C-level executives and their direct reports about the adoption of digital twin technology within their organization. The survey reached around the world…