Enterprise technology customers in 2023 hit a few common themes that revolved around data strategy, setting their companies up for generative AI applications, transformation, sustainability, customer experience and continuous optimization to pay for new initiatives.

Here’s a look at the big lessons from 2023 (Constellation Insights PDF library).

Without data strategy you don’t have an artificial intelligence strategy. Those enterprises with a strong data game are poised to lead in AI and generative AI. "We declared five years ago that data and AI was going to be fundamental," said Intuit CEO Sasan Goodarzi, speaking at a recent investor conference. "And everything starts with data." See: Intuit’s bets on data, AI, AWS pay off ahead of generative AI transformation

"We believe that AI and generative AI will transform healthcare," said CVS Health CEO Karen Lynch. "We're applying technology, data and analytics to every single aspect of our business. The effects will be positive and profound." See: CVS Health’s transformation rides on data, AI and customer experiences

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said: "The management team is getting better and better at using data to do a better job of reducing errors, to serve clients better and to have a salesperson with co-pilots. We simply have to do it."

More on how data drives transformation.

Management and business alignment matters. CXOs outlined their approaches to management, aligning to the business and managing through tech debt.

  • BT150 interview: Wayfair CTO Fiona Tan on transformation, business alignment and paying down tech debt: "My leadership team is there to ensure we have the right platform and infrastructure from a technology perspective to enable us to grow in a flexible, scalable, lean way."
  • BT150 Interview: Equifax's Manish Limaye on data architecture, transformation: "The ability to bring multiple datasets together seamlessly is an essential element of the architecture. Our transformation not only focused on the run of the mill cloud work, but really reimagining how we will bring the data together in our own data fabric. Prior to the cloud, if we have 10 data sets, they are sitting independently, and we join them together. It's a painful exercise. Now with the data fabric we built, we can tap the data at any point in the journey per the legal, regulatory and contractual obligations and really give deep insight to the customer. These are the business drivers behind every technical decision we make."

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Transformation remains front and center (and is never complete). While the definition and focus of transformation evolves, the overall theme of future proofing remains.

  • Walmart, Target highlight intersection of supply chain, customer experience Target COO John Mulligan said: "While there are many different ways our team is working to gain efficiencies and deliver value to the business, all of our projects have some things in common. First and foremost, they're all designed and implemented with a focus on our guest and continuing to build their engagement with Target. In keeping with that guest focus, we design processes and deploy technology and automation as a way to highlight the human element in our business rather than minimizing it."

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Sustainability is good business. Nate Melby, CIO of Dairyland Power, said sustainability, efficiency and transformation overlap.

"Sustainability is one of our largest goals. It intersects with technology, efficiency, and the data that we need to effectively manage the grid. Sustainability for us is also about the sustainability of our utility for the people that need us. We provide power in rural areas. We were created to solve the quality-of-life issue where it couldn't be profitable to provide power to rural areas. Our whole mission is to provide power at the lowest cost possible as efficiently and into the future with diverse resources. It's evolving as our industry has been changing, and we're seeing this energy transition happen."

 

It’s always about optimization and costs (and that includes generative AI).

John Stankey, AT&T CEO, said generative AI is driving cost savings at the company. He said during the company's third quarter earnings call: "While we're still in the very early stages of Generative AI, we're already seeing tangible AI-driven improvements in productivity and cost savings. Measurable progress has been made with lowering customer support costs, unlocking software development efficiencies, and improving our network design effectiveness. We expect these capabilities to play a key role in our continued efforts to achieve our future cost savings objectives." See: Enterprises seeing savings, productivity gains from generative AI

But it’s also about innovation (and of course generative AI). Multiple companies are looking to large language models that can be customized with proprietary knowledge.

Domino's Pizza CEO Russell Weiner said: "As you look back in the history of Domino's, we certainly have built more things internally when it comes to competitive points of difference. I think we've always said, you can't outsource a competitive point of difference. There's going to be a competitive point of difference with generative AI solutions, and we think we've got the resources and the pizza expertise internally." See: Domino's Pizza eyes generative AI, Microsoft and Uber tech to drive growth

 

Cybersecurity is front and center courtesy of new disclosure rules. In 2023, enterprises started disclosing security incidents regularly, due to Securities and Exchange Commission requirements.

And customer experiences matter. Enterprise initiatives revolved around data, generative AI, optimization and other themes, but the common thread between all of those projects were digital and customer experiences. The takeaway: Every company needs to provide good experience. Research: Connecting Experiences From Employees to Customers

Cenlar's Chief Digital Officer Josh Reicher on automation, AI and staying ahead

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Data to Decisions, Digital Safety, Privacy, and Cybersecurity, New C-Suite, Next-Generation Customer Experience, Tech Optimization

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