Collision 2023 did not disappoint! As in previous years, the energy and excitement of being with 30,000 people who are passionate about the future of technology is inspiring..and a bit overwhelming. A few of my key takeaways from the show:

  • A.I. was THE buzzword (no surprise there). Even presenters who said they weren’t going to speak about it ended up slipping in references to A.I.
  • There are a lot of different perspectives regarding A.I. – ranging from excitement about this never before seen game changer to caution about privacy and the need for governance 
  • Amidst the A.I. hype was the continued challenge for organizations to leverage existing data
  • A vast majority of companies are still in the beginner/early stages of their insights journeys, meaning they have not yet figured out how to use data to fully inform on business performance and drive actionable next steps across the organization
  • Data silos continue to be a buzz word as they still represent obstacles to democratized insights
  • Understanding the customer journey has become more challenging as interactions at every step of the journey have decreased
  • A.I. + Data will need training and guidance (and a lot of testing and proving) before organizations will be willing to have full trust in the results

My biggest takeaway – and how I see organizations proceeding in the near term? Companies will continue to closely watch the evolution of AI and cautiously test some very specific use cases BUT will focus on ways to access, leverage and democratize their data with more traditional methods in the meantime. There is a critical need to be able to track and measure engagement and growth from awareness through to ROI and ROAS and that cannot wait for A.I. to provide a more automated way to achieve this.