Can generative AI solve brands’ biggest CX challenges?

At any given moment, a confluence of forces is resetting consumers’ expectations of their digital customer experience. Currently, several are playing an outsized role and raising the stakes for marketing and CX professionals.

Let’s begin with the macro picture. Adobe’s Future of Digital Experiences research reveals that almost two in three consumers across Asia-Pacific (APAC) expect more from brands during tough economic times. Elevated cost of living pressures alone suggests that’s a current reality.

At the same time, consumers are moving further into virtual environments and want brands to follow. Within two years, 70 percent of APAC consumers expect brands to let them build a virtual product and convert it into a physical one, and 74 percent are seeking new ways to engage in immersive digital worlds.

APAC consumers, particularly younger ones, are also more attuned to the digital tools brands can access to tailor experiences to their preferences. This extends to breakthrough technologies like generative AI, where 85 percent believe it will boost their experience, and 87 percent say it will help brands make better products.

As Adobe’s Vice President of Marketing in APAC, Duncan Egan, points out, “The research is a good reminder that the bar is constantly being raised. The conversation we see in Asia Pacific and the US is a consistent one, and it’s focused on content. The speed at which you which can get content into the market and personalised is a challenge for all organisations.”

Responding in kind

To meet these new expectations and keep up with the ever-expanding demand for content, it’s no surprise brands are turning to generative AI.

The vast majority of marketing and CX professionals agree generative AI will help them work more efficiently, be more creative and better understand customer journeys, to name a few benefits. Consumers also see the potential and consider ethical use the most important imperative.

At a recent panel discussion, Jeremy Nicholas, Digital Channels Executive at Telstra and Harold Janson, Chief Personalisation Officer and Co-Founder at Helium, were joined by Duncan Egan to unpack the benefits, application and challenges associated with generative AI.

Harold Janson said that many of his client conversations centre on meeting consumer demand for convenient, relevant, and efficient interactions with digitally savvy customers.

"I’ve observed customers' changing expectations and, increasingly, they want to resolve issues digitally, even for matters that traditionally require phone calls or other contact forms."

Harold explained that meeting those needs means offering customised interactions. “Generative AI is a game changer because it opens up a vast pool of content that can be tapped to personalise experiences. It means there are no more excuses.”

Jeremy said Telstra is looking at AI use cases beyond content. The telco plans to gather information from call centres, live chat, and messaging services to enable its customer support teams.

"Overall, we are excited about AI's practical and clear applications that can benefit both our customers and our teams," Jeremy said. "From enhancing security measures to personalising experiences and improving analytics, AI is a valuable tool in our pursuit of better customer service."

Huge potential, if done right

The research confirmed that consumers see significant potential for generative AI to improve their working and shopping lives.

Above all factors, APAC consumers want brands to use generative AI to improve the employee experience. That’s followed by improving the quality of products and making the customer experience awesome. Ranked next was having guardrails to ensure ethical AI usage. After all, it’s part of instilling trust among consumers and responsible and commercially safe use for brands. Just 5 percent said that brands shouldn’t use AI at all.

Responsible innovation has long been a focus for Adobe and underpins how our generative AI tools function. This includes our founding role in the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI), a group of 1,000+ members working to increase trust and transparency online. This includes developing a secure, end-to-end system for digital content provenance, which will help people know whether a piece of content was created by a human, AI-generated or AI-edited.

We call this provenance data Content Credentials. Content Credentials can tell you what has gone into a piece of content like a nutrition label. Knowing how a piece of content was produced, edited and published means you can decide whether to trust what you see before you consume or even share it online. Understanding that is also the key to compensating creators for their contribution.

The commercial safety of content created using generative AI is another top consideration. For example, our creative generative AI model, Adobe Firefly, is only trained on licenced imagery from our stock library to avoid copyright and IP issues. Data is also meticulously parsed to mitigate bias.

Jeremy noted that ensuring transparent governance and protocols for AI usage has been a top priority at Telstra, particularly considering security and privacy obligations. Jeremy says teams are encouraged to experiment with AI, but precautions are taken to prevent unauthorised data sharing or misuse.

“Clear protocols and guidelines exist; experimentation occurs in controlled sandpits to ensure proper usage and data protections,” Jeremy said. “We emphasise strict adherence to these measures, and everyone within the company understands the importance of their implementation.”

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