As 2023 draws to a close, at OpenText, we’re reflecting on the year behind us, and the remarkable advancements made in how we use information to help organizations work smarter. But this is also an opportunity to look forward with anticipation to the limitless possibilities and shifts in the technology landscape that may impact your business. OpenText content services experts predict 2024 to be a pivotal year for how companies use intelligent information to supercharge innovation, boost employee productivity, and optimize business processes. When content-rich processes facilitate operations and insights (rather than create friction) through smarter information, the business outcomes are powerful.
Let’s explore five content management trends that will help organizations work smarter in the coming year.
#1 – A solid information management foundation will lead to impactful AI gains
Who doesn’t want to tap into all that AI-powered work can deliver? Enhanced efficiency, cost savings and informed decision making? Bring it on!
While 34% of organizations are already tapping into AI to create new revenue channels, others have yet to reap such benefits.[1] The challenge: the data isn’t ready. Fifty-four percent companies say a lack of resources, knowledge, products and organized data to feed AI are the biggest hurdles to benefitting from AI.[2] And 72% of organizations say managing data is preventing them from scaling AI use cases.[3]
Organizations with a solid information management foundation will be primed to benefit from generative AI in 2024—leveraging robust content services to ensure data is secure, available and accessible. From there, the possibilities to reimagine work and reach new heights of innovation are endless, using tools such as generative AI-powered intelligent assistants to help employees find content faster across diverse sources.
And with options to lean on AI experts, experiment with data (within a private generative AI environment) and structure data for maximum results, organizations can take the guesswork out of AI and see productivity soar in 2024.
#2 – Public cloud SaaS solutions will help win the race for talent
Move over Gen Y, there’s a new workforce moving up the ranks! 27% of the workforce will be comprised of Gen Z by 2025[4] and with the new demographic comes heightened employee expectations around user-friendly technology and work-from-anywhere flexibility.
With organizations under pressure to combat employee churn and the growing phenomenon of quiet quitting (when employees do just the bare minimum to stay employed), improving the digital employee experience is paramount. Organizations that take action with public cloud SaaS productivity tools will make it easier for employees to do their jobs, stay engaged, and remain loyal to the company—winning the race for talent.
SaaS content management solutions can drive productivity with integrations that empower company-wide departments by meeting teams in their preferred applications and UIs—within Google Workspace, Microsoft Teams, Salesforce and other apps. Quick to deploy with out-of-the-box functionality, these solutions deliver content in context, supported by chat-based conversational search and translation if desired, eliminating the need to switch between applications. The result: a seamless user experience for employees of any generation.
#3 – Operational experience (as part of Total Experience) will set companies apart
Three hours a day! That is the average amount of time employees estimate they spend looking for information to do their jobs.[5] These massive lags in productivity are due to digital friction: unnecessary effort by employees to use technology or data for work. And no one seems immune.
Ninety-five percent of organizations report digital friction is impacting the organization, with very real business consequences: lower efficiency (46%), increased costs (43%) and decreased employee satisfaction (40%).[6] The same report also found 58% of enterprises lost business opportunities due to an inability to access data in a timely manner—jumping to 70% for companies with less than 5,000 employees.
Organizations have long been focused on customer experience, and employee experience took center stage as a result of the pandemic. But back-office operations have always taken a back seat – until now. The reality is that organizations cannot achieve their employee and customer experience ambitions without first establishing a solid operational foundation. To reduce digital friction and achieve operational excellence, organizations will need to first optimize their operational experience, which means delivering information when and where it’s needed within critical business processes. If business growth is an organizational imperative, it can’t be fully realized without combining customer, employee and now operational experience into a total experience strategy.
By connecting people, content and processes, organizations will remove productivity barriers within key roles such as finance, human resources and legal—driving desired business outcomes to maintain a competitive edge with improved agility, shorter lead times, increased customer loyalty and improved communications.
#4 – Regulated industries will accelerate modernization with pre-packaged cloud apps
Industries such as public sector, life sciences and healthcare have been traditionally slow to modernize technology and processes primarily due to security and budget concerns, continuing to rely on outdated systems and applications. But change is afoot with organizations playing modernization catch-up, leveraging pre-packaged cloud apps for a fast path to digital transformation and the cloud. And that trend will continue through 2024.
By taking advantage of industry-certified and integrated solutions, organizations can introduce automation and intelligent experiences to complex and regulated processes, such as bringing life-saving therapies to market or digitizing patient healthcare records.
Industry-specific cloud apps provide a way to modernize systems by connecting data, content and applications and maximizing existing infrastructure investments while enhancing information availability, value and security. Plus, with the flexibility to address specific use cases and requirements, such as accelerating citizen services for government or integrating with electronic medical record systems for healthcare, organizations can add new capabilities as requirements change.
#5 – AI will be a catalyst to zero trust information security program adoption
In a new McKinsey survey, 40% of organizations plan to increase overall AI investments due to advancements in generative AI. But not without trepidation, as 53% acknowledge cybersecurity as a generative AI-related risk, but only 38% are working to mitigate the risk.[7]
Enter a zero trust approach to security and information governance.
The increase in scope and scale of data breaches and data privacy regulations requires more effective solutions to protect sensitive customer and high-value data wherever it flows. The use of cyber-resilient data protection tools, with AI-powered insights, will provide end-to-end protection across the data lifecycle, allowing organizations to de-identify sensitive information to neutralize the effects of a data breach while permitting continued use of the data in its protected state.
As a result, organizations can be prepared for widespread use of generative AI while ensuring data protection and privacy—protecting data that matters most.
We can’t wait to see how companies will drive value across the organization in 2024 with the next generation of content services innovations.
Are you ready for the future of work? Get started with content services designed to master modern work with smarter information.
[1] Gartner®, Board brief on generative AI, May 2023
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
[2] OpenText Research, Enterprise Customer AI Preferences, September 2023
[3] McKinsey Digital, The economic potential of generative AI: the next productivity frontier, June 2023
[4] World Economic Forum, Gen Z and the end of work as we know it, May 2022
[5] Foundry Research sponsored by OpenText, MarketPulse Survey: Digital Friction, September 2023
[6] CIO, Digital Frictions Holds Back Businesses, 2023
[7] McKinsey, Cybersecurity in the age of generative AI, September 2023
