From 2020, and as a consequence of the pandemic, consumers are increasingly demanding customized experiences, as well as comfort and making sure their favorite brands are committed to the environment, social media and governance. One trend seen in Forrester Research’s 2022 forecast shows that 80% of consumers will see the world as completely digital and barrier-free with the physical, with higher expectations for digital experiences to work well. Therefore, they expect companies to pay particular attention to creating a successful and sustainable digital customer experience.
Looking ahead to 2022, and to achieve these expectations, companies are also aware of the next steps on the road to digital transformation and how to accelerate future demands. The Forrester Research study analyzed consumer and company behavior to list the top nine predictions that will be seen over the next year:
- 10% of technology executives will prioritize investments to radically expand creativity and innovation. This year, 21% of global shopping influencers said that for their companies, digital transformation was critical to addressing business model change. Next year, that figure will be less than 15%, but that doesn’t mean that technology acceleration will slow down, as there is still a need to invest in smart technologies such as automation and forecasting mechanisms that focus on outcomes and not just finance issues.
- Global spending on order management software will rise to more than $1 billion by 2022 and by 2024 to $1.5 billion. For brands, the best experiences will be delivered through “commerce anywhere”. It will be present with a diversity of facilities, for all shopping moments. Therefore, companies will invest in building experience architectures, starting with order management, payments and inventory control, which will make immersive experiences real for each consumer profile.
- By 2022, 60% of security incidents will involve third parties. Companies are looking to make supply chains more resilient without giving up their competitive advantage. The combination of these two priorities impacts the growth of their third-party ecosystem. However, this can be a security issue. According to Forrester data, 55% of security professionals reported that their organization had an incident involving their supply chain or third-party vendors in the last 12 months. To avoid being potential victims of cyber attacks, managers are rethinking strategies and turning to risk assessment to better map the supply chain and have business continuity management.
- 75% of personalized engagement strategies will fail to meet return on investment (ROI) goals due to inadequate customer information. Digital engagement will be the norm next year as 70% of marketers will adopt an “always-on” digital engagement strategy by 2022. Some 17% of B2B consumers said skills demonstrated during the buying process were paramount, well ahead of sales rep relationship (5%) or customer referrals (6%). Aligned with that, the marketing budget that has been reduced to 19% this year will increase to 25% by 2022, however, these efforts will not meet ROI goals because of a failure to understand who the buyer is. It is essential for senior marketers to instill the importance of putting the customer at the center to ensure that they achieve personalization goals.
- By 2022, $10 billion of design spending will be shifted to providers and services committed to accessibility. As accessibility becomes mandatory, technology providers and service providers will need to strengthen the consumer experience. More organizations that buy technology committed to accessibility in 2022, due to the growing number of companies creating diversity and inclusion programs (26% did so for the first time in 2021). Companies will need to do the same and make similar commitments if they want a share of the $10 billion.
- Companies are failing in the “work from anywhere” model, and it’s not the virus’ fault. 10% of companies will commit to a fully remote future and for the remaining 90% the prescription of vaccines will generate complications; but this will not be the cause of most back-office failures. Hardest hit will be the 60% of companies that will move to a hybrid model: a third of the first attempts at the “work from anywhere” model will not work. For managers, the hybrid model would work, but they will continue their daily lives as if employees were fully in the office. A smaller number (30%) of companies insist on a fully face-to-face model, but their employees will not accept it. Attrition to these companies will rise above industry averages: monthly attrition rates will increase to 2.5% by 2022. That scenario will only change when leaders finally commit to making hybrid work happen.
- Cloud-native is the focus of attention in the enterprise cloud. Native cloud adoption increased between 2020 and 2021: developers reported an increase in the use of containerized (33% to 42%) and serverless (26% to 32%) in their organization. By 2022, cloud-native adoption will increase to half of enterprise organizations. More importantly, companies will reshape their cloud strategies to be cloud native and big data, AI, IoT technologies will transcend all major technology domains.
- Bias rewards pay off. Bias rewards are based on rewards to users who detect problems in security software. In the case of bias trends, users are rewarded for spotting trends in AI systems. By 2022, at least 5 major companies will introduce this type of program.
- By 2022, investment in smart infrastructure will increase by 40%. By 2022, smart infrastructure investments are expected to experience remarkable growth driven by unexpected government spending across geographies. IoT and cutting-edge technologies using advanced networks such as 5G have proven they can enable smart, connected roads and trains.
To facilitate pandemic recovery, municipal planning will prioritize initiatives to provide citizens with Internet connectivity, improve public health, and manage critical resources such as water and energy through the use of smart meters. These insights will be re-used in IoT-enabled infrastructure to modify traffic patterns, reduce congestion, or enable autonomous vehicles at ports and airports.
With all these trends for 2022, it is clear that lessons learned from 2020 and 2021 need to be reviewed to build a more agile, creative and resilient path forward. Technology spending will accelerate and leaders will invest in innovation to refocus their business strategies with the adoption of AI and other emerging technologies.
For Luiz Meisler, Executive Vice President at Oracle Latin America, it is time to analyze how new technologies are helping to unlock the creativity and innovation of companies and individuals. “We have gone through several challenges in recent months and we know that this is not the end. During this time, technology was a strong ally in rebuilding human and corporate relationships. Now is the time to walk with a firm step and imagine a future even more connected and in line with consumer expectations as a way to move even further in the improvement of society,” he concludes.
