Gabby Fredkin, Head of Analytics & Insights at ADAPT, explores the journey from operational excellence to customer excellence, focusing on how top-performing organisations achieve this transformation in this Digital Edge presentation.

A key insight is the growing use of AI, particularly conversational commerce, to drive better customer outcomes.

For the first time since before COVID, customer acquisition and retention have returned as top priorities for CIOs, signalling a shift in technology strategies to meet rising customer expectations.

Organisations are also placing a strong emphasis on modernising and simplifying their tech infrastructure, as outdated systems struggle to meet current demands.

Security is a critical pillar of operational excellence, especially in balancing data privacy with user experience.

High-performing organisations integrate security throughout their strategies, particularly through DevSecOps practices.

Leaders in modernisation are consolidating and connecting more applications, offering a streamlined view of business operations and enhancing customer experiences.

This modernisation also creates an environment where AI can play a more significant role in automation, leading to process simplification and improved decision-making across teams.

Many organisations continue to face challenges in preparing for AI integration.

While some are exploring AI to drive innovation, a gap remains in data governance, literacy, and architecture.

Top performers succeed by focusing on quick wins and measurable business metrics.

They also shift AI ownership to enterprise-wide leadership, promoting collaboration across IT, digital, and security teams. To ensure AI success, Gabby advocates for executive alignment and increased AI investment to generate tangible business value.

 

Key Takeaways

  • AI and Customer Excellence: Top performers leverage AI, particularly in conversational commerce, to enhance customer acquisition and retention, reflecting a shift in CIO priorities towards customer-centric technology strategies.
  • Modernisation and Security Integration: Organisations excelling in modernisation streamline their tech infrastructure and embed security early in the process, reducing friction while meeting both customer and privacy expectations.
  • AI Readiness and Leadership: Successful AI adoption requires mature data governance and literacy, along with enterprise-wide ownership of AI initiatives, fostering cross-functional collaboration and aligning AI projects with business objectives.
Contributors
Gabby Fredkin Head of Analytics & Insights at ADAPT
Gabby’s primary role is managing analysis to produce ADAPT’s actionable insights. He has extensive experience in using data to identify technology trends... More

Gabby’s primary role is managing analysis to produce ADAPT’s actionable insights. He has extensive experience in using data to identify technology trends to support Australian organisations.​

Using modern data science techniques, he provides ADAPT and its customers with confidence in the accuracy and validity of the information used for ADAPT’s research, advisory and events.​

With a passion for creating stories with data, Gabby is consistently rated as one of the top speakers at ADAPT’s events. In roundtable discussions, he specialises in using statistics to initiate thought-provoking discussions. ​

Gabby is effective in translating information into insights, enabling ADAPT’s customers to become more data-driven.​

Gabby’s primary areas of expertise are:​

  • Advanced AI and ML practices, including AI ethics.​
  • Building models to benchmark and predict IT performance.​
  • End-user behaviour and human-centred design.​
  • Cross-functional team design and value, such as DevSecOps.​
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customer experience modernisation data