As people become more used to talking to their consumer devices, will they also expect to talk to their business systems? Business intelligence vendor Qlik is betting they will, with its acquisition of conversational analytics tool CrunchBot and its parent Crunch Data. Users will be able to pose natural language questions within Qlik’s own products, within tools like Slack and Skype, and, yes, by asking Amazon Alexa.

I can’t decide if a report that most consumers find chatbots annoying qualifies as obvious because, well, they are, or as non-obvious because most retail executives think chatbots make customers happy. Either way, this report funded by Oracle NetSuite documents dangerous gap between what customers want (a simple, streamlined experience) and what companies are delivering (lots of annoying interactions). Worth a look.

Customer intelligence platform Acxiom will collaborate with ActionIQ to deliver enhanced customer insights. ActionIQ’s CDP will integrate with Acxiom’s demographic, household, behavioral and preference data and with Acxiom’s RealID identity resolution solution. Acxiom experts will work with clients to customize and streamline ActionIQ.