Customer experience has dropped from first to third place on the priority list of CEOs, according to this IBM survey. The new top priority is productivity or profitability, up from sixth place in 2022. Most of the survey focuses on generative AI, which 50% of CEOs say they’ve already deployed even though just 29% of their executive teams say they have the in-house expertise to do it.
Italy-based Neodata Group and Adabra have merged to become Blendee. The firm will offer a combined “marketing operating system” that combines the Adabra Customer Data Platform with Neodata’s Adagio ad server and Exaudi Data Management Platform. The company also announced €6 million in new funding.
Drilling down a level in the organization, Intercom finds that 67% of customer support leaders feel customers are ready to interact with an AI chatbot although just 45% of support teams agree. In fact, 53% of support teams are worried that AI will have a negative impact on the customer service industry, while 71% of leaders believe the impact will be positive.
Cookieless marketing platform (and CDP) Commanders Act has purchased Adloop, which offers a no-code marketing analytics platform. The deal will add campaign-level performance analytics and media optimization to Commanders Act’s core offering. It’s a good reminder that CDPs are taking a larger role in advertising management.