Forrester 2018 Predictions See GDPR, AI, Recruiting as IT Challenges

Intro: A recent “predictions” report from Forrester indicates that a significant share of organizations will fail to take full advantage of the latest information technology. The report, titled “Predictions 2018: A Year of Reckoning,” finds that many companies will have to deal with eroding customer experience quality with their online systems. As a result many CEOs will fall short in achieving the goals of their digital transformation efforts. Furthermore, organizations that struggle to hire top IT talent will continue to struggle and fall behind their competitors. What’s more, many will fail to fully comply with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Forrester’s predictions also provide insights on the implementation of artificial intelligence, cyber-security and other IT trends. This slideshow highlights ten of the report’s predictions.

Forrester predicts 30 percent of companies will see declines in customer experience quality. This is because too many executives will ignore evidence of market disruption and the need to update their systems, putting their firms at risk.

Forrester also found that 20 percent of CEOs will fail to act on digital transformations, even though three of five chief executives currently believe they are already behind.

Companies struggling to attract IT talent will pay up to 20 percent more to hire professionals with the digital skills they are looking for. Much of that expense will be driven by the need to set up digital incubation centers in talent hotspots.

Intelligent agents will directly influence 10 percent of purchase decisions. To do so, platforms and other intelligent agents will collect data about consumer preferences, behaviors, transactions and even emotions.

But fully 67 percent of retailers will not be prepared to leverage intelligent agents. Those which are prepared will use these agents to create more dynamic online and in-store buying experiences.

The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) goes into effect on May 25, 2018. But 80 percent of organizations will not fully comply with the rules. Of those companies, one-half will not comply intentionally after weighing the costs and risks and deciding it’s not worth the cost.

One-half of banks will fail to take advantage of open banking—the treasure trove of account histories that “tells the story” of their customers. But tech giants like Amazon and Google will, posing a major competitive to the relevance of those banks.

Forrester says 75 percent of early artificial intelligence (AI) projects will fall short of expectations in 2018 due to operational oversights. Too many investments focus on creating use cases and projects to demonstrate immediate business value, but are too narrow to provide long-term benefits.

One third of proof of concept projects will create a sound foundation for Blockchain implementations. These proofs of concepts will advance the premise that Blockchain can drive strategies while effectively defending against cyber-security threats.

Forrest found that 10 percent of companies will gain business benefits from their security investments. Because security teams need to know who is accessing what, marketing departments can analyze this information to improve customer interactions.