Let’s face it: We’re doing things much faster (for the most part) because of AI. Simply using generative AI to code faster has resulted in quicker time to market for many products and services in the customer experience (CX) space. This rapidly increasing pace of innovation not only affects technology vendors; it also affects businesses that buy the technology.
Metrigy’s Customer Experience Optimization 2024-25 global research study of 544 companies provides insights into how companies perceive and respond to the pace of innovation.
The State of Innovation
Most research participants (64%) said the pace of innovation is “just right,” while 22.5% said things are moving too quickly and they can’t keep up. Only 13.5% said the pace is too slow for them—these are the companies whose DNA values technology and allocates the budget to prove it.
Of course, one of the problems is that consumers aren’t quite keeping pace with innovation. For example, only 12.7% of consumers prefer using chatbots, 40% avoid them, and 47% use them selectively.
AI: A Catalyst for Innovation
A significant takeaway from the study is the role of AI in accelerating innovation. Nearly two-thirds of IT and CX leaders say AI-based products are speeding up their own CX innovation—reflecting a broader trend of AI being a transformative force that improves business metrics.
Successful companies have embraced the rapid pace of innovation: 80% of Metrigy’s research success group attribute at least some of their progress to the integration of AI innovation, while only 55% of companies in the non-success group report the same benefit. This discrepancy highlights a clear advantage for those who are leveraging AI. The success group has much higher measurable business metric improvements than the non-success group.
Decision-Making Trends: From Deep Dives to High-Level Insights
Though innovations are speeding up, most IT and CX leaders prefer to have a detailed understanding of them, vs. a high-level understanding, though that is slowly changing. Nearly 64% of companies say they prefer to have an in-depth understanding of all technologies before deciding what to buy to solve business problems and opportunities. On the flipside, 35% say they prefer to have a high-level understanding of technology, present problems/opportunities to their technology partners, and trust their recommendations. Slightly more cited the latter as their preference in August 2024 compared to January 2024, saying the pace of change in CX technologies is too fast to keep up.
Trusting recommendations from partners allows businesses to make informed decisions without getting bogged down in the minutiae of every technological development.
