Knowledge management predictions for 2020
Today, there is a greater focus on customer experience across all channels of engagement, an appreciation for data as the oil that fuels business, growing use of automation and AI, and heightened concern about security and compliance. As we approach a new year—and a new decade— executives from multiple sectors commented on aspects of these intertwined trends and what may lie ahead in 2020.
Greater scrutiny of AI-based decision making. The increasing amount of privacy/protection laws seen throughout the world has prompted organizations to develop data governance programs that include data privacy by default. However, organizations need to be proactive with their privacy standards and programs. If not, they will be caught out of compliance for various laws and ultimately not trusted by their customers. While addressed within the GDPR, the use of advanced analytics and AI for decision making is ripe for further laws. With such concerns as biased decisions based on race, sex, nationality and age (to name a few), organizations will need to be more aware and transparent as to how their developed algorithms and AI are making decisions that could impact their customers. — Todd Wright, Head of Data Management and Data Privacy Solutions at SAS
AI will improve the customer support employee experience, as well as the customer experience. In 2020, AI will dramatically improve the employee experience (EX). The ability to automatically and instantly collect data from across multiple channels, analyze it and provide actionable insight will enable support agents to more quickly, easily and accurately address customer inquiries and come to highly satisfactory issue resolution. — Anand Janefalkar, Founder and CEO, UJET
In the wake of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), privacy regulation will continue to proliferate across the U.S. Other states will follow the lead from California’s footsteps and develop their own legislation. Furthermore, organizations will feel additional pressure from consumers who desire transparency and will increasingly make purchasing decisions accordingly. Acting in accordance with pressure from the government and public to prioritize privacy will come essential to organizations’ bottom lines. — Sharon Chand, Cyber Talent Leader, Deloitte Cyber
RPA will play a pivotal role in global data privacy and governance initiatives. The 2020s are shaping up to be the decade defined by big data—with the advent of 5G and the explosion of connected devices. In this new era, we’ll see even more pressure on companies to be fully transparent about the information they collect and how it’s used, with legislation like GDPR and the upcoming California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) representing only the tip of the data governance iceberg. Additionally, as malware increasingly becomes enhanced with artificial intelligence (AI) to identify network vulnerabilities, intelligent, secure bots will be a critical line of defense against data breaches. — Prince Kohli, CTO at Automation Anywhere
A new category is being created: data as a service. Consumers are generating more and more data each day. Companies are likewise hoarding that data. Selling or sharing consumer data responsibly will require new methods of computation/privacy-preserving analytics and a new architectural model. Enabling “data as a service”, which includes data modeling as a service and machine learning/artificial intelligence as a service, will generate new revenue opportunities for companies that store and analyze massive amounts of data with third parties. — Ameesh Divatia, Co-Founder & CEO of Baffle