Chapter 4 | Predictions for 2024 and Beyond

Predictions for 2024 and beyond: What leaders at brands in Australia and New Zealand predict for the year ahead

With the rapid adoption of new technology like AI and automation, along with macroeconomic impacts on individual consumers and businesses, the customer experience is positioned to be the most important differentiator for brands in 2024 and beyond.

AI underpins the customer experience, but it’s not a complete replacement for any role or solution. Brands are still warming up to AI — only 6% of ANZ brands report using AI in the customer experience, but more than 50% of executives plan to bring it on in the next year. AI hesitancy comes from finding skilled employees to set up and manage AI systems, ensuring AI models are accurate, and maintaining quality and security.

Here’s what GTM leaders at brands in Australia and New Zealand and the data from recent surveys indicate will be the biggest changes for the customer experience in the near future:

• Brands in Australia and New Zealand will need to truly understand each customer's pain points, and customers will expect deep personalisation and tailored approaches across customer interactions (on any channel).
• Companies will refocus organisation-wide priorities, behaviours and systems and integrate customer experience throughout the org.
• Eliminating silos across go-to-market teams will remain a key priority.
• Both B2B and B2C brands will leverage technology and AI to generate insights that help them understand customer challenges and provide deep value to the customer.
• Companies will increasingly, as AI adoption increases, build AI-powered bots to meet the demand for self-service as customers and prospects seek support and to conduct research.
• B2B businesses will continue to take key CX learnings from their B2C counterparts and increasingly shift to the B2H (business to human) mindset.
• With content creators on the rise, B2B brands will partner with creators to build trust and credibility with engaged audiences and community.

“AI is changing everything about how the buyer will buy. In the context of how people search and find information themselves and how they source and identify potential products and services, AI is going to magnify that a hundredfold. Now a buyer can search at a level they’ve never had before, through AI finding and sorting answers to their questions, progressing their thoughts, and figuring out options, all with context and personalisation.” Christian Kinnear, Chief Sales Officer at HubSpot on the Asia Growth Forecast Podcast.

The reinvention of B2B GTM strategy starts with more human customer experiences

Using the tools that brands already have, or even fewer, there are ample opportunities to assess, refocus, and reprioritise GTM strategies for 2024 with customer experience at the forefront. 

“To successfully navigate the roiling economic conditions, brands need to be relevant — and that means consumers need to be at the centre of strategic thinking.” Marc L'Huillier, EY Oceania Customer Strategy Leader; Consumer Insights Practice Leader.

To start, map out the customer journey and share findings between sales, marketing, and customer service. Gather data and insights from a shared source of truth — or align systems first if needed. Look at how your teams are spending their time, and what can be done by machines. 

“Take on an agile, customer-centric mindset to revitalise every touchpoint and see where systems can be streamlined, or tasks can be automated. And make sure that your brand is present across the channels where consumers are researching and making buying decisions, which for most customers is primarily on social and video platforms. Once you’ve pruned and reset your path for growth, iterate along the way in response to customer feedback.”  Kat Warboys, Senior Marketing Director, APAC at HubSpot.

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