Only 10% of Asian businesses ready for personalised growth

Only 10% of businesses in key Asian markets are prepared to become experience-orchestrated organisations, a model that facilitates seamless personalised engagement across business channels as outlined in a report released by Affinidi in partnership with IDC.

The report identifies data collection and management as the foremost challenge, with 56% of businesses citing customers' growing reluctance to share their data amidst escalating cyber threats.

Businesses must tackle data fragmentation, evolving privacy regulations, and the necessity of building customer trust to achieve a unified and comprehensive view of customers. This is essential for delivering a fully personalised experience, a critical driver for competitive differentiation as businesses aim to become experience-orchestrated.

The report predicts that by 2025, half of the customers will evaluate companies based on the transparency of their privacy policies, thrusting businesses towards adopting user-friendly, permission-based practices.

Ian Mutter, Chief Executive Officer of Affinidi, underlined the urgency for businesses to balance the dynamics of privacy and personalisation, stating, "Turning X-O will be pivotal for businesses to stay competitive in today's digital landscape. It is no longer about just acquiring data, but also knowing how best to utilise it to cater to customers' needs and preferences."

By 2025, 45% of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are expected to prioritise strategic data management to foster a data-centric culture. By the following year, a further 40% of CIOs will collaborate with Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) to create unified strategies, abating data silos to deliver anticipated customer engagement.

Asian organisations, particularly in Singapore and India, are currently placing a higher priority on profitable growth over hyper-personalisation. However, this emphasis is projected to shift over the next few years as hyper-personalisation becomes essential for customer acquisition and retention.

The journey towards becoming an experience-orchestrated business requires overcoming barriers such as data fragmentation and the complexity introduced by varying privacy laws. Glenn Gore expressed that businesses must employ a holistic identity framework to help manage customer data across multiple platforms, ensuring secure integration while protecting privacy.

Affinidi's Holistic Identity framework enables businesses to meet regional data protection regulations while ensuring customer control over their data. It provides the operational support needed for companies to transition to an experience-orchestrated business model by offering solutions for identity verification, seamless onboarding, and consent management services.

As AI-driven expectations evolve, the survey results highlight that adapting to changing customer demands remains a significant challenge for businesses striving to deliver value.

The report underscores that only a small fraction of surveyed businesses in India, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), and North America are at the advanced stage of becoming experience-orchestrated due to issues like siloed data systems.

Addressing these challenges is crucial for businesses as they embrace technological and structural changes aimed at enhancing customer engagements and achieving sustainable growth through greater personalisation.