The business value of composable tech and generative AI

Two hot topics – composable tech and generative AI were the subject of Horizontal Digital’s “Beyond the buzzwords” breakout session at Sitecore DX 2023 Europe in London, as George Smith, Managing Director EMEA presented data-driven insights showing the power of personalized and connected customer experiences.

Fellow presenter Sheetal Jain, VP of Technology at Horizontal Digital, demonstrated how it’s possible to design a product and bring it to life within just a few moments using Sitecore’s composable suite of products along with generative AI.

Customer experience for competitive advantage

Smith started the session with a discussion around competitive advantage based on customer experience. Illustrating the shift in value from tangible assets to intangible assets such as data, software, and brand, he drew on statistics from 1976 when 84% of the value of the biggest companies in the world was based on tangible assets.

Today, 90% of the balance sheets of the largest 500 organizations in the US are based on intangible assets – data, software, and brand, also known as customer experience.

Moving from CapEX to CI

Pointing out the challenge of bridging the gap from the initial phase of a CapEX project to reaching ROI, Smith explained why a composable approach is key to success, allowing teams to deliver results often, learn, and then iterate.

Jain elaborated on how composable solutions give teams the freedom to be nimble, to focus on separate components of their DXP and operate at a simultaneous scale. With multiple sprints running at the same time, one for personalization, one for CDP, one for website design, it’s possible to make continuous improvements at a rapid scale.

“Customer experience largely is dependent on technology. The technology you use determines the rapid scale of the customer experience – your content, your design, and your data logic all combined. In a modern, composable world, you can separate the connections between your content, your presentation, and your data, so they can all live independently and be individually executed. This allows brands to meet customers’ needs faster,” said Jain.

To maximize innovation, Smith advised decoupling the support and continuous improvement teams to avoid ad-hoc projects and requests for fixes which hinder progress. And as an alternative, he suggested offering on-demand resources to ensure continuous improvement.

The willingness to automate

Making the case for automation, Smith outlined its advantages, but emphasized the need for brands to own the strategy. He also advocated the need to create a customer laboratory mindset within an organization’s marketing department, saying that through a process of continuous improvement, brands create an environment that allows them to test, learn, iterate— and react to the innovation.

According to Smith, brands that take this scientific approach have an advantage and are better prepared to capitalize on new technologies.

Launching a new product within moments using generative AI

Demonstrating the impressive opportunities offered by composable tech and generative AI, Jain outlined how Horizontal Digital created a commerce store hosted on Vercel using a composable suite of products including Content Hub Operations, Content Hub DAM, OrderCloud, and DALL-E, allowing individuals to create their own T-shirts and launch these as saleable products within moments.

The T-shirt design is created in real-time using DALL-E, and that design is uploaded into Content Hub automatically and is then added as a product via OrderCloud.

In the past, building a commerce store and launching new products was a lengthy process. Thanks to composable solutions and the latest advancements in generative AI, brands have the speed and agility to innovate and deliver standout customer experiences like never before.

Sitecore is revolutionizing the customer experience with our composable approach to commerce. Discover 7 transformative effects of composable commerce and why a flexible approach is key to business growth and success.