Having already taken a look into the crystal ball in such fields as financial services, experiential and consumer, we next turn our attention to the white hot world of digital (which, as we know, means different things to different people). No matter how you define it, Peppercomm’s Digital Director, Mike Friedin has selected five trends to keep your eyes on…

• Artificial Intelligence and machine learning will increasingly augment and extend every technology enabled service, thing or application. More businesses will place focus on creating systems that continuously learn, adapt and potentially act autonomously than execute against a set of predefined instructions.
• Small data must be managed better. Big data gets the headlines, but small data runs the intricacies for many businesses, as we see an increase in Account Based Marketing and personalized experiences driving deeper engagement and customer loyalty.
• Right time not real time. When and where in the customer journey will become more critical than fast data assembly, and delivering optimal messaging with customers and prospects on a one-to-one basis by automatically replacing entire sections of your messages based on each recipient’s unique behaviors, interests and needs.
• Advances in Content Marketing sophistication, breaking through the noise with greater contextual targeting, personalization and marketing apps that drive interactive experiences with programmatic flow and logic, especially mobile in-app.
• Blockchain and Distributed Ledgers continue to gain traction based on the promise to transform industry operating models. While the current hype is around the financial services industry, there are many possible applications including music distribution, identity verification, title registry and supply chain. 

We wrap up our weeklong series tomorrow with a glimpse into the industrial manufacturing sector by our own chief foreman, Ann Barlow.