Post-COVID hack: Driving user adoption of digital technologies with AI
The hack is back!
At Red Marble, we’ve done some of our best work during short, focused hackathons that aim to generate an idea—and then develop it into a prototype—in just a matter of days.
As a company that helps clients incorporate AI into their business, these hackathons provide an incredible foundation from which we can solve real organisational challenges and improve the competitive advantage we can offer. It also helps us practice our skills in an artificially intense, fast-paced environment.
Over the last two years we’ve run successful hacks with a number of clients including Webjet, Coca Cola Amatil, Dulux, Bookbot and others.
We’ve also run a number of internal hacks where we split into teams and tackle a specific problem. However, this has been tricky of late due to the working from home rules.
In early June, using a combination of dispersed desks in the office, plus Zoom and Slack, we ran our first post-COVID hack!
Our team focused on how we can employ AI to better drive user adoption of digital technologies in corporate environments. This has become an important issue across almost all industries as our workforces move online.
McKinsey recently reported on the need to blend digital technology, analytics and behavioural science to personalise change programs. The article highlighted that the most effective way to make organisational change succeed is to carefully consider each employee's unique skills and mindset
It turns out there’s already some pretty impressive capability in the consumer world that can be applied in corporate environments. For example, the algorithm-based management of messages and communications that share what’s relevant and appropriate for every user, based on their individual capability and readiness.
A quick break from the hack for lunch with office dog Jimmy.
Many companies make large investments in digital technology with strong business cases, on the assumption that software is properly adopted by the users. In practice it doesn’t always work like that.
In a post COVID-19 world, this adoption has never been more crucial.
That’s why hacks like this one are extremely helpful. They give us a chance to test our hypotheses around what drives user adoption. By regarding each employee as a unique individual, we’re proving that we can reduce a business’ overall costs and realise the productivity potential of what these technologies offer.
As a result of our recent internal hack, Red Marble is excited to be piloting solutions with two clients. We’re using AI algorithms to tailor unique messages to each individual and drive process adoption - effectively automating organisational change.
We’ll report back on the results, what we learned and how the power of AI can improve user adoption of the many technologies being implemented across organisations.
If you’re struggling to drive user adoption of your big technology purchases, need help with change or can see other areas for optimisation, AI can help. Get in touch - you never know, we could be solving your problem at our next hack!
AI helping sports get back on their feet
While COVID-19 has put a hold on the on-field action, Australia’s professional sporting codes are busy off the field, planning for the return of play and their longer-term future.
Sports is one of our most competitive industries, and these codes face many challenges: building operational efficiency connecting with a fan base with more choice and keeping up with our ever-evolving consumption habits.
As a result, we’ve seen a huge increase in appetite for AI in sports analytics, both on the field and off it, as teams and codes look for every advantage possible.
Red Marble is excited to announce its partnership with Anthony Moore Consulting, a leader in transformation and change management across professional sports, including the NBA and AFL.
In a time of global uncertainty and commercial complexity, the creation of Red Sports Analytics delivers the benefits of analytics combined with deep management expertise to drive organisational performance.
How AI is reshaping the playing field
Analytics and AI makes use of behavioural data across digital platforms. It helps us understand which, when and how fans are watching their favourite sports.
This powerful data allows sporting organisations to mine sentiment from social media streams to understand what fans are thinking and use these analytics to provide personal experiences and marketing opportunities.
AI is already being used by major sporting codes across the globe.
On top of building a great on-court product, the NBA is often ranked among the world’s most innovative organisations. The league has been building global subscribers year on year, with revenues doubling in a decade to $8.76 billion US for the 2018/19 season. NBA push technology across the product introduced fans to:
- NBA 2K League - the first extension of pro sports into esports - which has 21 teams and games that stream on Twitch.
- A partnership with MGM Resorts International, integrating real-time data into a gambling platform and enabling in-game micro-betting that kept viewers watching every play.
The power of AI in professional sports isn’t just limited to the codes - teams like the NBA’s Sacramento Kings (Fast Company’s most innovative company in Sports 2017) are getting in on the action too.
The Kings developed a team and venue app which provides fans with a hyper-personalized arena experience. The app delivered on-demand information regarding every aspect connected to their visit, including information about transportation and parking, arena line queuing, and access to advanced game metrics, exclusive video angles and more.
We’re looking forward to seeing solutions like this on Australian shores - and we don’t think it will take long.
Powered by Red Marble, Red Sports Analytics is delivering enterprise solutions to help sporting codes recover from the difficult times brought on by COVID-19 and take advantage of new fan experiences.
Three AI solutions helping sporting codes survive COVID-19
Next-generation chatbots
Chatbots help close the gap between customer service and conversational marketing. next-generation chatbots make use of live data streams, not just static data. This means we can give fans the information that will improve their experience, from “Live stats on their favourite player” to “Best car park to enter on game day”.
Membership analysis
Customer segmentation using analytics allows sporting clubs to identify and cluster customers based on behavioural and demographic indicators. By identifying and understanding fans preferred experiences, we can define actions to minimise fan churn and maximise the value of each segment.
Hyper-personalised marketing
Hyper-personalised marketing is more engaging and useful than traditional marketing because it goes beyond basic customer data. We’re leveraging analytics, AI and machine learning to increase wallet spend by delivering relevant and personalised offers and experiences.
Sporting codes are slowly emerging from this period of disruption and entering a new phase of fan engagement. Red Marble is ready to harness the power of AI and the operational expertise of Anthony Moore Consulting to deliver innovative customer experiences and organisational success.
To find out more about Red Sports Analytics, please get in touch.
How can AI help businesses better recover from COVID-19?
For now, at least, it seems Australia has successfully “flattened the curve”.
We’re starting to emerge from lockdown - and thankfully, from a health perspective Australia seems to have been spared some of the horrors of other countries. With family living in the UK, France and New York, I’m acutely aware that the impact of COVID-19 has varied widely around the world.
From an economic perspective, COVID-19 has affected many industries – travel, retail, hospitality, entertainment and higher education to name a few. On the whole, technology companies have fared a little better as they navigate the current environment, but still face unique challenges as they establish their own ‘new normal’.
During this period, the importance of big data and trusted analytics has never been more vital. Artificial Intelligence has been in the news lately for a number of reasons, including the early detection of the pandemic and frontline resourcing and vaccine research.
How can we apply AI to help businesses recover from COVID-19?
We have conversations every day exploring the possibilities of AI with existing and potential clients. The challenges that organisations are facing right across the globe don’t have a playbook and navigating the next few months will undoubtedly be complex.
Our work generally falls into one or more of the following five areas:
- Prediction
Being able to forecast future behaviour based on past experience, for example forecasting conversion rate for an online retailer or when predicting when a machine is likely to require maintenance.
- Recognition
The ability to recognise people, objects or situations in a scene, often using computer vision technology, or recognizing patterns in data. This could include showing social distance between people or recognizing heavy machinery on a pedestrian area of a work site.
- Conversation & Language
Enabling interaction between user and software using either voice or text. It requires understanding of a user’s intent and the ability to understand language and context. The equivalent of Siri or Alexa with the specific knowledge of a company’s “corporate dictionary” of acronyms, systems and processes.
- Hyper-personalisation
Using machine learning across different data sources to build a unique profile of an individual and act upon this information with targeted marketing messages, personalised offers and unique discounts. It’s the ability to treat everyone as an individual rather than as part of a generalized market segment.
- Outlier Detection
This is the ability to detect unusual activity, patterns or behaviour which are ‘outside of the norm’ based on the available data.
Applying our AI methods to COVID recovery
Which of the above are most likely to be beneficial as companies return from lockdown? We’re seeing clear trends in the market around:
- Recognition of people and situations
- Hyper-personalised marketing
- Prediction
The main focus for most companies is on returning to work and opening up to staff and customers safely. This requires a good understanding of the challenges within the physical environment.
Computer vision technology can be applied using existing security cameras for functions such as counting people in an area. Algorithms can detect people proximity issues, which can lead to either real-time alerts or heat maps to show flow of ‘traffic’. With some specialist equipment, heat-sensing technology can be applied to see temperature outliers within a group of staff or customers which might indicate a fever.
Companies are also looking at doing more with less. Hyper-personalised marketing can be applied to target product offerings to customers, re-engaging them without adding significant cost. Similar personalisation techniques are being applied within an enterprise to improve internal communications and improve technology adoption.
Prediction using machine learning is likely to face challenges in the short term. Most models make certain inherent assumptions based on the data used to train the model, which may have seen large deviations from the norm.
Finally, automation technologies in general are increasingly being used to remove cost from operations. Though not typically “intelligent”, these are an effective way of automating many data processing tasks which can drive significant cost savings in the short term.
It’s been inspiring to see the innovation and ingenuity of so many businesses as they navigate this incredibly challenging period. It’s great to see that many businesses are looking at technology as a solution to the current obstacles.
Now more than ever, companies need projects to deliver value quickly. If you would like more details on how Red Marble can help, please get in touch.