Feature
The Gist
- AI's early potential. While AI is infused into digital experiences, practitioners remain cautiously optimistic as we are still in the early days of implementation.
- Key integrations. Acquia introduced AI-powered digital asset management (DAM) tools, marking progress in content accessibility and personalization.
- Future of AI. The future of AI in digital experiences includes advancements in voice technology, image generation and AI agents for more complex business processes.
NEW YORK CITY — The Acquia Engage 2024 conference at the Dotdash Meredith Events Center in Lower Manhattan was buzzing with excitement about the latest AI innovations in the digital experience (DX) space.
OK, that was a big lie. It sounded great, though. It's New York City. City of opportunity, no sleep and endless fold-it, awesome, greasy pizza, best in the world. Exciting stuff.
Here's the truth, though, about our bot friends from the digital customer experience software space, evident throughout the year and here again in this two-day conference in the Big Apple: as cool as generative AI is, right now we're in a Land of Cautious Optimism.
Even as Acquia, a Boston-based provider, debuted some AI integrations into its digital asset management (DAM) capabilities, the real buzz around the halls in the conference of a few hundred practitioners was AI's got insane potential — yet, it's early days even 694 days after OpenAI's ChatGPT debuted.
And here's the other thing: Massive change is on the horizon, and we're not prepared.
"The flaw I see in business, in government, in education, time and time again, is everyone's trying to catch up with where the models are today, but it's actually quite apparent where they're going to be 12 to 18 months from now," Paul Roetzer, CEO of the Marketing AI Institute, said in his keynote Thursday morning, Oct. 24. "And I don't know any organizations that are truly prepared for that. I've met with some of the biggest companies in the world in the last six months, and I have yet to see a change management plan accommodating what happens next."
AI Integration: The Present and the Challenges
Kristen Bednar, associate director of digital experience for Mars, shared her perspective on the integration of AI into website development. She confirmed that on the ground floor, it's definitely early days.
"I think we're starting to explore in the space and also being very cognizant of some of the brand safety concerns, ensuring that we always have a human in the loop," Bednar said. She emphasized that while the promise of productivity gains is clear, especially behind the scenes with coding and automation, it takes time to realize AI’s full potential.
“There’s training, processes, and other things to bring it to life, and that takes time, which is appropriate," Bednar added.
Bednar also noted that there is a live experimentation environment happening across industries.
"I think we saw some of it today, as part of that innovation, that kind of work stream, and it's becoming table stakes on some level," Bednar said. "I don't think you can log into anything right now and not have the stars on the side and it says, 'Use your AI copilot.' So I think it's starting to come everywhere."
However, she added, "I don't think we know enough yet about the areas in which it's most effective, or how to build it into the UX in a way that it's user friendly. ...I think through experimentation, we'll all figure out the right way."
Related Article: How AI Transforms User Experience Design
AI's Disruption and Opportunities: Build an AI Roadmap, AI Council
Roetzer said the AI models are moving and improving so quickly, and organizations don't really get the choice to wait because the models are going to keep getting smarter.
He outlined the challenges businesses face, especially in managing the disruption AI can cause. Roetzer urged leaders to be proactive, emphasizing that those who "fight through the uncertainty and the unknowns, and figure this out" will be the ones who thrive.
He also highlighted that AI adoption is accelerating, with data showing that 75% of people are using AI at work, though not all organizations are scaling it effectively yet. Roetzer’s advice for businesses? Build an AI roadmap, start internal education and form an AI council to assess and manage AI’s impact responsibly.
"It could be a marketing AI council. It could be an organizational AI council," he said. "The key to that council is curious and passionate people. You can have people on it who don't like AI or who are afraid of it. That's good. Welcome those opinions. Don't exclude CMOs. I can't tell you how many companies I go into who build an AI council, and it's the C-Suite without the CMO, without a salesperson, without a customer service person. You have to have those people in the room responsible."
Related Article: Is Your Marketing Organization Generative AI-Ready?
AI: The Role of Personalization and Content Creation
At the Acquia Engage conference, several Acquia partners and third-party providers shared their thoughts on how AI is transforming digital experiences. From personalization to content creation, AI’s role is significant, they told CMSWire.
One partner, Joshua Hover, director of DXP platforms Sitecore, Acquia and Optimizely, for Perficient, noted, “AI is playing a pivotal role in the DX space, because we're seeing that it's changing content and making content more accessible to users. More now than ever, it's delivering content that's relevant and helping boost engagement throughout our customer journey."
Another key area where AI is proving useful is in personalization. As another partner, Frederick Faulkner, VP, strategic marketing, for Bounteous, explained: "Where I see the biggest impact of generative AI on DX platforms in 2025 is going to come down to personalization, whether it be generative AI text coming into the personalized content or image generation. That is where marketers and DX platforms are going to find the biggest impact in 2025."
The Future of AI: What’s Next?
As AI continues to evolve, its applications will become even more integrated into digital experiences, with technologies like natural language processing (NLP), natural language generation (NLG) and AI-based customer journey optimization.
In 2022, we entered the generative AI phase where all of a sudden, AI machines could create things, and this fundamentally changed the way we interact with technology, according to Roetzer. The future of AI will include advancements in voice technology, image generation and even AI agents that will assist in more complex business processes.
However, as Roetzer pointed out, there’s still much work to be done — especially when it comes to things like AI agents.
"They're unreliable today," Roetzer said. "They'll make mistakes. They're not precise. They're not secure. Fundamentally, I would not advise companies to be racing to be integrating AI agents today. We're basically in experimentation mode, but they're going to become more reliable."
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As AI continues to reshape the landscape of digital experience, one thing is clear: organizations need to take a responsible approach to AI adoption. Education and proactive planning will be key for companies that want to stay competitive and innovative.
"Regardless of your goal," Roetzer said, "you have the ability to step up, because we can make the future abundant and incredible, but it has to be in a responsible and human-centered way."
