AI and Content: Digital Trends of 2019

Exactly one year ago today, Janus Boye - digital pioneer and founder of the Boye & Co network - gave us all the insights on the prevalent challenges and chances content faces. He also gave his predictions for digital trends in 2018. Today Janus will join us again for an interview and answer our most burning questions on content. Which digital trends await us in 2019? And how does he assess the predicitons he made for 2018?

Janus, this year marks your 20th anniversary in the world of content management systems. Which role did content play back then – which role does it play today?

Content has always been king. We’ve talked about this for so many years, but now it seems that people other than content creators are realizing this. This is helped by so many new marketing technologies and platforms that are able to make content increasingly data driven. In the end, resulting in more relevant experiences for customers.

What do users expect from a web site or a web shop nowadays?

The expectations are much, much higher today, and with our patience, it is just the opposite. 5 seconds is simply way too long to wait for a web page to load. It will be interesting to see how 5G will affect this.

Patience is one thing we have less off these days, and trust is certainly another one. We are more reluctant than ever to hand over personal information. People are now well-aware that their information is already being collected in ways we have no control over.

Janus Boye - © Boye & Co.

In your session at this year’s Umbraco-Festival Deutschland you talked about how Umbraco needs to change to stay relevant and successful. Scalability in CMS and digital solutions is something you have been interested in for a long time. What are things that have changed in this respect in 2018?

In terms of scalability, we are seeing more scalability in terms of most CMS and digital solutions. Cloud is a major part of this. The transition is going on, and no clients want to have servers filling up the basement. In terms of CMS, we are seeing more and more integrations, which also relates very closely to this. And also, there’s the people element of scaling: the crucial partner infrastructure.

Finally: Time to market has decreased tremendously. Nobody today accepts 6 months for development. Or even 3. The expectation to go live in a short period of time is there and who wants to pay to develop basic stuff?

Looking Back on 2018, Looking Ahead to 2019

Exactly one year ago, we published our first interview with you. You talked about the challenges and opportunities 2018 might bring. How accurate were the predictions you made last year?

© Unsplash

I was probably a tad too early with some of my predictions, but we are now seeing a more widespread use of chatbots. I also questioned for how long we would still have human content creators. I think we probably have more now actually. However, AI is really starting to impact content creation, and not just the delivery of it, but also the creation of it. So, in all likelihood the distinction between human created and AI-created content will continue to blur.

What I did say, and which I think is very much happening, is new ways of working together, and the reinventing of organizations. Mainly due to the fact that we are now well beyond the stage, where “digital” was a focus area in its own right. With so many people inside the organization having mastered digital communication and collaboration tools, there is now definitely new room for more innovation. 

And lastly: What are your predictions for 2019? What should we be looking forward to in the digital world?

More and more will adopt AI into their solutions, and AI will be integrated into existing applications. In terms of CMS, this will mean increasingly small, simple systems, but with almost endless possibilities for integrations.

What we will also see, which relates closely to this, is more innovation from integration. We are already seeing this with applications like Zapier, and it is definitely this way we are headed. Other hot topics going into 2019 include automation & robotics - meaning more intelligent ways to handle manual processes. Many are also stepping up their investments in business intelligence.

Finally – an evergreen for 2019: Email marketing is not dead and to many still a cost-efficient way to reach their market and make an impact. I expect to see a rise in investment when it comes to good old email as a valuable marketing tool. 

Janus, thank you very much for the interview and the interesting insights. We are looking forward to the next one!

We are excited to see what 2019 has in store for us. We wish all readers a happy new year!