Tech Tuesdays: What CEOs Really Think About AI’s Benefits + How Iterable Is Disrupting the Industry

Arthur Zaczkiewicz
·7 min read

Here are the the latest developments and must-know news in AI.

Iterable’s Big Wins

Iterable recently marked a key milestone by eclipsing $200 million in annual recurring revenue; the company also noted that the AI-powered communications platform added 37 new features in 2023. The added features include AI-Powered predictive goals, copy assist, explainable AI and and automatic frequency optimization, “making it the most robust AI offering in the marketing automation space,” Iterable said adding that it’s “momentum is fueled by its ongoing global expansion and the steady growth of its customer base, which includes marquee brands such as Fabletics, GitLab, SeatGeek, Airtable, and PGA of America.”

More from Footwear News

“Iterable’s disruptive and innovative approach to customer communications is driven by our ambition to both solve and simplify a critical problem for marketers and consumers alike,” said Andrew Boni, chief executive officer and co-founder of Iterable. “As we forge ahead, our goal is to build a lasting and expanding company that positions itself on the frontier of marketing technology. We are dedicated to staying ahead of the curve, with our valued customers and partners forming the cornerstone of our innovative journey. Iterable is not just about providing solutions; it’s about creating an enduring impact in the dynamic landscape of customer engagement.”

The company’s client list includes more than 1,200 brands across 54 countries. “Marketers leveraged Iterable to deliver over 200 billion cross-channel messages and execute nearly 3 million campaigns last year alone,” the company said. This extensive outreach targeted a diverse user base surpassing 8 billion customer profiles globally. Impressively, Iterable activated over 1.8 petabytes of data and orchestrated over 1.5 trillion API calls last fiscal year, underscoring its unparalleled capacity and top-tier performance in the ever-evolving landscape of customer engagement.”

Data points aside, the company is also making strategic moves.

Iterable recently expanded its business to Lisbon, Portugal, and then opened a data center in Dublin, Ireland. The company’s growth is fueled by ongoing investment and deployment of AI by retailers and brands.

Recent research from Wakefield Research revealed that 91 percent of marketers polled said they are currently using AI in some capacity, while 67 percent said they see it “as more than just a tool for efficiency and productivity – they consider it a transformative technological revolution.” Iterable said, “while most marketers acknowledge the opportunity AI presents, 84 percent [in the Wakefield Research] feel ill-equipped with the best tools and are largely intimidated by the technology, along with the increased expectations it brings.”

Iterable highlighted AI’s opportunities and challenges, which are “areas where Iterable is actively investing in innovating and addressing.”

First Insight Finds Disconnect in AI Views Among Top Execs

First Insight recently polled chief executive officers and their upper managers and found some disconnects on how each views AI’s use and benefits. When asked about the benefits of the technology, First Insight found there “is a striking three-to-one gap in the recognition of ‘Innovation’ as a vital advantage of AI, with 47 percent of management teams in agreement, versus a mere 17 percent of CEOs.”

“CEOs, however, are more focused on AI for other benefits,” researchers at First Insight said, noting that cost savings came in at 56 percent for CEOs versus 42 percent for managers. Business innovation worked out to be 39 percent for CEOs compared to 23 percent for managers.

Regarding challenges, First Insight said, “Divergence continues regarding AI adoption challenges, with management two-times more concerned about ‘Lack of Infrastructure’ (32 percent versus 17 percent) compared to CEOs.”

“On the other hand,” the report’s authors said, “CEOs are preoccupied with building a compelling business case, assessing the risks of AI-driven decisions, and considering the impact on the workforce.” Business case and ROI came in at 39 percent for CEOs compared to 26 percent for managers, while risk of costly AI-based recommendations and actions was 39 percent versus 21 percent for managers.

Orchestrating Retail Success

As buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS), curbside pick up and ship from store are key to omnichannel retailing — along with traditional channels such as physical stores, online marketplaces and other venues — proper alignment of inventory and order management processes is necessary for success.

In response to the challenges retailers and brands face in this area, Cart.com has launched the Constellation Order Management System (OMS), which enables businesses to unify orders and inventory while driving order volume, the company said.

“Constellation OMS provides full visibility and control of orders and inventory across channels alongside merchandising and listing tools to drive sales,” the company said.

“Inventory and channel orchestration challenges have cost enterprises billions and slowed growth rates for many merchants in recent years. Industry leaders now understand that a unified order management system is the missing link to win in the omnichannel world,” Omair Tariq, Cart.com’s founder and chief executive officer of Cart.com, said.

“At Cart.com, our vision is to truly connect pre- and post-purchase operations and transform the industry,” Tariq said. “Constellation OMS is unlike competitors in the OMS space in that in offers unique order and inventory management features alongside more advanced capabilities like AI and product merchandising tools — all in one place.”

Cart.com said its Constellation OMS “unifies commerce across every stage of the order life cycle, from product discovery to package delivery, giving merchants full visibility and control across channels and locations while making it easy to merchandise products across hundreds of social and marketplace channels — all while keeping inventory in sync.”

Logging in Crime

While AI-engineered cyberattacks may grab all the headlines, exploiting valid accounts has gained steam as cybercriminals double down on cracking into businesses worldwide, according to researchers at IBM X-Force, the tech giants’ security division.

In its 2024 X-Force Threat Intelligence Index report, IBM said cybercriminals saw “more opportunities to ‘log in’ versus hack into corporate networks through valid accounts — making this tactic a preferred weapon of choice for threat actors.”

The report’s authors said using valid accounts to attack enterprises “has become the path of least resistance for cybercriminals, with billions of compromised credentials accessible on the dark web today.” IBM said in 2023, “X-Force saw attackers increasingly invest in operations to obtain users’ identities — with a 266 percent uptick in info-stealing malware, designed to steal personally identifiable information like emails, social media and messaging app credentials, banking details, crypto wallet data and more.”

Charles Henderson, global managing partner of IBM Consulting and head of IBM X-Force, said. At the same time, security fundamentals “don’t get as many head turns as ‘AI-engineered attacks,’ it remains that enterprises’ biggest security problem boils down to the basic and known — not the novel and unknown.”

“Identity is being used against enterprises time and time again, a problem that will worsen as adversaries invest in AI to optimize the tactic,” he added.

Valid logins are also more challenging to detect, the report found, noting that “major incidents caused by attackers using valid accounts were associated to nearly 200 percent more complex response measures by security teams than the average incident — with defenders needing to distinguish between legitimate and malicious user activity on the network.” And it takes longer to reveal the attack. IBM said detecting, fixing and recovering breaches from stolen credentials takes about 11 months.

The research revealed that ransomware attacks dropped 12 percent last year “as larger organizations opt against paying and decrypting, in favor of rebuilding their infrastructure,” the report stated.

Oh, and there’s a new threat on the horizon: cybercriminals are eyeing ways to fool businesses using generative AI.

Best of Footwear News

Sign up for FN's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.