Adobe Summit 2021: All about Digital Experience

Adobe Summit 2021 day one was loaded with content, where there were more than 400 sessions and hundreds of inspiring speakers. One can realise always soak up incredible insights and experience sessions on demand.

Organizations that develop true customer connections will thrive in the digital economy. Adobe executives and other global business leaders had shared on how exceptional, personalized customer experiences are the key to business growth today and in the future.

There is one interesting topic surged into my view: the marketing system of record. But why this term, and why now? More importantly, what do customers have to say? There is an interesting session by the name Summit Sneaks, this year it is mentored by Dan Levy, Emmy Award-Winning Writer, Actor, Director, Producer.

Once a year, every Adobe employee, from engineers and data scientists to UX designers and product managers, has an opportunity to share innovative ideas to evolve the way brands interact with their customers. Join us for Adobe Sneaks, where we share the top seven projects, tapping the latest technologies in areas like AI and low-code apps.

The keynote was opened by Simon Tate, President of Adobe Asia Pacific during which he talked about his experience at Adobe, the importance of Digital Experience at Adobe and hence how Customer Experience Management sets a company apart. He quoted Forrester saying that organizations from markets including Australia, India & Singapore delivered better customer experience management in 2020 than in 2019 despite the challenging year.

The keynote was then passed to Shantanu Narayen, CEO Adobe. Shantanu in his address highlighted Adobe’s mission, strategy and shared key takeaways from Summit 2021.

Key highlights from his keynote:

Focused on Adobe’s mission, the benefits of our innovation help millions across the globe create, be productive, and deliver the world’s best digital experiences

With Adobe Creative Cloud, we are Unleashing Creativity, giving anyone, anywhere the tools to tell their story

With Adobe Document Cloud, we are Accelerating Document Productivity, reinventing how people view, share, and engage with documents

With Adobe Experience Cloud, we’re Powering Digital Businesses of all sizes, giving them everything they need to design and deliver great customer experiences at scale

He further shared that digital experiences have played a vital role in making every aspect of our lives possible and that we have gone from a world with digital to a digital-first world and there is no going back. Speaking on how Adobe is powering the digital economy, he shared, “with our continuous innovation, the expertise we have garnered from undergoing our own digital transformation, and our large and diverse set of global customers and partners.”

Shantanu highlighted Adobe’s key partnerships and how they are helping businesses:

HDFC Bank: Adobe is working with HDFC Bank in India to make their banking experience digital, enabling customers to perform an array of actions across devices, from opening a bank account to applying for a loan or managing investments

Pfizer: Adobe is working with Pfizer to deliver data-driven experiences for patients and healthcare providers on critical information, such as the latest vaccine developments.

FedEx: Adobe worked with FedEx to supercharge their website with new content and personalized journeys for each segment.

Verizon: Adobe Experience Cloud is enabling Verizon to personalize the onboarding experience of 100 million users with a 360 view of the customer that allows them to understand and execute the next best action in seconds.

In the keynote, Anil Chakravarthy, EVP, GM Digital Experience Business spoke about major technology innovations in the past year. He highlighted how customer personalization can help drive business growth, and how Adobe Experience Cloud helps provide a comprehensive set of applications for CXM and integrated on to a common cloud scale platform, amongst other things.

The keynote saw a conversation between Shantanu and Albert Bourla, Chairman and CEO, Pfizer in which they discuss how Pfizer conducted business since the pandemic and their journey of developing the vaccine. Speaking on this, Albert said, “It was an impossible task. You must believe it. And not only you must believe it at the top, you must take this belief all the way down to every single person that this is working… To make the impossible possible, you need to have thousands of people believe that they can do it… And it was a glorious demonstration hat people never know what they can and cannot do.”

Lastly the keynote also saw :

• Deborah Wahl, CMO General Motors highlighted how GM motors aims to eliminate all gas and petrol engines from all automotive by 2035.

• Serena Williams, Tennis Legend, Entrepreneur and Philanthropist spoke about importance of using her position to work towards the empowerment of sections that don’t get the necessary opportunities, for instance she worked towards helping women entrepreneurs and people of color who had courageous business ideas but not enough opportunity.

• Rajesh Subramaniam, President and COO of FedEx, spoke about “being able to be in the frontline of the Covid induced pandemic, and he said it’s the credit of the 600000 frontline team-members who were on ground, making sure deliveries never stopped.”