Rising expectations and competition for the empowered consumer force brands to have purpose with each customer interaction; the need for an exceptional experience drives the need for the best customer-centric capabilities available. But often the best tools aren't immediately available to brands, as they are stuck in the labs behind cumbersome and lengthy product development cycles - waiting to come to life following intensive testing cycles.

Adobe will start bringing some of its advanced artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to brands in an accelerated fashion, with Technology Previews. An industry-first way for enterprises to leverage new innovations faster than ever, brands now have quick access to the latest technology while simultaneously helping to shape product roadmaps. Once a problematic and lengthy process often completed in a silo with minimal customer input until new capabilities are nearly complete, Technology Previews gives brands the ability to leverage early-stage exploratory tech powered by Adobe Sensei, the company's AI and machine learning technology. Customers can share feedback with Adobe's product teams in real-time, allowing for Adobe to ensure the right adjustments are made before products are launched in beta or general availability. Available first in Adobe Analytics, the leading solution for real-time data insights and predictive analytics, Technology Previews helps organizations better orchestrate and personalize the entire end-to-end customer experience.

"As a pioneer and long-time leader in marketing analytics, Adobe Analytics is well-positioned to continue to aggressively innovate on behalf of brands that rely upon us day in and day out," said Jeff Allen, senior director, product marketing, Adobe Analytics. "Technology Previews will help us continue to move brands to higher levels of maturity with analytics-going beyond simple vanity metrics-tapping into deep data insights to refine every part of the experiences they craft for their customers."

Technology Previews will showcase the following forward-looking prototypes, built on Adobe Sensei's deep learning capabilities:

• Reimagining the Customer Journey with AI: Brands today struggle to gain a complete picture of each customer's path, as they move across screens. Adobe Sensei helps brands surface insights that may not be clear with the naked eye, and ultimately address data anomalies and things that are less effective. For example, a media company might learn that the cause of irregular spikes in app uninstalls on smartphones was a broken key feature that leads to consumer frustration, reduced usage and eventual app deletion. 
• Tapping into Machine Learning to Identify the Ideal Audience: Despite an influx of data for any brand, a marketer's pain point is identifying a brand's most valuable customer groups. While segmenting customers based on age, gender and income typically leads to improved results, for most brands, this work relies heavily upon the analyst's understanding of the data and is still too often more art than science. Leveraging machine learning, this prototype within Technology Previews will deliver first-of-its-kind precision for audience segmentation; customers will be automatically clustered into groups based upon expected preferences and behaviors. For example, a retailer could discover unexpected segments, such as a group of customers in a specific region that react positively to offers for free next-day shipping. 
• Staying One Step Ahead of the Customer with Intelligent Forecasting: Historical data drives the majority of customer experience decisions and smart brands see value in using historical data to anticipate future customer needs and wants. Through deep learning capabilities, this Technology Previews project accelerates a brand's ability to predict a customer's future actions. Through analyzing billions of historical and real-time data points, Adobe helps brands infer the actions customers are most likely to take next. For example, a travel company that's forecasting a slow fall season can feel empowered to help close a 10% gap in traffic by optimizing the mobile experience.