Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2024.  Read them in this 16th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.

Digital experiences and predictions for 2024

By Sean Kozey, president and founding partner of Reason One

Digital experiences are driving the success of many companies. Consumer sites have set the bar high, and now organizations across a broad spectrum of industries are looking to replicate their offerings. Whether it's a hospital trying to find better ways to serve patients and provide access to information or a financial entity hoping to efficiently guide customers through its product offerings, the right digital experience is no longer a "nice to have" - it can be vital to survival. The following predictions examine developing trends in the space, as well as concerns that will rise to the surface in 2024.

A move from the monolith

There's a transformative shift happening in how organizations think about their digital experience platforms, and in particular, what they have in their toolkit. For many years the focus has been on monolithic, all-in-one solutions that address a range of content, marketing, e-commerce, and other functional needs. The expectation is that all-in-one platform features should work more seamlessly with one another, delivering a better user experience along with a solution that is easy to manage.

The reality is the all-in-one approach has resulted in many organizations designing their online presence to the constraints of their monolithic platform. Others have had to invest in complex and costly customizations or integrations to make up for gaps in key platform functions. Meanwhile, the ability of monolithic platform vendors to keep pace with evolving customer needs has declined dramatically. This has coincided with the rapid emergence of a range of innovative, specialized, and interoperable offerings for nearly every conceivable need. Composable infrastructure has also matured, prompting organizations to contemplate deconstructing and rebuilding their stacks with a best-in-class focus. This will reach critical mass in the year ahead as decision-makers decide it's time to act.

Deepening connections in healthcare

There's been a lot of talk in healthcare about deepening patient and healthcare professional connections by offering online experiences comparable to those provided by leading consumer brands. Integrating user-centric digital solutions into healthcare, though challenging, is yielding tangible benefits.

This process is being fueled by a healthy ecosystem of innovative Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers offering specialized solutions that are easy to integrate and connect with major back-office vendors. For example, white-label solutions now support key patient user journeys such as determining care options, finding a doctor, booking and managing appointments, and accessing self-service health and wellness educational resources. There are also API-first platforms that enable health sector organizations to design online user experiences based on their own criteria. This wasn't feasible just a few years ago, but it has become very real, very fast.

Prime time for CaaS

The need for effective enterprise content management extends well beyond web content publishing. There are vast pools of information that subject matter experts and digital teams create, manage, repurpose, and push out to audiences through various digital channels. This is why the adoption of Content-as-a-Service (CaaS) solutions is increasing exponentially.

CaaS empowers you to manage your organization's content in one place, ensure governance and compliance, and facilitate multi-channel publishing. It acts as the hub of a composable platform, integrating with best-in-class SaaS solutions to form a holistic digital technology stack. In short, CaaS is ready for prime time, and we'll see it grow significantly in the year ahead.

The cloud and compliance concerns

As businesses increasingly shift to cloud-based digital infrastructure, unresolved questions about data residency, security, and regulatory compliance are rising, especially in sensitive sectors like healthcare and banking.

How much of your resources do you move "out of the house"? What are you accountable for? What do you entrust to third parties, and how do you get a sense of their capabilities? Organizations will continue to grapple with these questions in the year ahead, with clear solutions still on the horizon.

Optimizing AI in digital healthcare experiences

In 2024, a key trend in healthcare marketing will be optimizing content and data through better schema and knowledge graphs to improve the effectiveness of AI chatbots, search, and other integrations. This enhances understanding and provides more accurate, context-aware responses. Marketers adopt schema.org for health entities and build knowledge graphs to illustrate connections between medical terms. This integrated strategy improves user experience and showcases the use of advanced technology in communication.

Accessibility is no longer just about compliance

Accessibility is evolving beyond mere regulatory compliance to become an integral part of inclusive online experiences. It enriches the journey for all users, including those with physical or cognitive challenges. It not only boosts user engagement and expands audience reach, but it also positively impacts Google rankings and overall organizational outcomes. Healthcare digital teams and agencies already get this - and in 2024, accessibility will also be embraced by business leaders.

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