BIR Annual Survey 2021 is out now

We took a break from the BIR Survey last year due to a change in personnel managing the survey but have come back this year under renewed focussed to report on perhaps the most disruptive year in recent memory.  BIR is pleased to welcome on board Stephen Phillips who is heading up the survey now.  Stephen is an experienced leader of global teams with a successful background in enriching client relationships and engagement in financial services.

The survey this year, unsurprisingly, is heavily influenced by the pandemic.  Our global theme is one of changing work practices.  The amount and richness of the research this year was such that we have decided to split the results into 3 separate reports which will span over our March, June and September issues.  “Never let a good crisis go to waste” – The 2020 Business Information Review Survey: Part I, which is available online to read now, focusses on ‘The Organisation’ looking at structure, where information services sits and what the effects of remote working have been and Staffing – have teams in the last 12 months, downsized, increased or stayed the same.

Something that really stood out for me was the effects of remote working on teams and client engagement.  Overall, as a whole, the sector adapted fairly fluidly to working from home and work life continued on as people adapted to video conferencing through Zoom or MS Teams or similar.  Connections were still being made, video enabled us to still maintain a richer communication form than just voice alone but feedback from some was that it just wasn’t good enough particularly when it came to maintaining and developing those relationships where trust was a major factor.  There were those who looked to get back to the office as soon as it was possible/safe to do so to be able to maintain that valuable face to face interaction.

Why is this physical face to face interaction so important to us?  A look at why video conferencing can tire us out in and differences in this and ‘true’ face to face communication is explored in a BBC article entitled The reason Zoom calls drain your energy.  The article gives some insight into why, although we are face to face in this medium it is not the same as physically being face to face with someone.  Further in a recent article on Reuters, ‘Major employers scrap plans to cut back on offices’ it is noted that there is reduction of 52% of chief executives considering cutting back on office space from a survey conducted in August 2020 to one conducted recently.  Reflecting with colleagues on this recently I heard that many sales leaders were looking forward to ‘getting back out there’ to meet over coffee etc. with clients.  There is something special about face-to-face communication it seems that even a global pandemic cannot extinguish.

Coming up in part 2 in June we take a look at the operating environment, technology and content trends.

World Library and Information Conference review

Author: Hal Kirkwood, Bodleian Business Librarian, Said Business School, University of Oxford. President, Special Lib Assoc. 2019 and BIR Editorial Board member

In August I attended the World Library and Information Congress (WLIC) of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) in Athens, Greece.  It was my first ever attendance at this global meeting of librarians and information professionals with over 3000 attendees from 140 countries.  IFLA is a rather complicated organization of strategic programmes, sections, divisions, and special interest groups with the purpose of representing the interests of library and information science services and their users.  The development and support of libraries and librarians around the globe is a key focus of IFLA activities.

The Congress was an interesting and engaging event with its theme of Dialogue for Change resonating throughout the keynotes and sessions.  Starting out with the Newcomers Session I learned about the ins and outs of the Congress; the ability to sit in and observe any meetings; and the scope of all of the different entities within IFLA.  The sessions I attended consisted of a mix of business meetings and content-focused presentations.  Focus on the United Nations’ 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) filled the programme over the course of the weeklong event.  It was fascinating to see librarians from all over the world presenting on the many common challenges that libraries struggle with collection development, information literacy, technology impact, and costs while at the same time presenting on very unique situations due to geographic, cultural, or political factors. From protecting cultural heritage to providing offline access to the Internet to supporting disabled library visitors to dealing with the variety of global copyright regulations, the variation went on and on.

One of the most impressive events held during the Congress was the poster event with almost 200 posters presented covering such a wide array of topics and issues.  The scope and scale made this an information rich event to attend and showed off a tremendous level of experience and creativity. Browsing through the rows of posters and hearing each presenter explain their challenges and solutions put the diversity and depth of information professionals on full display.  Many of these librarians should consider taking their ideas a step further to write a full article on their experiences, struggles, and solutions.  The information profession will be the better for it if they were to share their accomplishments.

An amazing cultural event was held at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center for all of the attendees.  The event included a variety of food and cultural entertainment all at an amazing center that houses the opera as well as a portion of the national library.  The building itself is a stunning architectural achievement with gorgeous views of the coastline along with extensive gardens to walk through that are integrated into the overall design of the building.  It was truly something to be experienced.

Two of the most notable actions to come out of the IFLA Congress is the Library Map of the World and the Ideas Store.  The Library Map of the World https://librarymap.ifla.org/ is a data-rich graphical view of libraries and library statistics around the world.  An additional layer includes specific stories on how libraries are connecting with the UN’s SDGs to meet local development needs.  It is a very interesting project that can only benefit by additional libraries and associations joining in to provide access to broader and deeper data.  The Ideas Store https://ideas.ifla.org/ is a growing collection of ideas about libraries and information literacy to inspire and instigate action.  The Store allows you to filter by Opportunities, Idea Groups, Countries, and Regions to explore the 1200 ideas currently available.

Attending IFLA was an eye-opening experience in seeing what so many information professionals and librarians are working towards in their own regions, countries, and libraries.  The expansion and increased access to information will inevitably create greater opportunities for multitudes of people around the globe.  If you have the chance consider attending an upcoming IFLA World Congress to see the true scope of libraries and librarians.

Paul Corney – a very worthy winner of the 2019 K&IM Walford Award

Author: Denise Carter, Decision Consult and BIR Editorial Board Member

In these strange and turbulent times, we definitely need to take the time to celebrate those people who are doing excellent work. As a member of the BIR editorial board it is with pleasure that I can write one of the BIR’s frequent contributers, Paul Corney, Knowledge et al, has been awarded the 2019 K&IM Walford Award.  The Award is presented annually to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of knowledge management and/or information management. Previous winners include David Gurteen and Sue Lacey-Bryant.  As a well-respected Knowledge Management (KM) expert and guru who has certinaly made an outstanding contribution to knowledge management services, Paul is a very worthy recipient of this year’s award. 

Paul is dedicated to improving professional recognition of KM. In particular he has been recognised for his selfless i support of CILIP in its aim of becoming the UK and International professional body for KM. He  has been committed and tireless in promoting CILIP’s initiatives not only in the UK but also abroad – particularly in the Far and Middle East where he is recognised as a KM leader and has a high profile. Paul has worked as CILIP K&IM Ambassador since end of 2017. He has worked incredibly hard with CILIP to realise the K&IM Chartership as a valid option for professional registration for information professionals. By using his network and connections he opened doors for CILIP to speak to the right people at the beginning of the process and understand that there was an appetite for a Chartered KM professional qualification.

As part of the KM Chartership project board he has been able to ensure that the new programme avoids the pitfalls of some other attempts by other organisations in this space. He has also continued to promote and discuss the KM Chartership within the KM community worldwide and engage other influential Knowledge Managers to become involved with CILIP in speaking at conferences, and potentially acting as mentors or assessors for the new KM Chartership programme. He is always willing himself to mentor and nurture others in their KM work.

Along with his recent articles for BIR, Paul has written several books on KM. The most recent are Navigating the Minefield and the KM Cookbook published by Facet. In Navigating the Minefield, Paul provides a range of realistic up-to-date examples both on how to start KM in an organisation and also how to sustain KM. The examples are drawn from 18 KM programmes  from diverse organisations from across the world and provide great stories to encourage KM in organisations and there are useful anecdotes that can be re-used to sell KM in organisations. The KM Cookbook is presented in an engaging way and includes big name KM case studies and references to the appropriate parts of the ISO/BSI KM standard. As a member of the BSI KM Committee, Paul has been able to draw on his internal knowledge of the standard and its process.

BIR call for editorial board members

BIR is seeking members to join its  Editorial Board, alongside the Co-Editors of the journal. Responsibilities of the Editorial Board include:

Encouraging submissions: Encouraging quality submissions to Business Information Review helps the journal to grow in quality and reputation. As the journal is substantially based on commissioned content, an active member of the board would proactively speak to colleagues within their networks and regions to commission quality content for the journal. Please consider submitting a paper yourself to the Journal and actively encourage those you work with to

Suggesting special issues, ‘hot topics’ and review articles: Hot topics and/or review/special issues can attract more readers and citations to the Journal. If you spot any trends or areas that might help raise the profile or benefit Business Information Review please let the editors know your suggestions or submit  your own for consideration. If you know of any colleagues best suited to a ‘hot topic’ or theme, please reach out to them to see if they would be interested in participating or curating a special issue.

Encouraging usage of the Journal: Encouraging your faculty, students and other professionals to use the Journal helps librarians to decide to retain/subscribe to the Journal at your

Encouraging your institution to subscribe to the Journal: If based at an institution and it does not already subscribe, please recommend Business Information Review to your Subscriptions ensure the Journal’s commercial success and increased circulation means increased usage and citations.

Participating in board meetings: By attending board meetings we can work together to develop the Journal. Your attendance at each meeting, feedback and experience as an editorial board member are central to informing decisions about the future of the Journal. If you cannot attend please send your feedback to the Editors or

Promoting the Journal at conferences: If you are attending any conferences and would like to take copies of the Journal, or promotional business cards, please contact the Publisher and they can arrange for these to be sent to Networking with colleagues and those in similar research and professional fields about the journal is imperative to the development and proliferation of Business Information Review.

Applications are welcome from well-networked practitioners and academics in the field of information provision and management. Those interested in submitting an application should send an up-to-date CV with a statement outlining their reasons for wanting to join the Editorial Board. Being a member entitles you to a gratis online subscription to the Journal.

All enquiries, expressions of interest and applications should be directed via email to:

Claire Laybats and Luke Tredinnick, Co-Editors

Email: businessinformationreviewj@gmail.com

BIR September Issue

Our latest issue sees the publication of the 2019 Business Information Review Annual Survey. The BIR Annual Survey is the worlds’ longest running research into trends within the business information sector. Since 1991, it has provided an invaluable guide to emerging issues, changing technologies and professional values. The 2019 survey is the fourth written and researched by Denise Carter of DCision Consult. Some of the key themes that have emerged in this year’s survey include the following.

  1. The challenges of new and emerging tools and technologies and ensuring organizations have the right skills to manage these effectively.
  2. The potential for Information Professionals to become the organizational strategic advisor for data and information across the whole organization.
  3. Whether Information Professionals still view themselves as subservient in organizational relationships, and whether they feel their role is to answer queries reactively or to proactively provide data that provoke new discussions and questions.
  4. The integrity and ethics of data: where data come from, how it is manipulated and whether good ethical standards in data management will become fundamental in the future.
  5. The increasing importance of information literacy.

The BIR Annual Survey has now been running for 29 years. From its inception, it was recognized that the survey might reveal useful longitudinal data about trends and changes in the profession. However, aside from a brief review of the first 10 years published in 2000, no comprehensive review of the surveys has taken place. The second paper in this issue addresses this gap. The first of a two-part review of 29 years of the annual survey, it explores in particular the way in which technological change has been tracked by the research over time, and what this reveals about the role of emerging technology in the profession. The second part of this review will be published in the December issue.

Our third paper, this issue was written by Eddie Collins and Delphine Phillips of Integreon. Entitled ‘Automation – It Does Involve People’ the paper explores the benefits of Robotic Process Automation – software that can be used to mimic repetitive administrative tasks that traditionally require human intervention, such as data transfer. The final paper is entitled ‘The Impact of Business Intelligence Through Knowledge Management’ and was written by Wassila Bouaoula, Farid Belgoum, Arifusalam Shaikh, Mohammed Taleb-Berrouane and Carlos Bazan. The paper explores the uses of Business Intelligence tools in Knowledge Management.

Best Paper Prize 2018

We’re pleased in this issue to announce the winner of the Business Information Review Best Paper Prize 2018. The prize is awarded to the research or professional paper judged by the editorial board and editors as the most successful, interesting or relevant over the course of the preceding year. A number of papers stood-out over the course of the year, including Mark West and Delphine Philips’s ‘Exploring the future of Business Information Services in the financial sector’ published in March, 2018, and Hal Kirkwood’s ‘The current state of artificial intelligence and the information profession’ published in March, 2018. However, the 2018 Best Paper Prize has been awarded to Andrew Lambe, Fiona Anthoney and Jo Shaw’s paper ‘One Door Closes, Another Opens: Surviving and Thriving Through Organizational Restructure by Ensuring Knowledge Continuity’ published in December, 2018.

The paper addresses the experience knowledge continuity and organizational memory during NHS England’s organizational restructuring in 2015. It recounts the approach taken by the Knowledge and Intelligence team of the Sustainable Improvement team at securing organizational knowledge following the Smith Review of Improvement and Leadership Development in the National Health Service and its consequences, charting the stages in the migration of content, the development of new retrieval tools and the development of a new knowledge service. It provides an interesting and highly relevant case study, and we are very happy to award it the BIR Best Paper Prize 2018.

BIR Annual Survey – Key Themes 2 : The information professional as a strategic advisor

Another of the key themes from this years’ BIR annual survey brings up the increasingly important aspect of the information managers role as strategic advisor to the organisation. We have all seen that information and mis-information can have a huge impact on an organisation’s operations and strategy, now with the increasing need to gain value from data and bring together internal and external data and information everything just got a lot more complex.

We have long talked about the importance of the information professional to the organisation but in this perfect storm of information and data it’s time to take those ideas, skills and knowledge to the next level.

Corporate strategy is key and core to the organisation but what is that strategy built on? Market data, competitive intelligence, internal research and development data, financial information and news to name just a few.  The information team with their wealth of experience, knowledge and skills in research, information management, information and data literacy are more than qualified to play an important role in ensuring that the right information (read reliable, trusted and validated) is available to those developing and planning the corporate strategy and that that information is kept up to date and relevant to help evolve the strategy as needed.

Technology is a closely linked partner in effective information management and information professionals are increasingly required to have skills and knowledge to assess what technology and automation services are appropriate for their departments to operate in increasingly demanding environments. A number of organisations I have spoken with recently are considering intelligence tools or add ons to existing systems to help optimise their workload ensuring that they can concentrate on providing the best value add service to the organisation.

So with advising on and management of information sources and licensing, introduction of data content management, challenges around gaining benefits from an increasingly vast source of unstructured content and considering what technology and when to implement it to enhance effective information management I think it is fair to say that information professionals can indeed be considered as strategic advisors to the organisation.  The challenge sometimes is communicating the importance of the information professionals skills and knowledge to executive leadership so that they also see information professionals as a key strategic advisor to support and facilitate their objectives and goals for the future.

Find out more about what our respondents thought on this in the annual BIR survey published in September.

BIR Annual Survey key themes 1: the challenges of new tools and technologies

The Business Information Review Annual Survey (BIR) is the world’s longest running survey of trends in Information and Knowledge Management within the commercial sector. Now in its twenty-ninth year, for almost three decades the survey has provided invaluable insight into the ways in which professional practice and the commercial context has changed. This year’s survey is due for publication in the September issue of Business Information Review and was produced again by Denise Carter of DCision Consult. It is proving to be one of the most interesting and important we have published.

Each year in the run-up to the publication of the survey, we pick-out a handful of key themes for discussion in the BIR Blog. The information and knowledge management profession has been caught on the cusp of a perpetual technological revolution that has fundamentally changed how information work is done. These changes are reflected the first of our key themes from the 2019 BIR Annual Survey: the challenges of adapting to new tools and technologies, and the emerging skills required to manage these effectively.

In 1991 when the first Annual Survey was published, adapting to technological change meant incorporating online financial and news databases (such as ICC British Company Financial Datasheets and Reuter Textline) and CD ROM services (such as FAME and Kompass). At that time only 30% of respondents were using any CD ROM services, and the numbers using online databases were dwarfed by those using traditional resources. Although information management in the commercial sector had been exploiting online resources for over a decade by 1991, it was still heavily dependent on traditional paper-based resources. The explosion of digital information since the early nineties has fundamentally changed the ways in which information work is done, diversifying the very ideas of source and resource, and increasingly requiting critical and analytical skills in the evaluation of information. The BIR Annual Survey has borne witness to these changes, and over the past five years we have also tracked the impact of emerging technology on information work, exploring fake news and post-truth, and emerging technologies such as Virtual Reality and blockchains.

The challenge of adapting to new tools and technologies emerges as a strong theme in this year’s survey, particularly in relationship to emerging Artificial Intelligence tools. But the survey also reveals how technological change is demanding new skills and competencies from information professionals and knowledge managers. No longer merely the custodians and gatekeepers of authoritative printed resources and online databases, information management has adapted from managing resources to managing both the context within which information and knowledge discovery can take place and the quality of the information on which commercial decisions are made. As the very idea of source and resource changes through the emergence of alt data and big data, the survey reveals both the changing ecology of information work and the emerging skills required to manage information in the workplace.

Luke Tredinnick

June 2019 issue now available

We’re pleased to announce that the June 2019 issue of Business Information Review is now available. This issue contains the normal mix of professional and research articles, focussed on information and knowledge management in the commercial sector.

The first article in June’s Business Information Review was written by editorial board member Denise Carter and former editor Sandra Ward. Exploring the implications of the Hawley Report originally published in 1995 but recently reappraised for its potential contribution to commercial information management strategy, the article reports on the updating and development of Hawley’s original recommendation for a modern information context. Entitled Information as an Asset – Today’s Board Agenda: The Value of Rediscovering Gold, the paper traces the ways in which the information landscape has been transformed over the last 20 years, from connectivity, to the growth of artificial intelligence, and the redevelopment of the Hawley Report for contemporary contexts. The authors write:

“Our report is intended to be transformational and a wakeup call. It provides our view of the benefits from managing information with flair, a set of principles that Boards would do well to adhere to; and a checklist to enable boards to consider the extent to which they are delivering and promoting the effective management and use of information assets.

The publication of Information as an Asset: Today’s Board Agenda by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) in February 2019 is an important landmark in commercial information management, as out first paper makes clear.

Our second article was written by Paul H Cleverley and Simon Burnett from Robert Gordon University in the UK and addressed the topical and important subject of enterprise search solutions. Entitled Enterprise Search: A State of the Art, the paper reports on interview research conducted with 18 participants from a range of backgrounds into challenges for enterprise search and future directions for development. The paper develops a four-level model for enterprise search use cases that ‘could be used to reframe how enterprise search is perceived, influencing strategies, deployments and conceptual models’.

The third article for June 2019 is entitled The Innovation Ecosystem and Knowledge Management: A Practitioner’s Viewpoint. What does Innovation Mean? Witten by Rosemary Nunn from I&K, the Information and Knowledge Agency, the paper explores the meaning of innovation in organisational contexts, and the link between innovation and Knowledge Management. The paper explains how to map the innovation ecosystem within the organisation, and uses case studies to map the impact of knowledge management on innovation.

Our fourth paper was written by Paul Corney, founder of knowledge et al, a UK-based KM consultancy, and a Knowledge & Information Management Ambassador for CILIP. The paper illustrates the importance careful planning plays in creating the right environment for face-to-face collaboration and learning, and outlines 10 virtual facilitation success factors.

Our final article for June was written by editorial board member Denise Carter, from DCision Consult, Geneva, Switzerland. Entitled Real World Experience: Lessons Learnt From My Experience of Bringing a Fully Outsourced Library Service Back In-House, the paper reflects on the ways in which early professional experiences can have an important and continued effect on our working lives. We are very grateful for Denise in contributing this paper.

You can access the issue here: https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/bira/current

 

Call for papers: The Connected Workplace

Contributions are invited for a themed-issue of Business Information Review on the topic of “The Connected Workplace” to be published in December 2019. The issue will explore emerging technology in the workplace, with a particular emphasis on human issues and the impact of technology on Information and Knowledge Management in the commercial sector. Topics of papers may include:

  • Virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) or mixed reality (MR) applications in business environments; remote working facilitated through VR/AR. Training and skills requirements around VR/AR.
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) in commercial settings; how AI is changing professional roles; training requirements around AI; the ethics of AI in commercial contexts.
  • Intelligent automation reshaping the way in which work gets done.
  • Collaborative software and cloud based systems in the workplace.
  • Technologically enhanced distance learning; implementing flexible working spaces; virtual offices and virtual organisations.
  • Gamification of the workplace.
  • Machine learning in business contexts

We also welcome contributions on any other aspect of emerging technology in the workplace. All papers should address the professional requirements of Information and Knowledge Management as it pertains to practice in the commercial sector.

Expressions of interest in contributing to the themed issue should be sent to the editors (via l.tredinnick@londonmet.ac.uk) by 15th May 2019 Papers should be between 3000 and 6000 words in length, and the deadline for submission of completed papers will be 01st August 2019.

About Business Information Review

Business Information Review (BIR) is published by Sage Journals and addresses information and knowledge management within commercial organizations. The journal features papers by professional practitioners and LIS researchers in equal measure, and has a strong record of encouraging and developing practitioner research. The journal also promotes evidence-based professional practice and encourages the sharing of professional expertise and experience. We aim to:

  • Report on best current practice in business information provision;
  • Evaluate business information resources and anticipate new forms of resource;
  • Highlight new professional developments and trends;
  • Scan the horizon for longer term developments.

For over forty years Business Information Review has helped develop the careers and practice of commercial librarians, information and knowledge managers, and to promote the commercial libraries, information and knowledge management sector.

Business Information Review publishes a range of different kinds of article, including:

  • Professional articles sharing professional expertise and experience
  • Research articles reporting on research projects or findings
  • Opinion articles discussing an emerging issue or controversy
  • Out-of-the-Box articles addressing technological developments

Initiatives articles addressing changing contexts of professional practice

If you are interested in writing for Business Information Review, or would like more information about the early career prize or the journal then do please contact the editors Claire Laybats and Luke Tredinnick via businessinformationreviewj@gmail.com

The issue of personalisation and its impact on KM

Author Hal Kirkwood BIR Board member, Bodleian Business Librarian, Said Business School, University of Oxford. President, Special Lib Assoc. 2019

The current state of affairs was on full display at the last (November 2018) KM World Conference in Washington DC.  I had the opportunity to attend for several days to see first-hand what is happening in the knowledge management realm.  There were many themes prevalent throughout the conference; each day consisted of 3 tracks. The Day One tracks focused on KM & Culture, Digital Workspaces, KM Tools & Tech.  Day Two tracks focused on Knowledge-Sharing Processes, Content Management, and KM Culture & Collaboration.  Key takeaways and themes were the importance of collaboration; identifying the right tools to fit the problem and your organization’s culture; designing environments, both physical and virtual, for employees and clients; determining how to transfer knowledge; developing information ecosystems; and the implementation and impact of artificial intelligence and machine learning.  The clear underlying theme is the continuing intersection of people and technology.

One aspect that is gaining traction into KM is personalization; utilizing individual user data to provide a more focused recommendation or timely suggestion. Technology, in conjunction with access to massive amounts of data, is driving momentum towards ever greater personalization.  Personalization, not customization.  Consumers become weary of making choices when these systems can make relevant choices for them based on their prior experiences.  Consumers are showing preferences towards companies that provide effective, relevant personalization.  However, since knowledge management focuses on the internal management of a company’s knowledge personalization at the employee level has been slower to develop.

Personalization has primarily been within the purview of marketing and consumer buying habits.  The power of personalization relies on a combination of data that was once inaccessible; namely geolocation crossed with purchasing habits.  It has become especially powerful when the immediacy of time is included to deliver personalized information and recommendations to a potential customer at the most optimal moment to affect their behavior.  Artificial intelligence and machine learning will make significant inroads in the personalization strategies of companies marketing plans to provide more focused experiences for customers.  1

The challenge for many companies is to scale this personalization to the masses.  AI and machine learning will increase the capacity to track multiple data points for larger numbers of customers. This will increase the expectation of customers for improving levels of service that meet their exact needs and requirements.  Evidence shows that it is highly successful when implemented in increasing sales and customer satisfaction. but that most companies are not implementing it.

Every company is now looking for ways to gather customer data that can be used to make more informed, and more specific, decisions on individuals.  Many companies are also capturing terabytes of data on customer behavior to then sell to businesses for this very reason. There is the issue however, that the attempt at personalization will be wrong based on the AI processing poor or inaccurate information.  As personalization becomes more accurate, and more ubiquitous, it will seem all the more glaring when AI-driven personalization is incorrect. Consumers are likely to feel more uncomfortable about what data is ‘out there’ on them and its accuracy, or lack thereof.  This is a complicated issue of human perception of technologically driven services.  How much control we have over all of this data is also a major concern.  In Europe, GDPR is beginning to make an impact by providing consumers with more control over what data is collected and how it is used.  It remains to be seen how exactly this will impact the data collection and utilization process. Many consumers, when surveyed, approve of the use of their data if they will receive a tangible benefit. There are some conversations taking place about implementing some form of GDPR in the United States, but little in the way of concrete details have provided.

Companies such as Netflix, Spotify, Amazon, and several other key companies are pursuing, and leading, the development of even greater data collection to develop ever more enhanced services for individuals.  Areas like physical fitness, healthcare, and personal finance are becoming driven by apps that collect personal data to then provide recommendations relevant to an individual’s life.  Consumers will allow themselves to be tracked in this way because of the return on investment of their personal data.

The majority of personalization development has been in the B2C marketplace; there will likely be increased demand for it on the B2B side.  The key element will be systems that collect client-level data that can be assessed by AI applications.  Many companies are moving into this to deliver solutions for collecting and analyzing data.  Business intelligence systems will develop as AI and machine learning are layered into them for much greater personalization of services and deliveries to corporate clientele. Companies must make the choice to implement an AI-based system to drive their decisions.  Not an easy task when it often requires a significant operational and cultural shift in how they conduct business.  Companies making this decision are likely to benefit but must be wary of the myriad pitfalls.  What ramifications this will have on the competitiveness of companies and markets, as well as within the broader business information environment still remains to be seen.