The global shift from analog to digital has accelerated during the past five years, and in the process, nearly everything has changed—from how we socialize and learn to how and where we work. And this mass digital transformation is also sparking new ways of generating economic value.
Large corporations and small businesses alike are harnessing digital technologies to invent new products, jobs, platforms, and even virtual worlds, enabling engagement of more current and future customers with a larger array of physical and digital experiences than ever before.
The digital economy is also empowering individuals. New creative tools and platforms are giving people of every skill and experience level the ability to express, share, and even monetize their ideas and creativity with global audiences. In fact, the Creator Economy—the economy empowering people who are monetizing their content, goods, and services online by leveraging their own creativity, talents, and passions—grew during the past two years to 303 million creators globally.
And while these new creative tools and platforms are enabling many individuals to become digitally powered solopreneurs, content creators, and influencers, they’re also providing employees inside small and large businesses alike with new skills—and possibly even new expectations—that they’re bringing to work.
DELIVERING PERSONALIZED CONTENT
While digital technologies are creating new opportunities for both companies and individuals, they are also creating challenges. One place companies are feeling the pressure is in the growing demand for content.
Today’s customers expect businesses to deliver personalized and compelling experiences, meeting their needs regardless of where they are in their journeys, where they live, what language they speak, or the channels through which they engage.
At the heart of these personalized experiences is content, and the multiplying ways and places brands must engage with their customers are driving a relentless increase in demand for engaging content. In a recent Adobe study, 88% of brands said content demand at least doubled during the last year, and two-thirds expect it to grow fivefold during the next two years.
While customers are eager for more and more compelling content-powered experiences, organizations are already struggling to keep up. Their top challenges, according to the same study, are that they lack the right technologies, they do not have enough people to do the work, and their processes are broken.
Even the largest enterprises can’t simply hire five times more designers to create five times more content; economic and labor realities make that impossible. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and emerging generative AI technologies are helping companies automate many aspects of content creation, and workflow collaboration solutions are helping teams work faster and deliver more. But while technology can—and should—help businesses create content more efficiently, companies that focus solely on doing more with less are missing an important opportunity: the ability to leverage new creative tools and engage more people in making content for their customers.
HARNESSING THE CREATIVITY OF YOUR WORKFORCE
New digital creative solutions are democratizing content development, making graphic design, image, and video editing accessible for anyone who’s interested, regardless of their creative experience or skill level. These new tools also empower marketers and executives to participate in the early development stages by sketching and circulating initial ideas for creative team iteration. They also enable creative teams to produce templates and brand kits so employees across other teams can create on-brand content quickly and easily. And by democratizing more of the day-to-day work, creative professionals can free up time to bring their unique talents and experience to the most strategic creative work.
CONNECTING YOUR ECOSYSTEM
While democratizing content creation automatically increases the amount of content a company can create, it’s also important to connect workflows and technologies to ensure the “content supply chain” doesn’t break down.
EMPOWERING WITH DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES
New creative technologies are allowing brands to meet growing customer demands and run their businesses more efficiently. However, the potential for these tools to give employees more creative superpowers is equally important, if not more so. Companies that focus digital technologies on amplifying talent in addition to streamlining operations will reap the benefits of both happier customers and a more engaged—and productive—workforce.
By Govind Balakrishnan, Senior Vice President, Express Product Group & Digital Media Services, Adobe
