TLDR: Brad Anderson, President of Products at Qualtrics, highlights how AI is fundamentally reshaping business operations, from enhancing customer experience to revolutionizing product development and internal culture. He emphasizes the role of generative AI in improving data collection and quality in surveys, and the significant integration of AI-generated code into products. Anderson also stresses the need for continuous upskilling of teams to effectively leverage AI and adapt to evolving customer feedback mechanisms.
Brad Anderson, President of Products, User Experience, Engineering, and Security at Qualtrics, a leading experience management technology company, has shed light on the profound impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across various facets of business. In recent discussions, including a GeekWire Podcast and insights shared at the X4 conference, Anderson detailed how AI is not just a technological advancement but a fundamental platform shift that is redefining how companies operate and build products.
One of the key areas of transformation highlighted by Anderson is customer feedback and data collection. He noted that generative AI has significantly improved the effectiveness of surveys, leading to a 10% increase in data volume and a doubling of data quality. This enhancement allows for deeper insights and more personalized interactions with customers. Qualtrics has introduced ‘Experience Agents,’ an agentic AI tool capable of understanding environments and executing complex tasks independently. These agents can be trained on an organization’s runbooks and policies, enabling them to proactively close the loop with customers in real-time based on their feedback. Anderson shared an example where, in a situation like a flight delay, these agents can automatically manage and personalize interactions for hundreds of affected passengers, ensuring a better customer experience.
Beyond customer interaction, AI is profoundly impacting product development and engineering. Anderson stated that AI tools are generating millions of lines of code, with approximately 45% of this AI-generated code being integrated directly into products. This accelerates the development cycle, allowing for quicker creation of product mock-ups and prototypes. He also emphasized that AI will bring UX and product management teams closer, as AI assists in generating prototypes for UX research. The shift necessitates a change in the profile of engineers, who now need to possess the skills to validate and verify AI-generated code for quality and security.
Anderson, drawing on his extensive experience, including over 17 years at Microsoft, compared the current AI revolution to the introduction of cloud technology. He believes that while agentic AI might see a slower initial adoption, it will quickly become ubiquitous, much like generative AI already is. He stressed that organizations are collecting vast amounts of unstructured and unsolicited data, and AI is the only viable way to make sense of this volume.
Furthermore, Anderson highlighted the importance of a ‘learn-it-all’ mindset, inspired by Satya Nadella’s leadership at Microsoft, as crucial for navigating the AI era. He advocates for daily engagement with AI tools across all levels of an organization and the creation of safe spaces, such as hackathons, for experimentation and upskilling. Qualtrics itself committed to investing $500 million in AI in 2023, demonstrating its dedication to integrating AI into its core offerings.
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Looking ahead, Anderson predicts a fundamental change in market research, with synthetic data playing a significant role. He envisions a hybrid approach where synthetic panels quickly vet ideas, followed by human research for refinement, ultimately leading to more impactful insights. The goal, he asserts, is to democratize data and infuse AI into purpose-built experiences for every employee, from call center managers to frontline staff, thereby putting meaningful value into the hands of nearly every individual in a company.
