Thank you. And, and thank you, Barry, really for joining us here. I know you've been in, let's say, the virtual field, for the last, at least year and a half. I've been talking to to a lot of customers and and obviously been in this space for a very long time. I'm curious about what you've been seeing, in terms of what are the new priorities. Obviously, something shifted, before, when COVID happened, but now, things are getting back to normal. I'm curious, what you're seeing, in the field and and really what are, the companies trying to do. Right. The new normal. Right, Greg? You know, I don't think it's probably ever, yeah, ever go back to the way they were before. But, you know, as the from the vendor's perspective, we're certainly seeing a lot of employee experience projects. You know? And when we talk to those folks, you know, the things that what they've told us was that, you know, we sent people home. And so overnight, almost overnight, people had to really become self reliant, and they had to to just use the systems that we gave them. And so, you know, a a lot of folks that maybe haven't been remote all their career, you know, all of a sudden had to use the intranets. They had to use the search boxes. And, you know, people really voiced their opinions about the systems that were out there. Right? And then in the same breath, you know, we were using apps on our mobile devices from in our personal lives that that were really, really great, and and companies were really pushing out new types of experiences, ways to interact. And so we really had this unique experience where we had the stuff at work, and then we had the stuff in our personal lives. And anything that wasn't working well, so anything that was, data was hard to find or things where you couldn't you didn't know where to go to find content, all of those things, got a huge spotlight on them. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, we, especially, I guess, spending more time at home meaning means using more apps like Netflix, I guess, and all those things. And and we get used to those experience. So you get back to work. You can't find anything. There's no way I there's there's just not the same experience. Definitely, something that we notice. And, and as you see this unfolding, do do I mean, talking to customers, what have you seen that the leaders are doing to actually respond to that problem? Well, certainly those employee experience projects, again, have kind of been pushed up to the top. But really, you know, people are, I think it gave companies a lot of opportunities to ask questions like, you know, how do you want to engage with work, with the apps that we use? And it also allowed people to kinda look around and say what's looking what works well, what looks really good. And so, you know, customers, employees, folks like us, you know, we all said, I think, kind of the same thing, which was, you know, I don't know exactly necessarily what I wanna use. Meaning, I I don't I wanna use whatever I'm currently using to to find the things that I need to find. And so if you think about that, for example, you know, I don't necessarily want to go to the Internet or I don't wanna go to our Internet for things. I don't necessarily wanna go directly to that app. I wanna wanna be able to find content wherever it is that I'm in. And so if we've got five or six systems that we use day to day, I want that experience to be at least common across those. And I wanna be able to start wherever I'm at and find information, be able to do the things that I need to do. And I also want all of those systems to to at least know who I am and what experience I'm looking for. And so, you know, companies are are as I said, they're certainly building those projects out, but they're also taking a look at, you know, what do we have internally. So, you know, do we have a handful of apps and portals, and can we get that down into one or two? Or, you know, do we even have the right portals? Do we need even something else? And so I I think it's it's across the board, but what we're but I think the strategies that that, that are in place today are really, okay, let's let what does the customer want? And, and let's start with them first. And, I mean, how are they solving? I mean, all this content everywhere, all these different experience. I mean, you've been talking to these customers. How are they solving that? Yeah. And so I think, you know, depending on where the customer as you know, is inside of that maturity model, you know, they may be trying to build some of this themselves. They may be trying to use some AI technologies from other companies. You know, I think the interesting thing, though, is that as customers kind of look around out there and maybe this is not in their wheelhouse. Right? Because AI is is very, I think, very different. It's it's a very different mindset, than what folks are normally thinking about in in terms of the enterprise. But, you know, so people are looking around and they're saying what's out there, what looks good. And and I think one of the things that's happening is that they're looking to the the systems and the applications in their personal life as as as, you know, as influencers. And I and I think, you know, what we're finding is is that, you know, customers don't necessarily have to have the the very best experience they have at work, but they really need to have on par with their last best experience, which is usually in our personal life. It's normally on an app. Yeah. No. The this is, this makes a lot of sense. And, and something we've seen a lot is, customers with with many portals, with, different ways of accessing the information. And, and there was a it's a big trend of centralizing this all into one single place. Will you see that this this really matters? Or how do how do you see this, how do you see the leaders doing about that problem? Yeah. I think what you're you're kinda hinting at, Greg, is is maybe external content, which seems to be just kind of the that biggest poll in the tent. You know? So so shops are trying to figure out, okay. You know, we have a handful of of maybe really large platforms internally. Do we bring content into all of those platforms, or do we leave it where it is? And I I think the the best strategy or or at least the one that's gonna kinda get us through the next couple of cycles is is let's focus less about moving that content, but instead using applications that can go out and grab it. You know, external content, it's still one of the biggest drivers. And so those are still the the the kind of the big questions and the first questions that customers are asking. If I don't move off of multiple portals or if if we're still in a in a in a bit of a, a kind of a, you know, we're not sure yet. We're kind of still looking and waiting to see what can we do in the interim. And then the last thing that everybody is asking is, is about intranet, is about the, the workplace. And so, you know, what what type of experience can we give to our customers where we can without doing a lot of heavy lift and shift and bring in all those other experiences in one place. And so you have a place where you can go to to find content. Again, not necessarily for for, you know, the specific experience that I'm in or the specific platform, but really across the board. So, you know, I can start wherever. I can start on my mobile. So as I'm, you know, having coffee in the morning, I can click through and have a few things, and then I can maybe move to my laptop, which is usually on my deck, right, in my porch. And then I can go from there, and I can I can continue that experience through multiple channels? So it's I mean, what I'm hearing, it's it's less about centralizing all all the different systems, and it's more about offering the same experience across all these different, if you will, outlet or or channels. Whether it be mobile, web, and even across the web property, I would guess. Right? If if you have, like, a SharePoint, you have a ServiceNow, just on the unified experience across all those different things. Yeah. You know, the the thing I think that we haven't talked about, which is kind of this thread that runs, through everything is the employee experience and that personalization aspect of it. So, you know, and just think about in your personal life. You know, what what applications do you use? What makes them feel personal to you? Right? Is it is it the fact that it remembers not only who I am, but the things that I do inside of that app? And so it it it it sort of is recommending things, whether they're, you know, products or services or maybe just that very nice experience. And so you think about that. That's all driven from AI. AI is doing all of that personalization. There we just don't have, in organizations, the manpower to physically put to to to build these manually. It it doesn't exist. And so that's that's what's going to drive this this experience, into the in the future. And, I mean, obviously, you're you're right within that. You're talking about AI every day. But, I guess for a lot of people, it becomes confusing because you have companies like Tesla building AI specifically for driving cars. You have other companies that build AI around recommendation, AI for image recognition, all sorts of things. So, so given all of these flavor of AI, what's around there specifically to to make the experience better and solve this problem that you're talking about? Yeah. AI. And I love that it's this sort of ubiquitous term now, and it's everywhere. I I think that our new fridge is somehow AI driven. I'm not quite sure how that actually works. And you brought up the example of Tesla. And Tesla's got that, It's got a a video. It's like a three hour video. It's done by their engineers talking through their AI. It's it's, it's a great video. If you haven't checked it out, you should watch it. But, you know, you could probably say that Tesla has some of the smartest AI engineers in the world, and they have a bunch of them, right, because they're Tesla. But if you were to ask that AI system that's driving your car potentially, that knows how to go from coast to coast and avoid everything, If you were to ask them what's the closest open coffee house, it wouldn't know what to do. Right? The the probably the wheel would fall off. And so how does a really, really intelligent AI system not how can it not do what we would say is maybe a simple thing? But the the real answer is is that AIs are are purpose driven, and and that's kind of the thing that that's the secret sauce of of AI. It's it's it's very purposeful built. And so what you need to have is an AI that understands not just relevance, but also personalization. And so that you can use the correct AI for the job that you're trying to do. Right? So if I have an Internet, if I have a workplace project, and I want to have a very personal experience that where is as a customer, if if I'm in in Salesforce or in in SharePoint or I'm in ServiceNow and I'm moving through these applications, I want this portal in this experience to know these are the types of things that I look at because I I wanted to then take that next step, which is, well, these are the things that other folks, that look like you. And I'm saying look in maybe in parentheses or air quotes. Right? Because it's it's about, you know, what do I do and how do I work with the system and and the people that I talk to. And so you start to get this this sort of sphere of influence, if you will. And so, you know, those purposeful driven AI components are going to be really, really important. And I I think as well is that we're gonna start to see some of these that maybe even talk to each other. Right? So that you can use multiple different types of AI systems, to to provide a much larger or richer experience. Yeah. Absolutely. I I can definitely see that. And, I mean, just thinking about, like, this old Internet five years ago when you're logging to that, and it was not personalized at all. Everything was the same. All the all the information might not be relevant at all for me. And, Henry, yes, I think this is a problem. And and hopefully, hopefully, AI didn't resolve that problem given there's not as much resource for an internal deployment to, to personalize and and to put some rules and all of that like there would be for ecommerce merchandising, if you will, or or even for customer service. So Yeah. Those internets, Greg, used to be links. And I sort of remember, you know, that they were just a platform acceptable nowadays given, like, our expectations have risen in term of of experience and, with the mobile and everything that we're seeing around. So definitely, definitely, true. So so, Barry, is there, some examples? Like, I think, it's good to understand what specific customers are doing or or even see, see this in action. What, so so any examples that you like to show? Yeah. Let's talk about some of those. One of the customers that I like a lot, these guys are a big box, electronics manufacturers or or or retailers. And so, you know, as they were looking through this this new workplace project, you know, again, they they reached out to their customers and they said, you know, if we could do anything and we could help you guys out, what would it be? And I got some really interesting ideas. And so one of them was this expert finder. And so the concept of this is that inside of a store, okay, you have, all of these employees, obviously, they're hourly employees, but they have a a mobile app now that's just internal. And what that mobile app allows their employees to do is is to take videos, to do, sort of tips and tricks. And so if I'm in a a store and, for example, you know, maybe I I'm a I'm a a drone hobbyist, and so we've got these drones in the stores. And maybe I I create a couple of videos on how tos and tips and tricks, and these are the differences maybe in between these couple of brands that we hold. And so I can upload that, and then other people from other stores or really anywhere else can can go out and say, you know, is there who's our drone expert? Do we have somebody who can answer a couple of interesting questions that are maybe not on the box? So I think that's a really interesting way to use, Workplace app with AI to to help other people can communicate and and connect. Because really, I feel like that's what that's what the employee experience means to me. It means, you know, how do I how can these apps allow me to communicate and to and to engage with with either people or systems or or processes, that are that are already in place, existing? I just wanna try to I wanna get connected to those things, you know, faster. And another example that I like is is another tech company. And and these folks really they first came to to us, for for kind of a point solution. So they said, hey, we have an app and we really would like to, you know, increase the relevancy in the search in the app. But then as they started to to implement this, you know, other folks in the organization got wind of it. And so, really, there was also a top down approach to do what they were calling this employee experience revamp or two dot o. And that was not driven from a technology. It was driven from the top down. It was it was it was truly, truly a customer focused approach where we said, what do what do you guys want? You know, we've got fifty thousand employees. They're spread all over the world. They're all remote, and and they ramp up and down as the seasons change. You know, what can we give you guys? And they had a list, and and it was and it was not really crazy. I don't think crazy things, but it was about how do I find content? How do I engage with the people? Even though I don't know necessarily who they are. Right? So I need to be able to have a system in place that says who are experts, what is the content and what types of things should I be using maybe for a given experience and then push that to the customer. And so instead of, you know, even the customer having to do a search, we now get this concept of of, content finding us, which is really kind of that next evolution, right? Which is the, the, that maturity. I know that was a lot, Greg. I'd like to show you maybe a couple of portals. Does that make sense? Absolutely. But I mean, just, while you're preparing here, what I'm seeing is, basically in those two cases, we're really unlocking, this tribal knowledge that in, I guess, smaller companies is is easier to spread, and now we're just scaling it. And thanks to thanks to a AI, instead of being flooded with so much content that you can't really do anything with, being able to really personalize the experience allow us to to reshare, the the content that is relevant for for people working, across these these very big companies, whether it'd be, a clerk, in a store hourly employee to, to an engineer, I guess, building a bridge or or something. So that's really, pretty interesting. Yeah. I think once you you kinda put people in a in a bit of a I don't wanna say a silo, but, you know, at first when when the office is cleared, we were kind of alone for a little bit, weren't we? You know? And we was we were really kinda left with, okay. These are the systems that we have, and we kinda have to figure it out at least until the application's caught up with it. I'd like to show you a couple examples of of some some workplace portals. And this one is a is a ServiceNow portal. This is more of kind of a an employee experience portal. But I think there's some really interesting things on here that have to do with relevancy. And so when you think about this portal, you know, there's a lot of content out here. So we're we're recognizing the customer, and we're providing them with search. And I'll show you a couple of these things. But but look at what content is in here. And this is this is very nuanced. What I mean by that is is, you know, you could certainly build a a a workplace experience and you could have a team of people and they could curate all the content and say, this is what should go on the main page. But, again, we know it doesn't scale, and it's never gonna move as fast as the customer. So what we've done here is we've overlaid Coveo relevancy. And so it can basically look at things like, well, we we know that there are a handful of portals, that you're attached to, portal systems, applications, whatever it is, and you have a profile. And so we can certainly look across the board and say, well, what what what, you know, people that that have this profile, these are the types of things, that they're using, and this is what's trending. And it's all comes from, again, content that's already out there. Right? So so these AI companies are not building content. They're just trying to to get people to the correct content at in the correct time. If we scroll down further, we start to see other types of things like, okay. This is my team. Maybe this Coveo from maybe a Workday or some HR app, but then also also experiential app or, or, or content. So I also know that this person is in a, is a new hire. And so I know what content new hires typically use because I've seen the last fifty new hires, and and these systems are tracking this. So it's tracking, hey. These are the the five or six apps that people need right now. Even if they they they haven't seen them yet, they haven't searched for them, this is the stuff we know you're probably going to use. And as a customer, this is exactly what I'm looking for. For. Right? These are the recommendations that I I'm I'm sort of expecting. And, again, because I get that experience in other places in my life. Scrolling down even further, you know, why not take that to other types of things? You know, we have we use Slack internally and, you know, we've got a bunch of Slack channels on there that are just about activities and personal stuff. And so we could do other types of things like, I I know that you're you know, some groups and we do a a thirty day challenge. This is all really interesting things that that that custom that we could we could present to customers in these workplace examples. I switched over to a different person, and now we see even even the same sort of framework, but, again, completely different experience based on who you are. So this person has very different look and feel, have access to maybe potentially different content, maybe some stuff is relevant across the board. Right? So workplace examples, where we're using AI to then drive content. If we look at something like this, this is an example that that came from a customer that's more product focused, more around customer service. And so the types of things that we see here, are, again, a little bit nuanced. And so the very first thing you see right here is is that we know where that person was maybe in a different channel, and that's really important. So as a customer, you know, I I really expect, enterprises in companies that I deal with. I I want them to know who I am in terms of my preferences. Right? So so if if I'm maybe, you know, on a mobile device and I'm and I'm trying to research something and then I can't find it or I I'm I'm in between something and I put my phone away and then I come back to it maybe on the laptop or the desktop, I want the system to be able to say, hey. You know, you were looking at this these handful of things. You know? Can we can we continue where we left off? And I really like that approach. If we scroll down a little bit further, you know, I do know some things about this this customer in this case. They have a login. In this case, I know what products and services they use from me. And so I can start to go and grab content that makes sense for that. You know, in a in a support portal, I always wanna see what are other people experiencing. Because, you know, I I may have an issue with something that I'm I'm working with or a product that I have, and I don't, you know, I I don't necessarily know how to fix the problem. I might not even know what the problem is. You know? So I'd love to be able to see, well, these are things that are kind of trendy now. And I I also like transparency. And so, you know, I I want a customer to tell me, hey, this thing is broken or it's down. You know, these are great, I think, opportunities, to leverage AI to to make a a very personal sort of portal. Greg, I'll I'll I'll just kinda pause there. You know, do these I mean, when you use applications like this, I mean, are you looking for these types of things? Are there things that maybe you've seen as well? No. Absolutely. I mean, it just as you said earlier, it's it's all comes down to what we're being used to, when we're outside of work. And, and the reality is that those experiences are are just getting better and better. And, I really like that big search box, up there because I mean, I I think and as as people have been using, these experience more and more, search has taken a big part of it. Just going to, obviously, Google, you'll you'll do a search, but then it kinda reframe all you're using, how you're using everything. Right? DeepL, a lawyer would review contract by just looking at the glossary at the beginning and scrolling through pages, etcetera. Whereas now, they would use a control f or try to find certain terms in a contract. It just changed the whole way we we interact with computer, and it's really the base of, I think, how how it makes us it made us use computer in the first place. And, and I think I mean, just trying to think an ex of an example where I don't use search, to accomplish something. And, and I would say those only examples are when, when the the system is actually able to, pre recommend, something that I need before I even search right time. Example I like to bring is every time I open, my phone nowadays, I just, I I just use the the search to find my different apps. But then now, Siri recommends, four different apps that I'm that might be interested in. And most of the time, those are the apps that I was actually looking for. So really, really, I think, combination of of making it easy to search and at the same time recommending, content before I actually ask for it is is really, is really experience that we're getting used to. And, and when I get to use internal systems, I'm I'm expecting that. Greg. Yeah. You're absolutely right. And I remember kind of the first time that that happened for me. And so I'm on my phone and I'm at the kitchen table, and I'm not gonna make dinner, and I'm looking for the maybe the the the best taco places around. And then I jump in my truck and I plug in my phone, and the first thing that the Google Maps pulls up is, would you like to go to one of these taco shops? And, you know, I just I love that, and I I think that's, again, one of those great examples of using the technology and and making it proactive. And so, you know, it's helping me to, again, find the the the things that I'm looking for. Yeah. So, no. Absolutely, Barry. This makes a lot of sense. And, when I look at, the the key takeaways from our presentation today, I think there's really really five things I can think about. I mean, the first one is, employee demand, modern experience with good good UX. And UX is more than than the just colors and and making it look good. It's also about, how people are actually using the site. And, and search is is a big part of it. Search and and and, and AI, actually. The the other thing, that that I heard from you was, meeting employee under terms, which, which which for me is also very important. It doesn't matter anymore, if you're in your mobile app, if you're on on a certain, web based app, if if you're even, using, like, a Chrome extension, etcetera, what matters is that people find the information they're looking for. So it's not necessarily about centralizing, everything into one portal, but making sure that the experience is the same across across those different different, channels. And and I think this is also very important. The the the third one is, about personalization. And I think at Coveo, we're really well positioned to see that. We have three lines of businesses as as, some of you know. So, in commerce, AI is there, but there but there's also a merchandiser that looks at data, that looks at products. And there's old teams able to optimize certain products, put them on sale, boost them, in the results. Something we we still see a bit in in service, but at a smaller scale. But when it comes to the the workplace, we usually don't have those type of resources that can go and curate curate the content. So maybe they can do it for, for certain certain little things, during the year, like open enrollment and things like that. But when it comes to what you were showing earlier, like a portal and and curating content for something that works in support versus someone who works in r and d, for example, this is this is really when AI can come into play and really help, scale this, in in bigger organization. And, and other point that that we talked about and I, this one is linked to to the UX for sure. But as we're, using those apps, in a in the consumer world, we're just getting, with with a higher and higher expectation of what an experience should be. And, and obviously, this is, this is setting the bar. So when when you're going into, into your workplace apps, you're expecting that at least the search is gonna work. That at least, what you're gonna see on the homepage is somewhat personalized. So, so when you get back to those old portals, it it just doesn't work, and and people are really frustrated by that. So, and and, Barry, for the for the last point, because I I think at the end, it all comes down to that. If there's one thing that people should remember, what what would it be? Yeah. I would I would say it's definitely that last bullet, which is, you know, you don't have to rip and replace the the existing portals that you have in the system. So and you're not going to. Right? So, you know, the good news is we we have the tech. The tech is here, and and you can level up the stuff that's already out there. And so, you know, you can use the the AI and the machine learning capabilities, and you can inject it into the search bar. You can inject it into the existing portals. Right? Let let AI and the machine learning models drive all of that content, you know, and and and other things. You'll put it into chatbots. You know, where again, to to go back to your point, where are people at? Let's let's inject AI into those in into those experiences. Absolutely. So thank you so much for your time, Barry, and thank you so much, for your time listening to our presentation. Have a great rest of day and a great rest of the event.
septembre 2021
Revitaliser l'expérience sur le lieu de travail
Améliorer chaque interaction
septembre 2022
Employee experience is just as important as customer experience. But with legacy systems and departmental silos, it can be challenging to deliver a personalized and relevant one. In this session, you’ll learn how to make knowledge easy to find across your enterprise applications to help employees be effective, productive, and empowered in their work, wherever they are.

Greg Laporte
Directeur, gestion de produit chez Coveo, Coveo
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