Workflow automation to streamline efficiencies becomes a top priority for executives, according to new Adobe research. With 88 percent of senior executives saying that customer demand for content has increased significantly. 

Adobe has released its 2023 Digital Trends Report. The thirteenth of its kind, the annual deep dive prepares marketers for the year ahead. With over 9000 executives, agency employees and practitioners surveyed, the data is able to help industry individuals and bodies to prepare for the next year of expectations.

Content creation continues to scale up

Consumer’s insatiable appetite to consume content continues to grow, with an uptick in dynamic digital experiences. Conversely, less than a quarter of brands are delivering high quality content. 

Industry leaders are therefore rethinking and streamlining their content supply chains, which cover content campaign planning, creation, delivery, and data analysis. Efficiency and cost-reduction have become the focus: 25 percent of senior ANZ executives say they have already made their content processes more efficient. While 40 percent of senior executives aim to streamline or automate processes to work more efficiently in 2023.

 Workflow emerges as top priority

Historically, efforts to accelerate content creation have come at the cost of employee time and freedom. Almost half (46 percent) of ANZ marketing practitioners cite a lack of time to be creative as a barrier to delivering excellent customer experiences. In addition: 

• Less than a quarter (23 percent) of ANZ practitioners rate their organisations as ‘good’ or ‘very good’ at planning, scoping, prioritising, and assigning content to achieve measurable outcomes, compared to 25 percent in APAC and 33 percent globally. 
• Crucially, almost half (44 percent) of ANZ marketers say workflow issues are critical in holding back their organisations.  

To address this issue and strengthen content development in 2023, leading ANZ brands have prioritised workflow management, digital collaboration and improving their team’s skills.

• More than one-third (40 percent) have prioritised streamlining and leveraging AI or automating collaboration processes so their teams can work more efficiently.  
• And 27 percent of ANZ brands have prioritised building their team’s digital and customer experience skills.