MATT: So in 2019, we had 35% of consumers say that most of the companies I do business with need to improve their customer experience. And we didn't ask in 2020, but that was also the beginning of the pandemic. And that put a lot of strain on relationships. And we heard a lot of feedback from consumers around wanting empathy and the communications they had. And looking for more out of those relationships. So when we came back in 2021 and saw it grew to 59%, we wanted to make sure that we were tracking that year over year. And as I teased at the beginning, this is a really pretty graphic from a data analyst perspective over time, but it's not a pretty graphic for those companies supporting these consumers that feel like their experiences continue to weaken. And I think a big piece of this is tied to, uh, we all have those companies that we put on a pedestal that provide great experiences, and they continue to set a new bar for what our expectation is relative to what a great experience is. So for companies that are kind of doing the same thing they've always done, or maybe even taking away some human interaction or taking away certain aspects of that relationship, they're falling further behind. And that's becoming a problem in this space. When we asked a follow-up question on which industries provide the best overall customer experience, we focused on those that have recurring transactional and or regulatory relationships. So you're not seeing like e-commerce or, you know, hotel and hospitality, those that side of it. But the industries that did the best were banking, credit cards, utilities, you can see where investments and retirement falls further down the line. Now, I will say we didn't ask about which companies provide great experiences. So there are great companies within all of these industries, but genericized by industry, you can see what those top three were. When we then asked which industries have communications that are easy to understand, you can see that we've highlighted those top three because they're the same. So ease of understanding of the communications seem to align with the companies that provide the best overall experience. So we're seeing in this intrinsic tie of quality and clarity of communications with better experiences.

ALICIA: From an executive perspective, we're seeing a profound gap is opening up between leaders and non-leader. Companies that are investing in digital transformation are pulling ahead, and other firms are at the point where they're going to have to play catch up to stay competitive. You can see from the side that leaders are advanced in setting a culture that encourages continuous innovation. And 71% have most of the necessary digital skills and resources already in place, which means that they're implementing and they're going, they're not just formulating and conceptualizing. And you compare that to 12% of other firms that feel that they're ready and have the right investment there. Also, over two thirds of leaders have built the foundation that's required, that includes the modern core technology platform and very critically and integrated data platform. If you flip over to the next slide, we dig a little deeper into the digital transformation dimensions, specifically the customer, customer digital engagement. And the gap between non-leaders and leaders keeps growing in wealth firms, specifically in 2024, 27% report that they're now at the advanced stages of delivering digital experiences. And that's compared with 15, just about a year prior. So while we think that we're making great progress, there's still a lot of work that the industry as a whole has to do to meet customers where they are and where they want to be. Good news, though, financial organizations are really trying to meet those needs. It's no surprise that when we asked respondents, what are the top accelerators for digital transformation, customer was number one. It's about being customer obsessed and focusing on priorities that are deeply rooted in what the client needs and what the client wants for non-leader, um, I'm sorry, for leaders, there are almost five times as likely to be driving core priorities towards delivering seamless digital experiences. Big gap from our non-leaders.

ALICIA: So I'd say first it's not AI for AI's sake, and it's not an AI first approach. I, you know, sometimes you, you get into this frenzy that you're missing out, there's a fear that's something going on and you're not a part of it. But I'd say in this case, that's not how to approach it. It really just starts with what's the business need, what's the challenge, and thinking through, you know, okay, so is this a good use case where AI or generative AR is something of that nature is going to help? And I'd say another piece of the puzzle is really assessing your readiness. Do you have the right talent? Do you have the right data management capabilities? Do you have the right compliance framework? Do you have the right governance models? All of those are critical, critical to make sure that as you start innovating and as you start going through and experimenting that the organization is set up for success.