MuleSoft’s Connectivity Benchmark survey found 97 percent of IT decision-makers are involved in digital transformation initiatives at their respective organizations.
These leaders use “a combination of new technologies to modernize legacy processes and to identify and implement new business model innovation opportunities,” explains Vala Afshar, Chief Digital Evangelist for Salesforce (MuleSoft’s parent company) in a summary for ZDNet.
Using data from more than 850 global IT leaders, 9,000 consumers, and third-party findings, these are the top 7 digital transformation trends shaping 2020:
Connecting the consumer experience:
MuleSoft found that 69 percent of consumers would say a disconnected customer experience would make them consider changing providers.
Consumers expect consistency across multiple channels and highly-personalized experiences. Organizations need to solve the increased pressure placed on IT to open bandwidth, allowing for a more connected, personal experience for all consumers.

MuleSoft Top 7 digital transformation trends shaping 2020
Data-driven business:
Data is a central tenet of digital transformation, being used to improve customer experiences, streamline operations, and launch products and services quickly.
83 percent of IT decision-makers report that data silos are creating business challenges in their organization. Research shows that breaking these silos down correlates to company performance.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning:
AI is being used across several industries to accelerate and personalize customer service, reduce human bias, and increase productivity. Research predicts a 95 percent growth projection in the adoption of AI.
Currently, the most common use cases for AI are Machine Learning, basic task automation, and chatbots, and by 2020, 25% of customer service operations will make use of virtual assistants. In order to maximize value, data governance is key.
Multi-cloud computing
While managing multiple clouds is difficult — especially for moving application workloads between them — 84% of enterprises with 1000+ employees have a multi-cloud strategy. API-led application development and containerization are two potential solutions.

MuleSoft Top 7 digital transformation trends shaping 2020
Partnering With IT to Turbocharge the business:
The more an organization’s IT is efficient, agile, innovative, and on board with digital transformation, the better chance of successful initiatives.
Organizations are increasingly investing in distributed and emerging technologies like security, big data/analytics, and IoT, and IT can no longer keep up. Meanwhile, MuleSoft’s research shows that almost 70% of IT departments are just keeping the lights on.

MuleSoft Top 7 digital transformation trends shaping 2020
Co-creating value with external stakeholders:
The increase in collaborative digital ecosystems (partners, customers, and external stakeholders) means organizations can smoothly integrate new products and services into the customer experiences.
Fueling business performance with APIs:
According to MuleSoft’s report, APIs enable organizations to innovate faster and smarter. The result is increased productivity, revenue growth, and room for innovation. Full value, however, is dependant on them being productized and easily reusable.