Across the digital web, consumer expectations for the brands they interact with seem to be intensifying.  Now more than ever, users may expect the companies they interact with to know and anticipate their needs.

However, meeting these expectations can be challenging because it requires combining data from multiple sources to get a clearer picture of each individual customer and act on those real-time insights to deliver a truly connected experience. 

Today, at the annual Adobe Summit, IBM announced a significant expansion to their partnership with Adobe, around the use of artificial intelligence-powered weather data from The Weather Company, an IBM Business, on the Adobe Experience Platform. Adobe plans to also leverage Weather Channel data as part of its Digital Economy Index, exploring how weather patterns affect online spending and other trends in e-commerce.   These expanded solutions are expected to be generally available later this year.

IBM is designing a new solution to enable customers of Adobe Experience Platform, the foundation of Adobe Experience Cloud applications, with the ability to derive new AI-driven insights on how weather could affect consumer purchasing habits across different categories such as retail, healthcare, travel and hospitality, and consumer packaged goods. Brands could be able to gain an understanding of how customer behaviors may shift in response to forecasted weather changes, with deep insights to help them deliver the right experiences, to the right audiences, at the right moment.

“Weather data is a proven predictor of consumer behavior, and by further expanding our relationship with Adobe, IBM is providing Adobe Experience Platform customers more insights to help them create individualized experiences for every consumer,” said Sheri Bachstein, Chief Executive Officer at The Weather Company, and General Manager of IBM Watson Advertising. “IBM and Adobe have enjoyed a strong, strategic partnership for more than 20 years and this latest announcement only reinforces the vision both businesses share for improving the customer experience.”

By building on IBM's partnership with Adobe, customers on Experience Platform, later this year, are expected to be able to leverage weather data from the world’s most accurate weather forecaster overall^[1],  to build richer and distinct customer segments to help drive personalized offers and support cross-channel growth.

“By expanding our partnership with IBM, Adobe can empower our customers to unlock new personalization opportunities and drive business growth,” said Justin Merickel, Vice President of Business Development, Adobe Experience Cloud. “Weather data is a natural complement to Adobe Experience Platform, which our customers rely on to have a comprehensive view of customer journeys and trigger relevant, engaging experiences across channels.” 

Commenting on the potential value of bringing weather data into the customer experience, Chris Luna, Senior Global Media Manager at 3M, an existing IBM and Adobe customer said, “The powerful combination of AI-driven weather data and insights, from IBM, with Adobe’s open system for building and managing solutions that drive the customer experience, the Adobe Experience Platform, have the potential to help provide brands with a broad approach to their marketing strategies. As third-party identifiers and traditional forms of targeting are phased out via impending legislation and consumer privacy regulations, brand marketers will need to leverage alternative datasets and solutions to ensure their customers are receiving an enjoyable, web-based experience.”

To support this offering, IBM iX, the customer and experience transformation group of IBM Consulting, will expand its Adobe services and add to the Adobe Experience Platform user experience.

Together, Adobe and IBM iX offer strategy, industry expertise, technology and processes to guide clients through experience-led business transformations. As part of its Adobe practice, IBM iX continues to bolster its consulting and implementation capabilities across Adobe Document Cloud, Adobe Experience Cloud, Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Workfront solutions, helping clients evolve marketing, sales, and service capabilities across the customer lifecycle.

This is just the latest example of how IBM is creating solutions with ecosystem partners to help clients modernize their infrastructure and address their hybrid cloud needs. IBM has committed to a $1 billion investment in its partner ecosystem.