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Uniform blog/Beyond the Hype: A Practical Roadmap to AI-Enhanced Digital Experiences
Beyond the Hype: A Practical Roadmap to AI-Enhanced Digital Experiences
Beyond the Hype: A Practical Roadmap to AI-Enhanced Digital Experiences
Insights from Lars Petersen, CEO and Co-founder of Uniform, presented at Digital Experience Assembly (DXA) 2025
The Evolution Crisis in Digital Experience Platforms
The digital experience landscape is at a critical juncture. Organizations that embraced headless CMS and microservices architectures with high hopes are now facing what Lars Petersen, CEO of Uniform and a featured speaker at the Digital Experience Assembly (DXA) 2025, calls "headless and MACH regret."
He explains, "What has happened over the last couple of years is that brands wanted to create experiences for their customers, and they want to create performance experiences. So many have started by selecting a headless CMS."
This approach seemed promising until implementation reality set in. According to Petersen, the first wave of headless implementations often resulted in architectures where "everything requires a developer.”
He continues, “If you want to change the component, you go to a developer. If you get a new creative idea, you go to a developer. So there are very few things you can do as a user." This approach may have improved some aspects of development, but it failed to empower business users and streamline workflows.
The root cause lies not in the technology itself but in the implementation approach. As Petersen describes it: "Many have started by selecting a headless CMS ... then they want to connect this to a modern front end."
The result? "In between your modern headless CMS and your modern front end, developers have created all the connections between your content types, [and] your modern front end. They essentially are stuck in code."
Bridging the Business-Technical Divide
The next evolution in digital experience platforms focuses on empowering both technical and business teams through truly composable architectures. As Petersen explains, when Uniform was architected, "We didn't start with the CMS. We started building the composable platform,” he says. “The composable platform is essentially where you can take any existing technology. This could be legacy. This could be modern. And then you can plug that in."
A composable platform should enable:
- Configuration over code: The differentiator, according to Petersen, is "reducing the amount of code you have to do in any project. There's no need for all this glue code between your content types and your front-end modules. All of that can be done in a few clicks."
- Multisource visual experience editing: Petersen describes this as "multisource visual experience editing, so you have one tab where you can create delightful experiences for your customers. You can preview it, you can make it go live."
- Built-in optimization capabilities: "Edge optimization is where you can optimize every experience. You can do flicker-free A/B testing and personalization," says Petersen, making these capabilities integral to the platform, not bolted-on afterthoughts.
The goal is to create a system where marketing teams can independently create and optimize digital experiences while developers focus on building new capabilities rather than making routine updates.
The AI Maturity Model for Digital Experiences
Artificial intelligence represents the next frontier in digital experience optimization. Petersen outlines a clear maturity model to help organizations chart their AI journey:
- Black-box generative AI: "What most vendors have provided in the last couple of years is Black Box generative AI, which means you can take any content and then you can run it against models that are provided by different vendors. But you are not in control of those," explains Petersen.
- Composable generative AI: This involves "moving from Black Box to more composable generative AI. This is where context is provided," says Petersen. Here, organizations use their own AI services with managed prompts and brand guidelines.
- Specialized AI agents: Petersen highlights that these agents can have different skills. “They can be experts in SEO, content performance, accessibility, [or] conversion optimization." At Uniform, he states, they've launched agents like Scout, which is focused on conversion rate optimization, and Sage, an AI agent that specializes in content and SEO."
- Governed discovery: According to Petersen, "[This is] where you discover what you should do next and where you should optimize," creating governance for what to look at and when to optimize.
- Autonomous authentic AI: Petersen describes this as "a more self-tuning use of AI, where it's more oversight, but you empower the AI model for a specific outcome."
- Real-time personalization: The frontier where, as Petersen states, "in real time, the AI model is able to change [experiences] based on the user context and in-the-moment intent." He notes we're "not quite there yet, in terms of the performance of different AI models, but it's something that we will probably see within the next year or two."
Most organizations should focus on stages two and three today. As Petersen advises, "If you look at practical AI, where to start, where to apply today, then start here. Start with composable generative AI, leveraging specialized AI agents as well."
Practical Implementation Steps
1. Walk in Your Customers' Shoes
Petersen strongly recommends the following: "Take a walk in the shoes of your customers. Spend 30 minutes pretending you are a customer of your brand. How is the experience if you are a customer looking for a certain job to be done, finding information either on the website or an app. How relevant is it, and how engaging is it?"
This simple exercise often reveals immediate optimization opportunities that don't require new technology.
2. Build AI Capabilities Within Your Team
AI implementation is as much about people as it is about technology. Petersen advises, "You need to build up the skills in the team. This is only going to go faster with more services in terms of AI."
He specifically recommends "doing an AI innovation workshop where you can spend half a day to lock down different use cases and try it out as part of the team."
3. Embrace Incremental Modernization
Petersen explicitly cautions against the "clean slate" approach. "Don't do a clean slate, a big rip-and-replace project. Do incremental modernization. Start with the pieces you already have in place, and then incrementally make those better and help you launch faster." This approach reduces risk and allows you to demonstrate value quickly.
4. Define Your Architectural Endgame
When laying out your roadmap, Petersen provides several tips: "Consider what type of architecture and experience you're building towards. Are you building the kids hobby car, or are you building the car that can also win races?"
Your architectural decisions should reflect your long-term business objectives. A hobby car might be sufficient for basic needs, but organizations with ambitious digital experience goals need architectures designed for performance, scalability, and adaptability.
Looking Forward: Measuring Success
The true measure of success for any digital experience platform is not the technology itself but the outcomes it enables. Focus on metrics that matter to your business:
- Reduced time-to-market for new experiences
- Increased business user autonomy
- Improved conversion rates and customer engagement
- Enhanced ability to test and optimize content
By keeping these outcomes at the center of your digital experience strategy, you can avoid getting caught in technology hype cycles and ensure your investments deliver real business value.
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