Goodbye App Annie, hello Data.ai

App Annie has packed up her belongings and left the office. She's been replaced by artificial intelligence.

The former app analytics company that has pivoted to digital analytics for enterprises has also changed its name, to Data.ai.

"The name reflects our vision to drive comprehensive digital performance with products and partnerships," explains CEO Ted Krantz, citing reports that show most executives point to digital transformation as their top growth driver this year. 

As Krantz continued in his blog: 

The digital ecosystem, however, remains fragmented and relies too much on in-house IT, data science resources, agencies, and manual processes. This creates significant distraction from the core business. Digital performance benefits from a single point of control that unifies disparate datasets, illuminating mission critical metrics like customer acquisition cost, lifetime value and ROI. Our mission is to take complexity out of the equation by providing a unified view across all channels and illuminating opportunities with artificial intelligence.

Campaign's Take: The name likely needed to be changed to reflect a broader scope of vision. The new name achieves this, but in the most painfully generic way possible. While some company insiders go as far as to declare the new name "bold", Campaign feels it achieves the exact opposite. 

Whereas the company once humanised itself through a unique name and its endearingly nerdy mascot who promised to take care of all the hard math behind app analytics, the new brand leaves us only with visions of grey numbers scrolling across computer screens in a relentless inanimate march. 

Bye Annie