And unlike in more labor-intensive industries, AI-powered changes have largely been a boon for marketers and the brands they support. According to a December 2021 survey by Salesforce Research, 89% of automation users feel more satisfied in their jobs and nearly as many feel better about their organizations since they began using these tools. Fewer than one in five worry that automation will replace their jobs and about three in four say AI helps them get work done faster.

If you feel like you haven’t quite kept pace with recent trends in this space, or you fear you’re losing your edge against more nimble competitors, there’s still time to catch up. Here’s what you need to know about the AI-powered trends driving digital marketing in 2023 and beyond.

These 5 Emerging Tech Trends Are Transforming Digital Marketing

Each of these trends is already having a significant impact on digital marketers’ work. Plus, the people and brands they work for. That impact is only set to grow in the near future.

1. PPC Marketing Automation for More Relevant In-Search Ads

PPC marketing has always been automated to some extent, but the toolkit PPC marketers use is quickly growing more powerful and less human-centric. The space took a major leap forward in 2021 and 2022 with Google’s release and subsequent updates of Performance Max, a cross-platform solution that knits together (largely automated) campaigns in YouTube, Search, Discover, Gmail, Maps, and other channels.

According to Optmyzr, which offers automation and analysis solutions that complement Google’s PPC suite, “[t]he future of humans in PPC will be about data quality and amplifying that which computers are unable to simulate, such as creativity and nuanced decision-making.” For the foreseeable future, this will be particularly important for marketers and brands that use Performance Max, which has a reputation with some for its limited visibility and often confusing outputs.

2. Email Marketing Automation to Keep Leads “Warm”

Like PPC marketing, email marketing has long benefited from increasingly sophisticated automation solutions. Gone are the days of sending out generic email blasts and praying even a tiny fraction of recipients clicked through.

Today, email marketing is all about personalization and user journeys. That wouldn’t be possible without AI-powered tools that recognize and capitalize on useful patterns faster than humans can. These tools enable channel-specific email funnels, where (for example) funnels beginning with LinkedIn or Pinterest sign-ups each look different than website-originated journeys.

They also deepen the sometimes-standoffish relationship between sales and marketing, with (for example) automated “schedule a call with our sales team” emails and third-party calendar integrations that nudge prospects through the early stages of the funnel. AI-powered tools are integral here: Solutions like ACT! use machine learning to score leads and generate flows that, based on mountains of available data, are more likely to convert.

3. Landing Page Automation for Better Personalization and Targeting

Truly personalized, individualized marketing is still some ways off, but it’s coming. And AI-generated, semi-personalized landing pages already play a big role.

This role will only grow in the future. Many marketers do have reservations about going all-in on AI-generated content, but Google itself has made clear that it doesn’t automatically penalize such content. The same quality, helpfulness, and anti-spam standards apply. This means that as long as the end result passes those tests, the risk is low. Yes, humans will edit and curate AI-generated landing pages (and other AI-generated marketing content) for a while yet, but less and less over time.

4. AI Content Generation for More Efficient Social Media Marketing

Another area where AI-generated content is poised to transform marketing is social media. It is a resource-intensive channel that produces wildly divergent outcomes. Many brands spend years plugging away on social in the unrealized hopes of going viral and changing everything, burning embarrassing sums along the way. Others get lucky with surprisingly little effort. Still, others do enough to justify the investment without really breaking through.

Automated social content, especially video, and animation skews the odds in marketers’ favor. It costs less to produce even after accounting for human editing and curation. Plus, it can be more creative or “unexpected” than human creators. Statistically, the combination of lower production costs and higher “creative volatility” increases the chances of both transformational viral events and incremental performance improvements.

5. AI-Powered Chatbots for Better Lead Management (And Support)

Marketers’ jobs don’t end when a prospect converts or even when the sale is finally done. A holistic approach to marketing requires ongoing support for current and former customers. This is true even for relatively transactional businesses where the average order value is low and most customers don’t repeat. Customers talk, and in a world where frank opinions freely transit social media channels and product review pages, it only takes a few bad experiences to harm a brand.

Not too long ago, all customer support functions relied on human labor, either directly or one step removed. AI-powered chatbots now handle basic support in many settings. Expect them to continue to replace human CSRs for more complex tickets as well. They’re increasingly important for presale support as well, doing valuable work to keep leads warm while human marketers work on higher-value strategic tasks.

Digital Marketing Automation Is Just Getting Started

Each of these digital marketing trends qualifies as a significant step forward. Some are even more impactful. They’re legitimate leaps. If you could bring a first-generational marketer forward in time from the late 1990s, you’d likely amaze and maybe even scare them with what’s possible.

Now imagine, if you dare, what the digital marketing landscape will look like 25 years from now. Will we even recognize it as such? How much influence will humans retain over tactics and strategy? Will humans be involved at all?

The point is that, yes, digital marketing has become increasingly automated since the early days of the public internet. The pace has accelerated in the past few years thanks in part to accelerating improvements in AI. Yet we’re still early in the arc of marketing automation. We can’t even imagine what’s coming over the horizon.

We can control how we respond to it, however. And in a near future where fewer human marketers will carry ever-greater workloads, it’s important to stay as far ahead of the curve as, er, humanly possible.

The post The Power of Automation: How Emerging Tech is Creating a Shift in Digital Marketing appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

The advancement of technology is changing how we interact with the world. There isn’t a single business globally that hasn’t been impacted by artificial intelligence in some way or another (AI). From virtual reality (VR) gaming systems to artificial intelligence (AI) robots in industrial production, technology is advancing exponentially. And that’s not even close to Q Commerce.

However, since learning technologies and algorithms are already transforming the industry, eCommerce is especially susceptible to artificial intelligence (AI) disruption. It could alter the way we buy and sell items on the internet.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can not only do jobs that humans previously performed manually, but it can also optimize the customer experience and give businesses the information they require to make intelligent business decisions.

Here are four ways in which artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the world of e-business.

1. Artificial Intelligence Copywriting

The emergence of automatic copywriting is transforming how brands generate their sales copy and marketing materials.

Writing technologies that use artificial intelligence may generate marketing text in seconds. Instead of engaging copywriters or advertising firms to write headlines, blog introductions, or product descriptions, brands may now use artificial intelligence algorithms to accomplish the task.

These systems, which use advanced artificial intelligence language models, can provide digital ad text, social media material, and other eCommerce copy.

The majority of automated copywriting still requires manual editing. But it is well on its way to becoming a standard feature of eCommerce.

2. Chatbots and virtual assistants are two examples of artificial intelligence.

Shoppers who choose to do their shopping in a physical store benefit from the presence of clerks. An employee or assistant can aid them in navigating the store and locating what they’re looking for.

While eCommerce has always had customer care employees available to provide phone support, it wasn’t until recently that artificial intelligence (AI) could fill in the gaps and give customers more instant assistance. As eCommerce merchants strive to provide 24/7 help to all of their online consumers, chatbots and other virtual service usage is becoming more commonplace.

However, the use of natural language processing (NLP) allows these chatbots to understand and comprehend voice-based interactions with online shoppers, allowing them to provide customized offers. As a result of being programmed with self-learning skills, they are constantly increasing their ability to respond to and satisfy the wants of their customers.

3. Personalization is the next stage.

Therefore, through accurate product suggestions and advertising, AI also gives clients a more personalized experience.

Artificial intelligence algorithms will sift through massive datasets to extract meaningful insights into customer behavior. These insights will allow them to predict better what a client needs when the customer needs it. Their recommendation engine can use the information from your buying history to propose products that are similar to what you’re looking for. These days, you can even use AI scheduling tools to map out your whole day!

To give you an example, if you recently looked for sponges on Amazon, the AI algorithms will propose additional cleaning goods that are similar to sponges on your page.

However, people can also apply this artificial intelligence technology across various platforms, including websites, email, and even mobile applications. AI can assist you in providing a more delightful and simplified experience to your clients. AI can tailor to an audience and increase your productivity.

Personalization is essential for a positive customer journey. So the algorithms of AI are present in a great deal of eCommerce advertising.

4. Inventory control is critical.

For example, inventory management is the second area of eCommerce where artificial intelligence’s predictive analytics is transforming the landscape.

Maintaining current inventory, storing it appropriately, and placing orders well in advance is critical, mainly when predicting client demand.

Storage facilities do not have the capacity or the resources to maintain everything in stock at all times. This is why it is critical to prioritize the things you require and order them in the order in which you need them. Therefore, artificial intelligence uses predictive analysis to generate educated guesses about what the future needs in the market will be like.

With the help of machine learning, artificial intelligence technology is becoming increasingly accurate at anticipating what inventory you will need to order. And how much of it you should keep on hand at any given time. These systems can anticipate rapid changes in demand.

Do preventive maintenance on your technology. Automate key packing activities to boost productivity.

In conclusion, artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly popular among eCommerce companies to improve their analytical insights. It provides a more tailored consumer experience, and raises their competitiveness. As the market for artificial intelligence in eCommerce continues to grow, they can leave you behind.

The post Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming eCommerce appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Intelligent automation can increase productivity, accuracy, and compliance while decreasing costs and enhancing staff morale and customer happiness.

Bringing IA into your firm is a people-centered strategic business change, not a technological project. You need top-level sponsorship to get the change started, the necessary skills to make it work, and the support and buy-in of employees at all levels of the organization to assure long-term success.

High-Level Management

Senior management endorsement helps to define the automation goal for the whole organization. They release the cash and resources required to expand the project fast.

Your IA transformation has limits in scale without top-level backing, maybe to one department. Confining your automation project to an organizational silo will likely under perform and fail to realize its full potential. Consequently, resulting in a vicious loop in terms of getting funds and talent for the next step of the roadmap.

With top management buy-in and enterprise-level vision, on the other hand, you’ll be capable of launching a deep-impact, highly-increased pilot. That is to say, quickly access the funding and resources needed to scale, unlocking the synergies and economies of scale that come with end-to-end organization-wide intelligent automation pipelines.

Automation Talent

The proper personnel is critical to the success of your IA transformation; therefore, begin forming your team as early as possible in the process. This offers them a feeling of ownership over the project. They have knowledge of its history from the start, which will be helpful as the project continues into its latter phases.

Form an IA leadership committee to supervise the transition and an IA center of excellence (CoE) to execute and deliver it. The leadership committee is in charge of overseeing the transition and developing the vision, business case, and strategy. Top management from all company departments engaged in the transformation should be present.

The CoE is accountable to the leadership committee. It is in charge of carrying out the IA plan, creating and managing all of the policies, frameworks, and typical assets required for the transformation, and discovering further possibilities for innovation. The expertise necessary for the CoE is diversified and not only technical. You may encompass developers, architects, data scientists, testers, machine learning experts, data engineers, and IT and systems professionals on the technical side. However, it is also critical to involve experts in operations, risk management, change management, communication, and training.

Data Science

Because intelligent automation and data science are rapidly emerging industries, it might be challenging to discover the proper people via external recruiting. Don’t depend too much on short-term external consultants. You’ll need people to remain around beyond the first implementation phase to maintain your IA infrastructure and grow and enhance it as technology changes and new automation possibilities emerge.

Consider internal hiring and upskilling current employees. I’ve seen organizations effectively discover 60% of the essential talent in this manner. Existing workers already have domain knowledge and business loyalty. In certain circumstances, teaching them technical skills may be more beneficial than bringing outsider specialists. Moreover, to bring up to speed on your organization’s unwritten understanding.

Develop a process to find internal candidates interested in and capable of contributing to your IA transformation. Indeed, arrange communities, games, and contests that test the needed or relevant abilities. That is to say, give speeches and seminars on automation-related themes from external specialists.

Your Employees and Automation

The mindset of your whole staff has a significant influence on the continuing success and impact of your IA transformation.

Do your most junior employees regard intelligent automation as a danger that will replace them and force them out of the workforce? Or do they view it as a chance to supplement and strengthen themselves while freeing up time to focus on creative or relationship work?

The appropriate approach to training and education may lead to widespread adoption of automation inside a corporation. The road ahead will be considerably easier if your human staff accepts and works with your digital workforce rather than against it.

Employees totally on board with automation may even be encouraged to seek out chances for further automation in their day-to-day duties. Although very few whole professions are automatable, many jobs have a significant number of automatable activities. Your employees are the experts on what they do daily. They are in the best position to identify these automatable tasks in their work. Indeed, they learn what types of jobs lend themselves well to automation. They may even help train and develop the automation programs that will become their assistants using low-code and no-code technologies. This may enable individuals to become authors of the change and aid in integrating IA into your organization’s culture.

You can extend the capacity beyond the limited number of highly experienced individuals. Using your CoE, this democratization of IA may also boost your IA transformation’s scope, pace, and effect.

Everyone benefits if your employees realize that automation may free them from arduous and repetitive jobs. IA allows them to undertake more meaningful, higher value-add work that raises their market worth. Your business acknowledges and rewards this.

The post Intelligent Automation: It’s All About Your People appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

In fact, the entire field of online marketing wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for technology. But up until recently, most of the tech influencing marketing was simply a tool. A human had to decide how to use that tool, what it should do, and how it should function.

Recently, that has begun to shift.

Artificial intelligence has started to find applications in the marketing world. While it’s still very much in its infancy, AI is quickly becoming a popular option for many marketing activities — if you know how to use it.

The Benefits of AI in Marketing

Before considering specific applications of AI in marketing, it’s worth taking a minute to lay out why a marketer should consider doing so in the first place. After all, marketing is a business activity. As such, marketers should only apply technology if it has a specific (and profitable) outcome.

So, how does AI benefit marketing? To properly understand that, it’s important to differentiate the concept of artificial intelligence from other forms of modern technology. For instance, things like data collection and automation aren’t necessarily AI.

According to Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google’s AI acquisition DeepMind, AI is the “science of making machines smart.” In other words, when you give technology the ability to make decisions based on the information that it’s given, it becomes artificial intelligence.

Marketers can apply technology that doesn’t just operate digitally but can perform tasks and functions on its own. When they do, it has a number of powerful benefits.

• AI can have a dramatic effect on the efficiency of an organization. Activities can be truly outsourced and left for computers to handle.
• The use of AI can also impact the quality of your work. It does this by maintaining strict standards and providing a sense of consistency and predictability to your outcomes.
• AI has proven itself capable of lead generation. It accomplishes this through things like increasingly sophisticated chatbots and virtual assistants.

From efficiency to quality to lead generation, AI can have a big impact on how effective a marketing campaign can be. One question still remains, though. How can you incorporate AI into your marketing strategy to start benefiting from these advantages?

How to Use AI in Marketing

AI is an exploding field. As such, it can take a little bit of work to uncover its most beneficial applications in an area like marketing. Nevertheless, there are plenty of ways that AI can make a difference.

Here are two of the best areas to explore. Start here to discover the various ways that AI can impact your marketing strategy in the months ahead.

Use AI in your content.

Make no mistake, AI isn’t at the point where it can flawlessly mimic a human’s inherent creativity. Nevertheless, it is still possible to employ AI when it comes to creating content. This is especially true if you find that you’re generating things that are more mundane and have a predictable format.

For instance, consider MarketMuse, a company that develops AI-powered content optimization tools. They point out that popular online publications are already using AI “in various low-level ways.” They also add that companies often do this with data-heavy content that tends to follow a highly structured format.

Nevertheless, the opportunity to use AI to create content is certainly becoming a reality. Not only that, but its growing capabilities can apply to content creation. This works in many different ways, from machine learning to automated reasoning, and beyond.

Use AI with your data.

Data and analytics are already one of the most powerful ways to apply technology in marketing.

However, adding AI into the mix can create a synergistic effect. According to the marketing text and analysis tool Monkey Learn, “Using AI-guided systems in your data analysis allows you to automatically clean, analyze, explain, and ultimately visualize your data.”

This application of AI can transform multiple areas of your marketing. For instance, by applying artificial intelligence to your current marketing data, you can identify gaps and issues. Addressing problems is suddenly much faster and simpler.

In addition to cleaning up problems, AI-driven data analysis can help you find potential opportunities.

This can come from areas that you thought were successful but still have more room for growth. It can also come from completely new considerations that you wouldn’t have been aware of without a thorough analysis of your data. You can even use this kind of data analysis to help you better understand your customers and create more effective buyer personas.

The time to embrace AI marketing is at hand.

Using tech in marketing is nothing new. However, many marketers are still cautious about the idea of applying artificial intelligence.

This hesitation may have been warranted in the past when AI was still too underdeveloped to help in the high-pressure marketing world. But the situation is changing as AI continues to increase its capabilities and more third-party software solutions incorporate AI into their tools.

All that remains is for marketers to find the tools that can help their particular situation and then create a strategy that allows them to tap into the powerful benefits of AI. This shouldn’t be done five or ten years in the future, either. It’s time to start right in the here and now.

The post How to Use AI Within Your Marketing Strategy appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Trends move our world. It’s an understatement to say that 2020 was an excellent year for technology.

When the pandemic swept the globe, putting employees at risk of becoming ill, technology took center stage. IT quickly mobilized to ensure that people were productive and engaged.

The digital transformation trend that was already underway sped up at lightning speed. It kept business moving.

In the coming year, we can expect more radical changes in how we work. What are our expectations?

It will be quieter at work.

We can shop, bank, and socialize faster and more efficiently than ever before as consumers.

However, things are getting more complicated when it comes to working. Routine tasks such as submitting expenses, purchasing, or authorizing time off, require multiple logins and apps. This means we have to switch contexts constantly.

According to Dovico (via Inc.) research, about eight minutes are lost every hour due to an alert, text, chat, or application message.

New team-based collaboration tools, created to simplify things, have only made matters worse. Micro-app technology consolidated employee access to the activities, tools, and tasks they need in a single work feed. Companies can also use these micro-apps to reduce noise.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence will make your work easier.

Robots aren’t out to get you. They are there to assist us in many ways.

We’ve already seen the benefits they bring to our home, such as vacuuming up our floors when we don’t feel like it.

They can also help us be more productive and efficient at work. They do this by leveraging the technology that underpins them. IT is putting the wheels in motion by leveraging digital workplaces infused with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). This allows employees to be freed from repetitive tasks. It allows them to concentrate on what’s important.

Robots and IoT trends will make work safer.

Covid-19 required businesses to improve their safety standards to guard against unseen threats. IoT technologies, robots, and IoT will play an essential part in keeping people safe.

Already, robots are capable of taking over hazardous tasks. Remote-hand technologies will further enhance human-machine interaction.

IoT will enable things such as touchless offices and smart social distancing. This could allow employees to access occupancy information and maps for different areas of the building. They can confirm that spaces are clean, and even reserve conference rooms or hot desks from their own devices.

IT is always-on.

Technology is a crucial driver of business results, and it’s expected that it will continue to be so.

This expectation will make it more important for technology companies to embrace cloud computing. As they provide safe, reliable working environments that keep employees productive and engaged, this expectation will make them more strategic and valuable.

CIOs trends are expected to be more security-focused.

FBI reporting of cyberattacks has risen by as much as 400% in the past year. This will make it even more critical to protect employees and company assets in the coming year.

Experience and security are not mutually exclusive. They are two sides of the same coin. Deposits must be baked into all IT activities.

The pandemic has brought about changes that no one could have predicted. It taught us a lot about how to prepare for the unexpected.

No one can know what the future will bring, but one thing is sure. The world will change rapidly and continue to change. Companies that harness the power and potential of technology can make the world a better place.

Trends are not laws.

Please remember that trends are not laws. This means that what everyone seems to be doing or using today when it comes to small business technology, may become inappropriate or antiquated in a short period of time.

Some technologies are engineered to remain basic building blocks. Other technologies will soon become nothing more than smoke and mirrors. Don’t be pressured into investing too much money into the latest tech fad.

Keep yourself up to date, but also watch and wait.

One of the best ways to do this is to keep an eye on your competitors. Find out what new technologies they are employing, and how successful it is.

Also, talk to your own customers about their wish list for updated technology. You may be surprised at what you hear from them. Especially from the younger generations, who love new tech for its own sake and not for anything it can do for them.

The post Trends That Change How Things Are Done appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Technology continues to change the way companies do business every day, and it’s poised to become even more influential as time goes on. No sector is safe from change, and it’s important to have a plan in place for dealing with any potential continuity issues your business may face. 

If disruption were easy to predict, it wouldn’t really be disruption. While there’s no surefire way to know what’s next for your business, there are a few key factors to keep a close eye on, including: 

Cybersecurity

The number of targeted large-scale cyberattacks increases 27 percent annually, but that number is hardly surprising to anyone who reads the news regularly. Yahoo, Equifax, Sony — the list of major companies affected by poor cybersecurity seems to grow almost daily. 

This isn’t just a problem affecting the big players, either — 55 percent of business experienced a cybersecurity breach in 2015 and 2016, with each attack costing, on average, $2 million in recovery costs and damage to normal operations. Investing in adequate digital security infrastructure may be costly, but it will almost always outweigh the potential harm a breach would do to your business. 

As operations become increasingly digitized, your business is at risk. If your company is doing business more frequently on digital platforms, digital threats should be one of your biggest disruption concerns. 

Government Regulation

It’s not the kind of disruption we tend to think about, but government regulation has a massive impact on who wins and loses in any industry. Think about the 2018 Farm Bill and how it legitimized and legalized large portions of the hemp and CBD industries overnight. Any movement from world governments can have a massive impact on the way your business operates.

Tabled legislation like the Green New Deal could affect anything from energy costs to building materials. You should be keenly aware of how the government sees your sector and how it might influence the way you do business. Changes in spending, subsidies, or even legality can turn everything upside down — be prepared for it by keeping an eye on tidal changes happening within your industry. That’s an early signal that the government will take notice. 

Artificial Intelligence

When a group of experts was asked whether it thought AI would cause a net loss or a net creation of jobs by 2025, the members were split on the issue, 48% to 52%. The contention around the impact of artificial intelligence is obvious, but one thing is certain: It’s already changing the way business is done. 

AI has already started increasing the value of user data, eliminating the need for menial tasks and beating humans at just about every game imaginable. Calum Chace, one of the world’s top futurist speakers, has long researched the relationship between computer and human cognition and determined a serious possibility of human unemployability in the face of increased automation. AI may affect every business differently, but it’s something all businesses should be prepared for. 

New Partnerships

Partnerships might be old news in business, but they’re increasingly happening in new and innovative ways. Fifty-seven percent of disruptive business are making innovation happen by branching out of their organization. Whether it’s through acquisition or alliance, innovative partnerships are bound to shake things up in a big way. 

Take Burger King, for example. Its partnership with startup Impossible Foods facilitated the creation of the Impossible Whopper — a vegan burger that looks and tastes like real beef. While some might see this as a gimmick, the numbers say otherwise: Foot traffic at franchises offering the Impossible Whopper increased by 18 percent, while foot traffic at others fell by 1.75 percent. 

Innovators like Impossible Foods are hungry for the opportunity to showcase their offerings on a larger scale, and its partnership with Burger King shows how successful combinations like those can be. Look for potential partnership opportunities in your sector — how could they affect the way you do business, and are you prepared for that kind of shift?  

If you knew how you were going to be disrupted next, you’d never be disrupted at all. While you can’t be sure what’s coming next, you can take notice of fast-moving segments. Remember that disruption waits for no one.

The post How Will Your Business Be Disrupted Next? appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

According to a September 2018 World Economic Forum study, more than half of the work done worldwide by 2025 will be completed by some form of automation technology. In some fields, that tipping point will come even sooner: Information technology and data processing, for instance, is on track to reach the more-automated-than-human mark by 2022. 

While 2022 might sound a long way off, the truth is that workflow automation software is already taking on remarkably human roles. Today, automation conducts one-fifth of business decision-making as measured by task hours, the World Economic Forum report claims. By 2022, that ratio will be close to one-third.

The report also notes, however, that there are broad disparities in automation’s applications. While some enterprises use it for everything from data entry to recruiting to content creation, others have yet to touch it at all.

Automation for All

Fortunately, no matter where your company lies on that spectrum, there are four ways in which it can start or strengthen its application of automation:

1. Kick busywork to the curb.

Every industry, company, and role involves a certain amount of rote work. Although some, like data entry, are obvious targets for what’s called robotic process automation, others may not be so clear-cut. Government agencies like NASA, for instance, use RPA to “read” budgets and distribute funds between offices. In the next five to seven years, a Deloitte report found, such RPA applications could save the federal government 1.1 billion working hours per year — or around $37 billion annually.

But it’s not just the public sector that sees the sense in RPA. Email automation provider Mixmax’s latest suite of tools, known as “Mixmax 2.0,” features Beast Mode, a task automator that customer-facing roles at enterprise companies use to efficiently complete batches of tasks. In a press release, Mixmax CEO and co-founder Olof Mathé described Mixmax 2.0 as a broadside against busywork: “Our goal with Beast Mode, Dialer, and Auto Create is singular: empower business users to focus on their jobs.”

2. Do more with data visualization.

To focus on their jobs, however, business users need a clear picture of where opportunities lie. Again, automation has an answer, or at least a partner: exploratory data analysis. In a nutshell, EDA is the process of using algorithms to point out patterns, identify anomalies, and check assumptions through graphical representations. Although EDA can visualize “fun” issues, like who’s actually the main character in the television show “Friends,” its business applications are almost endless.

“At the very least,” argues Dino Fire, president of market research and analytics at datadecisions Group, “the EDA may reveal aspects of your company’s performance that others may not have seen.” For newer users, Fire suggests using a logistic model for a new take on customer segmentation. By ingesting customer data like net promoter score, purchasing behavior, and demographic variables, logistic models can show similarities between the company’s most satisfied customers and predict whether unscored customers are satisfied.

3. Create an automation center.

Data analysis, however, is one small area in the vast landscape of business automation. To keep up with the ballooning number of types and tools, four in 10 enterprises will have created automation centers by the end of this year, according to Forrester’s Predictions 2019 report. The point of these platforms, Forrester vice president and principal analyst J. P. Gownder explains in his report analysis, is to align the right automation solution with the right use case.

Although choosing a tool to complete a task might seem simple enough, Deloitte’s “Automate This” report makes clear it’s not. Two types of automation the report explores, for example, sound awfully similar: robotic process automation and intelligent automation. In fact, their use cases are practically opposites; RPA tools can tackle methodical, routine tasks at a relatively low implementation cost. IA ones, on the other hand, are for narrow, non-routine tasks that require thoughtful consideration and involve steep startup costs.

4. Integrate AI with other technologies.

Enterprises don’t use RPA, IA, or any other AI tool in a vacuum. As companies become more comfortable with AI, digital transformation expert Daniel Newman predicts, they’ll combine AI technologies with others in increasingly complex and valuable ways. “Convergence should be a top priority for leaders across industries everywhere,” Newman stresses.

Take, for example, how the oil and gas industry has paired AI with Internet of Things technology. By using machine learning to analyze data gathered by IoT sensors, operators can diagnose malfunctions, predict part failures, and optimize pump performance. Not only does the system reduce downtime and increase output, but it improves worker safety and decreases the possibility of environmental disaster.

Artificial intelligence might seem like it’s years away from its professional prime, and it certainly may be. But while automatons aren’t walking around most workplaces yet, AI is making its mark in more subtle, software-centric ways. By freeing workers from routine work, identifying hidden opportunities, and optimizing existing processes, AI is charging toward a tipping point that employees and employers alike should welcome.

The post The Tipping Point of Automation Is Coming. Here’s How to Stay on the Leading Edge appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

If we’re aware of the importance of interacting with our customers over the phone to close those all-important deals, why did these studies find that 93 percent of companies don’t respond within the recommended 5 minutes, and 23 percent of companies don’t respond to their leads at all? Clearly, businesses are so slammed that getting back to customers and possible sales leads is proving impossible. And while many are making use of virtual phone systems, often their features aren’t actually that important in helping them make more sales.

Luckily, artificial intelligence can lessen the workload of sales teams and help them to become more efficient. In fact, 55 percent of telecom companies are already using AI. Here are the top ways integrating AI into your phone system can boost your sales performance.

Drive New Business from Call Data Insights

If you were to look into your company’s call data and try to interpret it, you may spend hours diving into the numbers. While reports can be helpful, without AI, there’s a slim chance you’re going to use it.

AI can notice trends from your phone calls and alert you of any opportunities for improvement. For example, the most common cities your calls are coming from could give you insights into potential new markets for your company. It can also pick up on how long it’s taking you to answer calls and alert you to slow response times, which could help you determine when to hire a salesperson who can follow up while you concentrate on your work.

AI can not only tell you what is your busiest time of day, but it can also recommend when you should stop working and return phone calls. And on top of this, it has the power to analyze call transcripts themselves to evaluate and offer suggestions for improvements how your sales team is pitching to leads.

No More Forgotten Leads

When your business receives a lot of calls, it can feel almost impossible to get back to every single one you missed. AI can recognize when you get over your head and suggest ways to increase the number of callbacks. It can alert you about phone calls, and send a reminder to call them back.

This feature is invaluable, especially since research has shown that companies that reach their leads within an hour are seven times more likely to have meaningful conversations with decision makers than those who waited more than 60 minutes. And the more people you get back to quickly, the more likely you are the make the sale and increase revenue.

For when calls don’t need your personal attention, AI bots can take much of this extra workload away. The bot can answer voicemails based on the content of the message transcript, and give information such as hours of operation and directions — so you don’t have to call them back.

AI can Grade You on your Overall Performance

So, you’re utilizing the insights and reminders you’re getting day to day, but what about the value of all of that data taken over an extended period? AI can compile it into a detailed profile, helping you to make sure you’re improving on your stats each month and calling sales leads and customers back quickly. Insights into when and where your calls are coming from mean you’ll be able to identify what marketing strategy is the right one and who are the most important customers to prioritize in order to increase customer retention.

It’s high time companies left behind flashy virtual phone systems that are oversaturated with features they don’t really need. The advent of AI in phone management systems has the power to revolutionize your sales process by giving you true insights into the strategy you should be adopting, and helping you keep up with more leads than would otherwise be possible.

Authored by:

Jay Reeder has more than 23 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. He began creating voicemail systems in high school, which led to his first job as a software developer creating voicemail technology. Within the first year, he had completely rewritten the company’s voicemail software platform and at the age of 20 was selected to lead voicemail development for telecommunications giant ITT.

In 1994 Reeder founded his first company, Revox, developing high-end voice platforms for telephone companies. This was followed by Atlanta Voicemail, VoicePlus, Buzzworks and ultimately VoiceNation, a live answering company that has been recognized by PC Magazine, Clutch, and others as an industry leader. His latest product, Ninja Number, is a virtual phone system that helps entrepreneurs increase revenue by improving their communication with customers.

The post How to Use AI To Triple the Efficiency of Your Sales Process appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

If we’re aware of the importance of interacting with our customers over the phone to close those all-important deals, why did these studies find that 93 percent of companies don’t respond within the recommended 5 minutes, and 23 percent of companies don’t respond to their leads at all? Clearly, businesses are so slammed that getting back to customers and possible sales leads is proving impossible. And while many are making use of virtual phone systems, often their features aren’t actually that important in helping them make more sales.

Luckily, artificial intelligence can lessen the workload of sales teams and help them to become more efficient. In fact, 55 percent of telecom companies are already using AI. Here are the top ways integrating AI into your phone system can boost your sales performance.

Drive New Business from Call Data Insights

If you were to look into your company’s call data and try to interpret it, you may spend hours diving into the numbers. While reports can be helpful, without AI, there’s a slim chance you’re going to use it.

AI can notice trends from your phone calls and alert you of any opportunities for improvement. For example, the most common cities your calls are coming from could give you insights into potential new markets for your company. It can also pick up on how long it’s taking you to answer calls and alert you to slow response times, which could help you determine when to hire a salesperson who can follow up while you concentrate on your work.

AI can not only tell you what is your busiest time of day, but it can also recommend when you should stop working and return phone calls. And on top of this, it has the power to analyze call transcripts themselves to evaluate and offer suggestions for improvements how your sales team is pitching to leads.

No More Forgotten Leads

When your business receives a lot of calls, it can feel almost impossible to get back to every single one you missed. AI can recognize when you get over your head and suggest ways to increase the number of callbacks. It can alert you about phone calls, and send a reminder to call them back.

This feature is invaluable, especially since research has shown that companies that reach their leads within an hour are seven times more likely to have meaningful conversations with decision makers than those who waited more than 60 minutes. And the more people you get back to quickly, the more likely you are the make the sale and increase revenue.

For when calls don’t need your personal attention, AI bots can take much of this extra workload away. The bot can answer voicemails based on the content of the message transcript, and give information such as hours of operation and directions — so you don’t have to call them back.

AI Can Grade You on Your Overall Performance

So, you’re utilizing the insights and reminders you’re getting day to day, but what about the value of all of that data taken over an extended period? AI can compile it into a detailed profile, helping you to make sure you’re improving on your stats each month and calling sales leads and customers back quickly. Insights into when and where your calls are coming from mean you’ll be able to identify what marketing strategy is the right one and who are the most important customers to prioritize in order to increase customer retention.

It’s high time companies left behind flashy virtual phone systems that are oversaturated with features they don’t really need. The advent of AI in phone management systems has the power to revolutionize your sales process by giving you true insights into the strategy you should be adopting, and helping you keep up with more leads than would otherwise be possible.

Authored by:

Jay Reeder has more than 23 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. He began creating voicemail systems in high school, which led to his first job as a software developer creating voicemail technology. Within the first year, he had completely rewritten the company’s voicemail software platform and at the age of 20 was selected to lead voicemail development for telecommunications giant ITT.

In 1994 Reeder founded his first company, Revox, developing high-end voice platforms for telephone companies. This was followed by Atlanta Voicemail, VoicePlus, Buzzworks and ultimately VoiceNation, a live answering company that has been recognized by PC Magazine, Clutch, and others as an industry leader. His latest product, Ninja Number, is a virtual phone system that helps entrepreneurs increase revenue by improving their communication with customers.

The post How to Use AI To Triple the Efficiency of Your Sales Process appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Typically, chatbots designed for business fall short because they don’t really understand what the customer is asking. They’re good with simple questions and uncomplicated situations. But if the customer asks something that is off-script or follows up with a line of questioning that the bot is not programmed to understand—as people often do—the chatbot becomes hopelessly lost.

And customers, on their end, become frustrated and angry. So, a tool that you purchased for the purpose of engaging customers ends up driving them away. And that can cost you real money.

What you need is a truly conversational AI assistant that can better understand your customers. One that can conduct a relationship-based discussion and give customers get the answers they’re looking for. The result is happier customers, increased productivity and greater profitability. The trifecta. And that is what we developed at Frontdesk AI.

Let’s say you’re running a yoga studio. Your customers and prospects are calling your business to ask all sorts of different questions: Can I take a class if I’m six months pregnant? Do you have classes for kids? Is Brianna teaching the 4pm vinyasa flow class tomorrow?

A simple chatbot won’t have the answers. Whereas a conversational AI assistant will be able to listen to what the customer is asking, seek information from you (the business owner) when needed and reply intelligently to as many of the questions as possible.

But don’t get fooled by a chatbot that only pretends to have AI. Here are four questions to ask when trying to distinguish a mindless chatbot from a truly conversational AI assistant.

1: Does it learn over time?

A true AI assistant gets better over time, as it handles more interactions with customers and engages in more conversations. The ability to learn really sets conversational AI apart from traditional chatbots. With each conversation, the AI assistant becomes more capable and intuitive, and builds expertise around your particular business.

The key is the assistant’s ability to continuously learn about human behavior when it converses with people or when it is confronted with new, unscripted situations. To accomplish this, there should be human trainers in the loop, so there is always a second layer of intelligence. These human trainers can also groom the AI so that it speaks in the same style and tone of your brand. With each exchange, the AI becomes more and more independent, building knowledge and experience from thousands of conversations.

Say, for example, you own a hair salon and a customer calls up asking if the hair dye you use is 100% organic. If your AI assistant doesn’t have the answer, it should at that point be able to reach out to a human trainer to get the correct response. That response should then be written into the system, so the AI can provide it the next time it hears the same question.

2: Can it be customized?

Traditional chatbots tend to be highly generic and hard to customize. But today’s conversational AI assistants can be tailored to your exact business requirements and workflows.

Let’s go back to your hair salon. You need an AI assistant that understands how your business operates, including how you book Groupon promotions, how you manage parallel appointments, how you collect credit card information in advance of appointments, how you handle cancellations and a thousand other daily processes. If an AI assistant can’t be customized to fit your business, it’s of limited value.

3: Does it remember my customers and can it engage in personal conversations?

Unlike traditional chatbots, conversational AI remembers everything about your customers’ preferences and can even call customers by their names. It knows what services they have used cheap viagra generic online in the past and even their preferred appointment times. That means it can help grow your business by targeting specific customers with special offers or introducing them to new services.

4: Can it think on the fly?

Say, for example, you own a local fitness center. One of your customers calls to cancel her spot in the 5pm spinning class. An intelligent AI agent will know that spot is now open and that someone else called in yesterday asking about that same time slot. Now it can go back to that customer and see if he still wants the spot. This is just one way an intelligent AI agent can generate more revenue for your business. PushPress Gym Management Software is for gyms and health clubs of all sizes and stages. Helping you have happier members, healthy business growth, and more time for you to do the things that you love

AI assistants are starting to play a vital role in today’s digital economy. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2020 the average consumer will have more conversations with robots each day than with their spouse. The more positive you can make those conversations, the better your business will succeed.

Authored By:

Srivatsan Laxman is the founder and CEO of Frontdesk AI, which was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA. FrontdeskAI creates AI solutions for the un-sung heroes of the global economy – the small business and is the fastest adopted AI solution for the salon and fitness studio industries.

The post Your AI Assistant Should Be Able to Answer These 4 Questions appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Not Just a Chatbot

According to founder and CEO, Mathrubootham,  Freddy significantly expands on the capabilities of chatbots. Afterall, modern-day customers are demanding better service.

“Consumers demand better service in the communication channels they prefer, whether it’s modern messaging platforms, social media or even automated IoT applications. With Freddy the AI engine, possibilities become limitless and customer experience can be enriched at every touchpoint and across multiple channels.”

How Freddy Seeks to Help Businesses

Sales

Salespeople who are currently taking advantage of Freshworks’ CRM will be able to will be able to auto-calibrate their available leads, making sales easier to conduct.

Customer Service

Freddie creates automatic replies to common queries in email, chat, voice-calls and even social media with context from the customer’s knowledge base. This way, easy questions can now be put on Freddy’s plate rather than on your support team.

Customer Engagement

If you’re a savvy customer, you’re usually pretty aware of when you’re chatting with a robot. But, with Freddy’s capabilities, the goal is for him to appear like he’s an actual support person. Customers want to feel heard and they want their concerns heard, Freddy is there to listen.

With Easy Implementation

Unlike traditional enterprise AI platforms, Freddy seeks to be less intimidating to implement.
“Freddy removes that complexity and frustration by delivering timely customer information for representatives and instantly answering questions anytime or anywhere customers need support.”

The post Have You Met Freddy? Say Hello to a New AI Engine Set to Enrich Customer Service appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.