Many software systems are claiming to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to accomplish the magic their technology provides. AI is a great concept, a sexy idea and it has been said that a company can sell up to 50% more of their product simply by saying their software is “Powered by AI”. This statement is even easier to defend when you consider the fact that there is no one agreed-upon definition of exactly what AI is.
True AI
Since there are a lot of companies talking about AI, let’s consider some examples of true AI:
- Bank fraud detection
- Self-driving cars
- Amazon suggesting items based on previous purchase behavior
In these examples, there are a few common denominators:
1. All are huge companies with lots of money to build true AI: Bank of America, Google, Amazon.
2. All have tons of data to work with and reference. We call this “big data”.
3. All require extensive processing power to analyze and process the big data in seconds, or in the case of the self-driving car, instantaneously and continually.
Artificial Intelligence Defined by the Experts
“Artificial intelligence (AI), is the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings. Intelligence is defined as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and using language.”
“Artificial intelligence leverages computers and machines to mimic the problem-solving and decision-making capabilities of the human mind.”
AI in CRM’s
Some CRM’s say their software uses AI technology. Saying your software is intelligent, and can learn and think for itself is a sexy proclamation and makes your CRM seem more modern and high-tech (and cooler!).
A great example of AI in CRM’s is what HubSpot is doing. Hubspot squashes the myths around AI in CRM’s in their article here. They even take a (fun) shot at Salesforce’s claim of AI with “SalesForce Einstein”.
AI in HubSpot
Hubspot takes the guesswork out of what AI means to them by creating their own definition of AI:
HubSpot has redefined the term, so they can honestly say they use AI in their product. What Hubspot actually offers in their product is Automation, not artificial intelligence.
Hubspot goes on to outline the “AI” functionality in their product:
Data Cleaning Tools
A Business Card Scanner
Deduplication
Easy Imports
Automatic Call Recording
Automatic Email data capture
…and more.
While these functions are smart and took expert programming to develop them, they are what most people call: “Automation”. The software is not actually “problem-solving” or “decision-making”. They are functions and scenarios that were carefully thought out in advance by skilled software developers.
Great software can appear to be “thinking” and “learning” when it is actually just using logic to present the information in a way that helps the human gain insights into the data – and then the human uses this information and takes the appropriate actions.
If we stick with Hubspot’s definition of AI and their implementation of it, every CRM has AI capabilities built-in; whether or not they choose to use that term.
AI in AllClients
At AllClients, we have purposely stayed away from the term “AI”, just for the simple fact that the definition of AI is not widely agreed upon.
Does AllClients offer AI? Using the HubSpot definition, Absolutely!
In AllClients, we are great at automating tasks that never get done because people don’t have the time. Here are some examples of what we call Automation and others would call Artificial Intelligence:
- Predicting what contacts may buy sooner than others
- Workflow Triggers that automatically import leads and start campaigns
- Automatic Contact Deduplication
- Easy Imports with Intelligent Field Mapping Logic
- Automatic email data capture
- Campaigns and Workflows with multiple steps, including programmable logic, scheduled over months or years
- Lead Capture pages with Autoresponders attached
- Knowing what contacts are past, present and future
- Text-to-Join and Automated texting
- Automatically filtering out spam and bots from Landing Page lead data
- Adaptive email rules to maximize deliverability
- Team management with granular permissions
- Automated Email Drip Campaigns
- Intelligent Links in emails that trigger workflows when clicked
- Automatically trigger an automation when a lead moves from one sales stage to the next
- Fully built-out API that automates and can integrate with anything
Will true Artificial Intelligence come to CRM’s at some point in the future? Probably. But in the meantime, we can all enjoy the benefits of CRM Automation.
AI, Automation, or whatever you decide to call it, you should be using it in your business.
Start a free trial of AllClients today and you will automatically become more intelligent!
