Artificial intelligence, or AI, is technology that learns, reasons, and self-corrects, and it’s being used by businesses to improve the customer journey. Automation, machine learning, machine vision, and natural language processing are the primary pillars of AI that companies can lean on to make their relationships with customers more personal.
Consumers are optimistic about AI, and over half believe it will have a positive impact on their personal lives. Many are still learning what it is, but companies are already using it to help them. It’s used to detect and deter security intrusions in IT; to anticipate future customer purchases and improve recommendations and offers; to make financial trading easier; and to automate call distribution in customer service departments. In fact, automation is one of the biggest benefits of AI, as it frees employees’ time to do more important, customer-centric tasks.
One example of using AI to help a business reach its customers is a Harley Davidson dealership in New York. With the power of AI, the dealership’s marketing campaigns increased sales and the number of leads. Learn more in the infographic below.
The Basics: What is Artificial Intelligence?
- AI is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems. These processes include:
- Learning: The acquisition of information and rules for using the information
- Reasoning: Using the rules to reach approximate or definite conclusions
- Self-correction: Automatically find and fix errors
- Some types of AI
- Automation: The process of making a system or process function automatically
- Machine learning: Getting a computer to act without programming
- Machine vision: Making computers see
- Natural language processing (NLP): The processing of human language by a computer program
Consumers are Optimistic about AI
- More consumers see AI’s impact on society as positive (45%) than negative (7%)
- Consumers think that AI will have an impact on their personal lives
- 52%: Positive impact
- 7%: Negative impact
- AI is still fairly misunderstood by the general public
- 18% say that they know a lot about AI
- 2/3 of consumers say they know something
- 1/3 acknowledged knowing nothing about AI
Companies are Leveraging AI to Benefit Consumers
- Information Technology (IT)
- 44% – Detecting and deterring security intrusions
- 41% – Resolving users’ technology problems
- 34% – Reducing production management work by automating it
- 34% – Gauging internal compliance in using approved technology vendors
- 16% – Using runbook automation
- Marketing
- 19% – Anticipating future customer purchases and presenting offers accordingly
- 16% – Improving media buying
- 16% – Monitoring social media comments to determine overall brand affinity and issues
- 15% – Tailoring promotions, both online and offline
- Finance and Accounting
- 17% – Financial trading, such as high-frequency trading enabled by AI
- Customer Service
- 15% – Automating call distribution
How Companies Can Use AI to Their Advantage
- Automate the small stuff
- Accounting
- Prepare invoices
- Set payment reminders
- Automatically follow up
- Sales
- Score leads
- Auto-update customer records
- Schedule calls
- Marketing
- Send welcome emails
- Email targeted promotions
- Customer service
- Measure customer sentiment
- Respond as necessary
- Human resources
- Score resumes
- Parse candidates
- Respond to questions
- Use an AI personal assistant
- Arrange meetings by being copying an AI assistant in an online meeting request
- Receive notices of upcoming deadlines
- Arrange your travel
- Send dictated emails
- Accounting
- Serve your customers better
- Chat bots
- Put your inbox to work
- Automatically log emails, calendar events, and more
- Set task reminders on emails if you don’t get a reply
- Have AI scan the content of your emails and offer several reply options
- Mine your data for insights
- Use AI that predicts buying habits for your product based on life events and market-based factors
- Give your salespeople accurate information on prime prospects, plus details to increase the deal
How AI can Make the Sales Journey Better
- 8 out of 10 sales reps are falling short of being prepared, feeling in control, and creating value
- Missing data is slowing down their search for prospects
- 65% of salespeople report productivity as their biggest challenge
- AI helps automate tasks so sales teams can be more productive
- Automatic data entry
- Prospects prioritized according to data
- Deeper customer understanding
- Use data to recommend next steps for customers and make your sales process more efficient and personalized
- Gain a deeper insight into your company’s relationship with customers
- Engage with customers with specific retargeting
A Case of Study: How AI Helped Sell Motorcycles
- It was winter in a major metropolitan city, and a Harley-Davidson dealership was only selling 1 or 2 motorcycles a week.
- After testing AI on their marketing campaigns, the dealership sold 15 motorcycles in one weekend.
- That’s almost twice their all-time summer weekend sales record of 8
- Their number of qualified leads per day went from 1 to 40
- In the first month, 15% of those new leads were lookalikes
- By the third month, leads increased 2,930%
- 50% were lookalikes
- The Harley-Davidson dealership tested its ads
- Found that the word “call” performed 447% better than ads containing the word “buy”
- Before: “Buy a pre-owned Harley from our store now!”
- After: “Don’t miss out on a pre-owned Harley with a great price! Call now!”
- Artificial intelligence evaluated what was working across digital channels, then used what it learned to create more opportunities for conversion
- Because of the data AI managed, the dealership needed to hire 6 new employees to handle the new business
- Found that the word “call” performed 447% better than ads containing the word “buy”
Conclusion
Artificial intelligence helps companies. When sales teams are more productive and have access to better data, your sales funnel improves and your sales team grows.
Share “How to Leverage A.I. Without Losing Your Humanity” On Your Site
