Can Artificial Intelligence Fuel Your Lead Generation Efforts?

Let’s play a little word association game.

I say: Connecting with your audience and improving brand awareness.

You say: Content and Social!

I say: Staying competitive in a mobile world.

You say: Digital transformation!

I say: Revolutionizing B2B sales and lead generation.

You say: Artificial intelligence!

Wait . . . what? Yes, it’s true. Here’s why.

Siri and Cortana, meet Kylie. Like the virtual assistants that can remind you of your upcoming appointments or give you the score of the game, a company aiming to help automate the mundane parts of the sales process has created an autonomous, machine learning-powered sales rep named Kylie. She can reportedly understand the meaning of sales conversations, performing many of the same functions as an entry-level sales person—except she’s not a person. Not even close.

Kylie and the company that created her aren’t the first to dabble in a B2B sales environment fueled by AI and machine learning, and they certainly won’t be the last. In fact, startups are flocking to the space. In the future, we’re looking for these virtual sales assistants to help keep fresh leads engaged, reach out to dusty ones, or even cross-sell products and services.

Why does this work? That’s easy. Many aspects to sales and lead generation are repeatable—ensuring the accuracy of contact information, following up, scheduling meetings, mining connections, scouring data lists, etc. None of those are rocket science, yet they’re all necessary parts of the process. Even covering those bases is enough forward motion to get excited about, but what if these upcoming AI tools could actually ‘decide’ which leads were the most promising, giving those priority when interfacing with real-life sales reps? Even better.

Well, good news—they can. Stay tuned.

You can learn more over on Futurum, our new technology analysis and research firm focused on the tech forces changing how we do business—and we’re starting off with a doozy. Read on as we discuss all the ways AI could change how you look at B2B sales and lead gen.

Read: Prepare for Artificial Intelligence to Power the B2B Sales Process

Photo Credit: 36webmarketing.com Flickr via Compfight cc

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Shelly Kramer

Shelly Kramer is a Principal Analyst and Founding Partner at Futurum Research. A serial entrepreneur with a technology centric focus, she has worked alongside some of the world’s largest brands to embrace disruption and spur innovation, understand and address the realities of the connected customer, and help navigate the process of digital transformation. She brings 20 years' experience as a brand strategist to her work at Futurum, and has deep experience helping global companies with marketing challenges, GTM strategies, messaging development, and driving strategy and digital transformation for B2B brands across multiple verticals. Shelly's coverage areas include Collaboration/CX/SaaS, platforms, ESG, and Cybersecurity, as well as topics and trends related to the Future of Work, the transformation of the workplace and how people and technology are driving that transformation. A transplanted New Yorker, she has learned to love life in the Midwest, and has firsthand experience that some of the most innovative minds and most successful companies in the world also happen to live in “flyover country.”