Learn How Data + AI + CRM Work Together
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Explain key Data + AI + CRM terms.
- Recognize the elements of an effective Data + AI + CRM strategy.
Supercharge Your Business with Data + AI + CRM
What if you could use your organization’s existing data to create better customer experiences, enable faster decision-making, and work more efficiently? Learn how, using the power of Data + AI + CRM.
The foundation of this dream team is customer relationship management (CRM). CRM is technology that keeps customer records in one place to serve as the single source of truth for every department—which helps your company manage current and potential customer relationships.
Your CRM information is only part of the picture. Like most businesses, you probably have other important data stored in various systems that help you get a complete view of your organization’s core metrics. With the power of artificial intelligence (AI), you can bring all that data together and harness it to help you make smart predictions and new content.
AI—particularly generative AI—can be the ultimate creative sidekick for your business. It can predict the next-best actions for you to take. And it can create text, images, music, and even computer code. When you give AI access to your other business systems, it’s like your team suddenly has a new and really imaginative genius to work with—one that’s great at coming up with innovative ideas.
When Data + AI + CRM come together, magic happens. Each of these components alone is helpful, but when they work together they help you create better customer experiences; make better, faster business decisions; and improve your overall efficiency.
How Data + AI + CRM Enhance Your Business
AI can use all your data, including data from your CRM, to make smart predictions and automate tasks, so you’re able to understand your customers and predict their behavior and needs. Generative AI even helps you create custom communication based on those insights. But how does it all look in practice? Here are some examples of how you can put Data + AI + CRM to work across your business.
| Business Area | What Data + AI + CRM Can Do |
|---|---|
|
Sales
|
Your sales reps can send hyper-personalized emails to customers in one click. This not only streamlines sales prospecting, but also saves valuable time for your reps. The emails are informed by contextual customer data stored in the CRM, ensuring that each communication is tailored to the individual customer’s history and preferences. |
|
Customer Service
|
Your service agents can auto-generate personalized responses grounded in relevant, real-time data sources, enabling them to resolve customer issues more rapidly. Additionally, after each customer interaction, your agents can create wrap-up summaries of service cases and customer engagements based on case data and customer history. This ensures that all pertinent information is captured and can be easily referenced in the future. |
|
Marketing
|
You can use AI to analyze CRM ecommerce data, like previous purchases and browsing history, to generate a custom landing page for every customer based on their interests. |
|
Commerce
|
You can use AI to analyze CRM data and past sales records, plus engagement metrics from social media, to forecast which items will be in high demand in the upcoming season. Not only can this help you make sure that popular items get restocked, it can also help you decide which items to feature on your website. |
|
IT
|
With AI-driven code generation, your developers can automate repetitive tasks like creating boilerplate code or implementing commonly used algorithms. This can shorten project timelines, and ensure consistent coding standards, minimizing the potential for human error. |
It’s easy to see how using this technology—in combination with having a human in the loop—has the potential to offer huge benefits to your company and your customers.
Implementing a Trusted Generative AI Strategy
Having all of this power at your fingertips is exciting, and, understandably, a lot of companies are rushing to take advantage of the possibilities that AI can offer. But to build trust with your customers, you need to plan for implementing this technology responsibly, and keeping data safe.
If you’re ready to embrace Data + AI + CRM, focus on these areas before you start your journey.
- Build trust: Trust forms the foundation of any successful AI strategy. Define your organization’s ethical guidelines for AI use and promote a culture of transparency in AI operations. Use experts to lead risk reviews, and utilize appropriate tools to detect bias.
- Ready your technology: Align your organization on data metrics and principles. Find ways to increase productivity with automation and augmentation. Ensure your organization is united around a single source of truth.
- Empower your people: Identify the necessary skill sets for your team and create a culture of continuous learning and adaptation. Equip your team with the right tools to harness the power of AI effectively.
Building your AI strategy with these principles in mind, helps you harness the awesome power of Data + AI + CRM effectively and safely, and build and maintain trust with your customers and your team.
Of course, the list above is just the tip of the iceberg. Each of these points could—and will—be its own learning journey, but this overview helps you begin to form a strategy to implement AI into your business. We link other helpful resources below to get you started!