Artificial Intelligence as a strategic ally for sales teams

Although Artificial Intelligence has been around for years, its adoption in businesses began to grow significantly in 2023 due to the popularisation of Generative AI, positively impacting business processes, especially in the areas of Marketing and Sales.

A McKinsey survey revealed how companies are implementing AI:

• Contact centre automation: Generative AI has opened up new possibilities, allowing call centre employees to focus on more strategic or higher-value tasks instead of performing repetitive tasks.

• Personalisation: Generative AI facilitates personalised communications, tailored to the context and different customer needs. 

• Customer acquisition: It enables mass contact with potential customers in a more humanised and efficient way.

• Product improvement with AI: AI-driven advances enable the optimisation of existing products, improving their performance and features. 

• Creation of new AI-based products: AI also drives innovation, enabling product development.

AI trends:

According to Mordor Intelligence, the Artificial Intelligence as a Service market will reach USD 72 billion by 2029, representing approximately fivefold growth compared to current levels. On the other hand, according to IMARC Group, the conversational AI market will reach £152 billion by 2023, with approximately 11-fold growth. Finally, Mordor Intelligence also projects that the Intelligent Virtual Assistant market will reach £60 billion by 2029, experiencing 5-fold growth.

Differences between Chatbots and AI Digital Agents:

• Functionality: Chatbots are often limited, as they are based on predefined decision trees. In contrast, AI digital agents offer advanced functionality, enabling open conversations, machine learning, and the ability to make decisions during the conversation.

• Tasks: Chatbots are designed for specific tasks, such as providing basic information or answering frequently asked questions, while AI digital agents are capable of handling complex tasks due to their flexibility and adaptability.

• Interaction: Interactions with chatbots are generally rigid and predefined, while digital agents offer more fluid, natural, and conversational interactions, emulating human communication.
  

In conclusion, when companies apply AI to their marketing and sales processes, there is great potential to increase productivity, improve service to leads/customers, and achieve a higher sales conversion rate. This translates into greater commercial effectiveness. In addition, AI enables informed and timely decisions, further optimising results.