Can market intelligence be done through AI?

Natalia Susla
Jul 21, 2017 · 3 min read

As technology continues to develop, the computerization of the modern world is unavoidable. The possibilities for automation to be applied to industry grow, so does the amount of companies that begin to adopt it.

Earlier this year the supplier of Apple and Samsung Foxconn replaced 60, 000 employees with robots, robot security guards already patrol shopping malls in Silicon Valley, and a robot receptionist checks in guests in Nagasaki. Moreover, now there are already examples of robot cooks, accountants, drivers and even teachers. While these changes certainly aim to make these services more cost effective, would you stay in a hotel staffed completely by robots?

Nowadays, machines have become a great working force which manages physical manufacturing and some of intellectual work properly but when it comes to sales and marketing positions communication and negotiation skills are required here, can AI handle this kind of challenge?

Robotics already help to gather the needed information about the person at the first place, we already can filter our target audience, see who opened the emails and even how many times the person clicked on the link in your message. AI supports sales & marketing people in finding out more about their leads, converting them in the form of live chat and even sending emails to them interpreting and classifying their answer. According to Forrester 1 million US B2B salespeople will lose their jobs to self-service eCommerce by 2020, accounting for 20% of the B2B sales force. The founder of Salesforce Marc Benioff is already working on Einstein, a platform that will not only consume and manage information but will learn from the data.

As for my predictions, most of the sales and marketers work will be automated which creates the risk of unemployment in marketing and sales industries. However, I believe that there still will be room for sales and marketing representatives whose responsibilities will be revolutionized and transformed as machines are needed to be interpreted and applied by the real people and data won`t win any sales itself.

The human factor plays a big role in communication between a manager and a customer, besides it will take a long time when clients start to trust technology in helping them to make final decisions. Robotics won`t be closing sales but they will automate many business processes that will make work easier, faster and more productive. As a result, this will create new competition that may drive out people and companies who haven`t automated their working activities. That`s why if you want to stay in the market among the most in-demand of specialists you have to move with the technology.

Change is an essential part of our lives and the best way to deal with it is to accept it and find advantages in it. We need to prepare ourselves to the digital future in order not to lose our careers and lives.

What can we do now?

Well, first of all not to be afraid of disruption and try new technology innovations that the modern world brings us. Secondly, try to get more involved in the latest developments in technology to, at the very least, understand how to manage new programmes and applications properly. And finally, bring your business to the next step and involve technology and automation in your processes. Think about technical education, it has a big future ahead.

Remember, that no one is forcing you become a technician, but the market demands that you do have to keep your knowledge and skills constantly updated.

To find out more about how to prepare your business to the digital age and where might you need to change to remain relevant in the future feel free to contact us at www.weareatmosphere.com.

Image is by William Iven on Unsplash.

Used under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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