The Future of Sales Technology Belongs to Crowdsourced Data + AI

The future of Sales Technology belongs to crowdsourced data and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Who is using crowdsourced data and AI today?  Amazon, Netflix, Google and Apple are, to name a few. These companies have been collecting data for years on individual behavior patterns, analyzing it, and recommending next-best-actions based on patterns and predictions derived from the superset of data.

Insurance companies and loan underwriters have been using crowdsourced data for decades to calculate the risk of future occurrences and price it into their products. Security agencies do the same when analyzing communications network patterns to predict terrorist activity.

Why AI Is Here to Stay

In our personal lives, we benefit from AI every day. No single one of us buys enough from Amazon to establish patterns rich enough for relevant recommendations. But once our purchase data is contextualized with millions of other people like us, Amazon can make suggestions that are relevant:  “People who purchased this item have also purchased these items.”

Waze uses real-time feedback from crowdsourced data. Waze is a traffic app owned by Google.  When you download it to your phone, your phone becomes a node on a global traffic monitoring network. Because of signals Waze gets passively from each phone on its network, it knows how fast traffic is moving anywhere a Waze phone is on the road. This information can be analyzed and used to optimize routing for all other drivers. Additionally, users can report traffic incidents, construction, or police, and that information is similarly calculated in.

The key to making good recommendations for individuals is having access to as much relevant data as possible. In the Amazon example, this means other people’s purchasing patterns. In the Waze example, this means other people’s driving patterns.

So why hasn’t A.I. penetrated the revenue functions of businesses more than it has?

Imagine a typical day when you wake up to an optimized temperature set by Nest. Your workout is tracked by FitBit. You ask Alexa to give you relevant news and your commute is guided by Waze. But once you get to work…. nothing.  No AI. at all.  For lunch you could consult Yelp and after work you could consult Netflix… but during the work day – to get your job done – there is little in the way of AI.

Artificial intelligence is an emerging technology, which means not all executives and stakeholders are yet aware of the benefits that it can bring to their business.

How Artificial Intelligence Can Help Businesses

This will not be the case in the future. Businesses run on revenue, and revenue functions can benefit immensely from data and AI.

We predict that 50% of the Fortune 100 will be using crowdsourced data + AI to help drive their revenue functions within 5 years. Seven of the top 30 already are.

Crowdsourced Data + AI: The Winning Formula

There are a few conditions, however, to make this happen:

1. Crowdsourced Data:  Companies will opt into data cooperatives (much like retailers and CPG firms and oil & gas companies) to have access to the learnings and meta-data from the superset across companies and industries
2. AI:  Companies will apply AI to the crowdsourced data + their own proprietary data to contextualize and optimize next best actions for their sales and revenue teams

Crowdsourced data + A.I.: it’s that simple. It’s the winning formula which can lead to improved revenue and performance. It has already been proven in the consumer space. We are now entering an age where that same formula will add value to businesses.

AI can help your revenue teams close more and bigger deals, faster. It can suggest the next best prospect, next best action, and integrate those recommendations into your team’s workflow.

If you’d like to get started today, we at XANT would love to talk to you. Dozens of enterprise-scale companies work with InsideSales to leverage crowdsourced data + AI to drive better sales results. Some examples include:  CenturyLink, T-Mobile, Waste Management, Microsoft, Bank of America, Microsoft, Caesars Entertainment, and Dex Media.

If you’d like to see how AI can help you increase revenue up to 30%, check out our study: “The State of AI.”