There’s a lot of talk these days about the future of artificial intelligence. You’ve probably read tons of headlines, but maybe still don’t get what all the fuss is about. What’s the value for my business? And where are the Terminator robots?
What the Future of Artificial Intelligence Will Really Look Like
The truth is that in 10 years we may be looking around and asking ourselves what became of all the artificial intelligence (AI) hype. There probably won’t be cyborgs and our stoves won’t yet prepare meals by themselves. But despite our conclusions, the world of tomorrow will be driven by AI built into systems all around us.
We won’t notice as customer service becomes incredibly seamless or as those product recommendations on Amazon become increasingly more relevant, but these and many other things will drastically improve the way we interact with the world around us. We won’t notice because even though we are always living in yesterday’s science fiction, we are great at normalizing new conveniences and taking them for granted.
But No Robots Doesn’t Mean No Economic Impact
The age of AI-driven efficiency is upon us. And although the immediate changes it brings may seem boring compared to our fantasies, these changes will completely reshape our economy in the coming years. A report by the McKinsey Global Institute predicts that trillions of dollars in value will be added to the economy annually within 20 years from businesses adopting AI technologies.
The impact is already visible today. Tech giants that are able to capitalize on AI driven insights gained from their vast data troves are dominating the market, while established players that are too slow to adapt are being pushed out. Watching this unfold can be intimidating for any business owner trying to stay afloat. But there’s no reason to lose hope.
Success Will Come to Those Who Focus on the Customer
Most of the trillions of dollars in value that AI creates over the next two decades will come from businesses implementing AI in their marketing and sales processes, and that means the winners of tomorrow will succeed because they know their customers better than anyone else.
These customer-centric winners will be able to do things like provide each of their prospects with a personalized buying experience and predict which of their prospects are ready to buy and which need to be nurtured further. Businesses that succeed at this will do so by collecting and utilizing sales and marketing data in an intelligent way.
What All This Means for Your Business
“Easier said than done,” you might be thinking. “My business doesn’t have mountains of customer data like Amazon or Google, and even if we did we don’t have the time or resources to use it properly.”
But the truth is that the winners of tomorrow’s economy won’t need to be Amazon or Google to take advantage of the value being created by AI in sales and marketing. Your business can implement a marketing automation platform today that will help you build the customer-centric model you need. And among B2B marketing automation platforms, only Salesforce Pardot allows you to collect data across both your marketing and sales organizations and leverage its insights in one location.
Why is this important? If you market to your customers online, then your company has access to more data than you might think — the web content your prospect viewed, the white papers they downloaded, the emails they opened, and the webinars they’ve attended. Pardot will help you to automatically capture data points like these and leverage them along with your sales data in Salesforce to build personalized journeys for prospects in your sales funnel. It doesn’t matter if your marketing department has over 1000 employees or is just an intern you hired part-time, you can provide a customer-centric experience for your prospects that will set you apart from the competition.
Let’s Start Writing Your Success Story
Look no further than our customer success page to see what this could look like for your business. Companies like Stanley Black & Decker went from having no data management or end-user strategy to being able to embrace a customer-centric model that has allowed them to increase their market share and drastically improve the efficiency of their sales team.
So, stop worrying about what all the AI hype means for your business and start winning in our new intelligence driven economy by using Pardot to automate your marketing efforts. And, if you’ve already set up your business to win with Pardot, then tell us all about your experience and become a Trailblazer. Our mission is to drive success for your business and we would love to hear your story and share it with the community.
