The Future of CRM Journeys is AI-Mapped. You’re Welcome
"When asked about Artificial Intelligence’s place in our lives, it usually activates the same sensors in people, eliciting the same response. It’s fear". Optimove's CEO shares his thoughts about the future of AI mapped CRM journeys and why you should fear not
AI doesn’t have to be your enemy or worst fear. On the contrary. AI-mapped CRM journeys are like a suit of armor for your business.
CRM marketers no longer need to face the burdensome task of determining which communications to prioritize or which sequence of communications will result in the best customer journey.
AI-mapped CRM journeys put marketers in the driver’s seat so they can focus on identifying customer micro-moments and creating a campaign for each one – effectively allowing customers to lead their own journeys.
But still. When asked about Artificial Intelligence’s place in our lives, it usually activates the same sensors in people, eliciting the same response. It’s fear. It’s the robots we read about in books, that we see in films. They start out helpful and obliging, but eventually turn against mankind – or to be less dramatic, take our jobs and lead to a large-scale unemployment crisis.
We think of AI as “The Terminator” – that 1984 science fiction film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Robots in the future are self-aware, they discard human authority and furthermore, decide they must destroy the human race. This popular movie turned the prevalent visual representation of AI risk into the terminator robot.
Scaling CRM with AI-Mapped Journeys
I look at AI somewhat differently. It’s important to remember with AI that dramatic changes aren’t around the corner. It’s a matter of decades. Despite the notion that AI is on the fast track to rapid progression, this is not true. The pace of development is much slower and more premeditated.
And if we are talking about the labor market – the “robots stealing our jobs” narrative – then I want to remind you that these job-stealing-robots are already here. And they allow us to evolve. We no longer need chimney sweeps or milkmen; AI and its derivatives have and will open more job opportunities, while other professions will vanish altogether, and that will make us all the more professional.
But we’re not talking about a large-scale unemployment crisis. And furthermore, when I talk about and imagine AI, it doesn’t come with the face and torso of Arnold Schwarzenegger, it’s more of Robert Downey Jr.
“These job-stealing-robots are already here. And they allow us to evolve. We no longer need chimney sweeps or milkmen; AI and its derivatives have and will open more job opportunities, while other professions will vanish”
In the iconic 2008 film “Iron Man,” Downey Jr. plays Tony Stark, an industrialist and master engineer who builds a powered exoskeleton after a life-threatening incident and becomes a technologically advanced superhero.
That is exactly why AI intrigues me – it’s a massive tool to help us reach and refine our super strength. It can help a super surgeon, a super scientist or even a super marketer do their job better than they ever imagined. The machine is great, its capabilities are awesome, but it has to build on the shoulders of humans, and together they’ll prevail.
When it comes to CRM, personalization is crucial – but personalization at scale is the holy grail. Personalization at scale means going from tens to hundreds of segments. That can only be achieved with a smart, AI-driven CRM engine.
Introducing Next Gen Tech
In one of his famous interviews, Steve Jobs described the research by Scientific American that measured the efficiency of locomotion for various species on the planet. The animal that was ranked first? The Condor. It used the least amount of energy when moving a kilometer. Humans? They came in an unimpressive third of the way down the list. That didn’t look so good. But then someone at Scientific American had the insight to test the efficiency of locomotion for a man on a bicycle. And a man on the bicycle blew the condor away. That was the origin of the famous Jobs quote: “The computer is the most remarkable tool that we’ve ever come up with. It’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.”
That is exactly how I think AI will come to serve mankind. The Iron Man way, not The Terminator way. We will have the responsibility to harness its strengths, put them to good use, and yes, control it and those who will try to take advantage of AI’s many shortcomings for their benefit. But the unique powers we have as human beings – our imagination and intuition – won’t be at risk. Together, with the armor AI provides, we will only be better.
By now you probably realize that you can only scale personalization and grow massively through your existing customers with AI and next-gen tech.
Getting Started
Self-Optimizing Journeys identify all the campaigns each customer is eligible for and evaluate all journey possibilities, response probabilities, and potential impact on customer lifetime value, to determine and serve the next-best-campaign for each customer.
Let AI-mapped journeys do the hard part so that you can focus on what you’re great at – creating personal, long-lasting customer relationships with journeys that adapt to each one’s unique characteristics and behaviors.
Pini co-founded Optimove in 2012 and has led the company, as its CEO, since its inception. With two decades of experience in analytics-driven customer marketing, business consulting and sales, he is the driving force behind Optimove. His passion for innovative and empowering technologies is what keeps Optimove ahead of the curve. He holds an MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management from Tel Aviv University.
