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How can AI transform B2B customer engagement?

What is the potential for AI to change B2B customer engagement?

For numerous business leaders, the burning question is: In what ways can AI revolutionize B2B customer engagement? Today, when the customer experience trumps everything else, businesses must cultivate the even sharper customer engagement strategies, and concurrently, introduce fresh, innovative ways of doing things, to even think about competing in the global marketplace. AI has emerged as the chief enabler of those sharpened strategies and new ways of working. It can optimize processes and at the same time can help us work in entirely new ways in serving our customers.

Comprehending AI’s Function in Business-to-Business Customer Interaction Artificial intelligence can handle gargantuan volumes of data and do it quickly. They can also glean insights from that data that humans might miss, providing a level of intelligence that in many ways is superior to what we can do. Given that, you’d think that AI is being used all over the place, and in a way, it is. According to Gartner, 80% of marketers now say they use AI in some capacity. Take the case of Salesforce, for example. The company has incorporated artificial intelligence into its customer relationship management (CRM) product. Not only can the CRM now offer “smart” responses to customer inquiries, but it can also predict what customers might need before they even know it themselves. That allows companies using Salesforce to engage with customers at new and unprecedented levels. Salesforce and similar firms are harnessing AI to resolve the long-standing tension between companies and their customers—that of speed and satisfaction versus time and response.

What is the practical way forward for AI in B2B customer engagement?

In talking about the ways in which AI might change B2B customer engagement for the better, it is useful to examine what it can actually do. Here are several crucial applications of AI that can yield transformative effects on how businesses interact with their customers:

Using Predictive Analytics: Businesses use predictive analytics to make marketing decisions. This is because most marketing efforts and strategies businesses deploy today are based on past and present data. But to use those models and make predictions of future customer behavior, we need AI algorithms that can pull together and analyze huge amounts of data quickly. The more data we have, the better our models are at making accurate predictions.
Improving Personalization at Scale: Businesses use AI to personalize the customer experience across the digital world in a way that they could never do at scale before. Lots of people are equipped with lots of data and lots of computing power. The personalization that happens at scale today is mainly because of machines, not because of humans.
Using AI to Develop Chatbots: A more immediate example of where AI is being used to improve customer experience (CX) is in the development of AI-powered virtual assistants and chatbots capable of having human-like conversations with customers in real time. By real time, I mean 24/7. And oh, by the way, using AI to develop a chatbot or a virtual assistant really should not be an end in itself for businesses.
Lead Scoring: In sales, AI is already being used to score leads. And not just any leads: the most valuable leads. Salesforce, for example, uses AI in its Einstein program to score leads for its customers.’ SaaS platform enables businesses to analyze and manage their leads and prospects. But more importantly, Salesforce’s AI engine knows a thing or two about the leads most businesses should be trying to sell to.

Sales departments experience a 50% increase in lead conversion when they integrate AI into their engagement strategies; at least, that’s what the business publication Forbes reported on the matter not too long ago. One can almost interpret this to mean that 50% of the engagement strategy is now AI-driven.

Making Customer Experiences Seamless with AI

Not only does AI play a role in customer interaction, but it also is part of the overall customer experience. Today, businesses can use AI in many forms, across many platforms, and even in communication with their consumers. Some companies are even using AI to help them ensure that the customer communication they’re engaged in is seamless, consistent, and relevant all across the platforms they use to communicate, and even at the times they use those platforms to communicate.

In addition, AI has the capability to track and analyze customer reactions and comments across myriad communication channels. Because of its “always-on” nature, it can continuously process the immense amount of data that the public generates and identify in a timely fashion the nascent trends that might impact an organization one way or another.

The Future of B2B Interaction Lies in AI Innovation

B2B customer engagement’s future link to AI is bright. Today, the AI market is worth $27 billion. Still, over the next seven years, that figure is forecasted to balloon to an astonishing $753 billion. That’s growth of around 25 percent per year, which in the past, companies have looked to for inspiration. AI promises innovative new ways to reach customers—ideas not yet even half-conceived. Statista’s growth forecast underscores how this next big thing could reshape not just our lives but also the life of the next B2B company you may work for.

Moreover, companies are investigating AI’s possibilities in such domains as voice recognition and natural language processing. These technologies can produce more user-friendly experiences, making it easier for customers to interact with businesses and organizations. As these tools continue to develop, companies that use them will likely see a pronounced positive effect on their bottom lines.

Final Thoughts: Welcome AI for a More Involved Audience

To sum up, grasping the potential of AI to bring about transformation in B2B customer engagement is essential for the success of any business relying on this model. Tools provided by AI enable not just the analysis but also a deep understanding of customer data. Interaction at the most basic level is where companies have always found ways to evolve. With AI, personalization of that interaction in a meaningful way becomes far more attainable—and at scale.

In the future, businesses that incorporate AI into their B2B strategies will have a clear advantage in the increasingly cutthroat economy. This has nothing to do with panaceas or easy fixes. Integrating AI into a B2B business strategy is something that will take time, effort, and thought. The payoffs, however, could be significant.