Testfire Labs is applying artificial intelligence to one of the most challenging aspects of working in an enterprise — no, not finding, converting or retaining customers. Surviving the agony of office meetings. Based in Edmonton, Alberta, Testfire Labs’s initial product is bot dubbed Hendrix.ai, that captures and transcribes conversations from business meetings. Beyond acting as a […]
Most B2B organizations probably treat their customers as slightly more mature than the recently-born Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, but Forrester VP and principal analyst Mike Gualtieri suggests they should hold just as much of an interest as “Baby Sussex.” Speaking at an event focused on digital decision-making hosted by analytics firm FICO in Toronto on Wednesday, […]
True Influence on Thursday will launch an upgraded version of its InsightBase tool that will compete with the likes of Bombora in offering intent data to connect B2B marketers with the exact prospects who are actively in-market for products or services. Based in Princeton, N.J., True Influence will officially announce InsightBase 3.0 at the Martech […]
The opportunity to double revenue would seem like a good reason to deploy technology, but despite 85 per cent of B2B marketers believe artificial intelligence could accomplish this in two years less than 20 per cent have formally started using it, according to a study from DemandBase and Salesforce Pardot. Based on an analysis of […]
Marketo’s Marketing Nation became an event-within-an-event at Adobe Summit on Thursday, where senior vice-president Steve Lucas referenced everything from The Matix to Coachcella and Fyre Festival to explain how B2B marketers can focus on creating stronger experiences for their customers. Following its acquisition by Adobe last year, Marketo’s key product, engage, was enhanced with several […]
Monica Behncke wasn’t necessarily thinking about the potential of AI in B2B when she let her teenage son plan their vacation at an amusement park, but she was quick to recognize the parallels. Speaking at last week’s SiriusDecisions Summit Canada in Toronto, the research firm’s VP and group director noted how amusement parks involve a […]
Ninety-three per cent of sales professionals and 87 per cent of marketers believe virtual assistants powered by artificial intelligence technologies could improve cross-functional relationships, according to the results of a survey released by Conversica. The Valentine’s Day Sales and Marketing Report is based on responses from approximately 1,000 U.S.-based sales and marketing professionals and explored […]
While the overwhelming majority of B2B sales professionals have high hopes for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to help them do their jobs, less than half have actually started to implement such tools, according to the results of a recent survey released by InsideSales. Based on a set of questions fielded to more […]
Customer churn accounts for one of the most expensive business losses. Attracting new customers involves substantial marketing costs, compared to retaining existing ones. Although the churn rate varies significantly by industry, from 5% for SaaS companies up to 38% for telecom organizations, all companies aim to reduce these rates as much as possible by identifying […]
The data-driven insight is clear: if you watch a film starring Nicholas Cage, you face a high risk of falling into a swimming pool and drowning. Andy Pulkstenis was clearly trying for a laugh, and he got one. The director of advanced analytics at State Farm Insurance in Bloomington, Ill, was leading a breakout session […]
As more enterprise firms and their customers start to question the use of data in analytics, research and artificial intelligence tools, the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) is offering an 18-point set of guidelines to ensure ethics in quantitative decision-making. Based in Catonsville, Md., INFORMS was established in 1995 following a […]
It may have started out as a site offering Moneyball-style analytics for the college basketball crowd, but a firm called Automated Insights could become better known for using natural language generation as a way for enterprises to finally see greater value from business intelligence and data warehouse projects. Founded by a Cisco distinguished engineer and […]
B2B marketers are going to spend 2019 buying customer data platforms, fine-tuning the tools they use to handle account-based marketing and begin applying artificial intelligence for ‘midcycle engagement,” according to a series of predictions from Forrester. The Cambridge, Mass.-based market research firm published a report on the likely trends for both marketing and sales teams […]
Zoho on Thursday expanded its CRM Plus collection of software applications to include tools for customer service teams such as Zia, an intelligent assistant that uses voice recognition features much like Apple’s Siri to address critical questions or complaints. Although Zia (which stands for “Zoho intelligent assistant”) has been available to CRM Plus customers for […]
Showpad on Wednesday will announce an acquisition that will bring artificial intelligence-based voice recording and transcription analysis to its customer base of sales professionals as a way of boosting their productivity and effectiveness. The Chicago-based firm, whose software offers a range of sales enablement capabilities to B2B firms, said it has purchased Voicefox, a two-year […]
Infogroup CMO Tony Marlow has some advice for his peers: the only way to effectively target B2B audiences is to mirror the seamless, personalized shopping experiences that consumers have grown to crave. A provider of data, analytics and marketing services based in Papillon, Nebraska, Infogroup announced the hiring of Marlow as well as four other […]
PwC estimates that AI will add $15.7 trillion to the world economy by 2030. IBM predicts that blockchain technology’s contribution will have reached $3.1 trillion by then. Clearly, both technologies have the potential to be extremely valuable. Even more intriguing is their convergence. Today, AI is still a limited technology that can be said to […]
Lots of CEOs in the AI space show off examples of robots that look and sound a bit like human beings. Suzanne Gildert, CEO of Sanctuary AI, may be the first to show off one that is designed to look exactly like herself. Speaking at the Canadian Innovation Exchange (CIX) conference in Toronto on Monday, […]
HR services firm Morneau Shepell is trying to tackle some of the biggest challenges affecting the mental health of business professionals by improving the artificial intelligence capabilities of a chatbot it introduced earlier this year. Speaking at the IBM Innovate conference in Toronto on Thursday, Morneau Shepell CIO Michael Lin said the chatbot, dubbed Ava, […]
Recruiting is hard. Recruiting great leaders is even harder. Managers are arguably one of, if not the most integral function within an enterprise, and therefore investing the time and resources into finding the right talent is essential. According to a Deloitte survey, 81 percent of respondents named talent acquisition the most important challenge last year. […]
