Out With the Old, in With the New Year & CRM

This week on Funnel Frontier: Uncover HubSpot's AI predictions, GenAI's service industry shake-up, and Copper's rollercoaster journey.

This week on Funnel Frontier:

• AI in 2024 (according to HubSpot)

• GenAI vs the service industry

• Copper’s choppy year

Stat of the Week 

91% of companies with ten or more employees use a CRM. (Grand View Research)

The near future of AI (according to HubSpot)

2023’s all gone. AI’s here to stay. But what will 2024 hold for the little generative models that could? 

CRM giant HubSpot has been prognosticating. And you better believe they had some hot takes:

• A lone wolf entrepreneur will rake in $10 million+ this year, with AI doing about 75-80% of the heavy lifting. (David Groechel, Senior Marketing Technical Manager)

• AI is going to ‘hyper-personalize’ everything sales and marketing-related, with LLMs and data-feeding outputs. Think Minority Report, but with more chatbots. (Dejan Ignjatovic, Senior Manager - Marketing Technology)

• AI will be your new personal shopper, chirping about the latest in sneaker fashion while booking your next holiday. In other words, “AI applications… will reflect a growing demand for programs that actively respond to an individual’s needs.” (Matt Heim, Marketing Technical Manager - AI) 

• Understanding data is apparently harder than rocket science now. To stay competitive, businesses will need to tap “data insights they wouldn’t be able to without the help of AI.” (Daniela Aguilar, Marketing Technical Manager - AI) 

Then there's the AI ethics conundrum. Telling apart AI-generated and human-written content is getting tougher, with huge implications for our media diets. We’ll need a framework to “ensure responsible and transparent AI,” says Dejan Ignjatovic. 

There you have it, 2024 AI in a nutshell—some earnin’, some personalizin’, and some dire warnin.’

The Week @ CRM.org

Healthcare CRM. Allowing healthcare providers to finally remember your name—not just your radical candor. 

Helpdesk and Ticketing Systems Compared. Because “the lost ticket” should be an old legend your support team tells new recruits.

Insurance Agent CRM. Client’s policy number? Check. Client's pet's name? Also check.

Evernote Alternatives. These apps are like finding a new favorite coffee shop—same caffeine, different ambiance.

Best Mind Mapping Software. When your brain's browser has way too many tabs open.

Weekly Bloom

History of Computing: Part II. Peace and Silicon! Our long read on the postwar triumph of the Valley Boys.

GenAI vs the service industry

Weirdly enough, The Jetsons is now a dated cartoon. No robot butler, it turns out. 

Instead, more and more of us have invested in a genAI butler—nearly a third of workers (i.e. 28%) are already buddying up with the tool to save work. 

And that’s just the start! Vala Afshar, Chief Digital Evangelist at Salesforce, got into the weeds on genAI and the future of service. The findings are indeed cause for chin-stroking. 

In the trades, the biggest cleavage is generational—older workers are suspicious of redundancy via tech, whereas young workers embrace innovation out of competitive necessity. The challenge is facilitating intergenerational knowledge transfer. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Afshar found that data is the key to that transfer. CRM systems and analytics tools fueled by said data are crucial, as they will feed AI insights.   

He suggests that by 2025, we’ll likely be chucking 40% of our IT budget into AI. Citing Gartner’s crystal ball, he also figures we'll all be using democratized genAI by 2026.

And IoT? It's not just a buzzword; it's turning asset management into a William Gibson novel, albeit less edgy. Real-time tracking, predictive maintenance—basically, giving your staff the sixth sense.

But the real kicker is the rise of the “augmented-connected workforce” (ACWF), which will use “intelligent applications and workforce analytics to provide everyday context and guidance to support the workforce's experience, well-being, and ability to develop its skills”

Will ACWF allow more time for ASMR vids at work? Data to follow… 

Copper’s year of ebb and flow

For some, 2023 held more twists than a soap opera. A choppy market generated cresting opportunities and drenching dips alike. 

Copper—the company that made Google Workspace CRM a thing—looks back. As a smaller vendor targeting SMBs, their weigh-in is worth a ponder.

• Copper was feted with a “Recommended for Google Workspace” seal of approval. They were the only CRM honored, so take that everyone else. 

• In a spine-tingling swerve, Steve Holm, formerly of Copper, returned to Copper as CEO. 

• More rom-com-esque dramatics: design firm Exit Design left Copper, joined HubSpot, then returned to Copper.

• For those who love lists, Copper's new feature probably felt like your birthday and your favorite government holiday put together. 

• The Coffee with Copper webinar came back from the dust-to-dust pile with a piping-hot session on pipeline management. 

After much soul-searching (via user feedback), Copper plans to shuffle strategy in 2024 towards “client relationship processes,” specifically gathering interest, managing engagement, and fostering commitment. 

They found that businesses need tools to “successfully nurture clients from initial interest to lifelong loyalty.” 

Is your interest in Copper’s future moves piqued? Check out their roadmap revealing webinar “What’s to come in 2024.”

Tasty Tidbits

CRM blips from around the web

MyHome acquires marketing automation vendor Volly. The provider of lead management, email marketing, mortgage CRM, and related tools is now part of MyHome, the marketing and tech subsidiary of Williston Financial Group (WFG). 

Macros rolls out a new framework for intelligent document processing. The insurance & financial service automation specialist has launched “Macros OMNIFRAME,” a new tool running on genAI that integrates with ERP/CRM platforms.

Freshworks’ Sandie Overtveld interviewed by BizTech Asia. The Senior Vice President for Asia-Pacific, Japan & the Middle East, and Africa talked about genAI, customer service, and news from the Freshworks camp. 

Global multi-factor authentication market to grow to $34.8 billon by 2028, with 18% CAGR. That’s according to a new report, which includes Salesforce, Oracle, and Microsoft as key players. The forecasted largest segment is four-factor authentication. 

Stocks of the Week

Significant Moves (12/18-12/22)

^{DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets. Please be careful and do your own research.}

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