AI brings promise and peril to customer relations management

Artificial intelligence is proving to be most valuable when it is applied to rote, predictable functions. At first blush, this may not sound like an ideal fit for customer relations management (CRM), but keeping customers happy requires a lot of tedious work. In today's increasingly digital world, CRM lives and dies by data -- not just the amount of data gathered but the quality of that data, which can only be achieved by cutting-edge analysis and interpretation. But today's volumes are simply too much for human analysts to cope with (at least, in a timely fashion), so CRM platforms of all stripes are starting to incorporate AI to handle the load. Faulty data management is a key factor in poor customer relationship outcomes, with more than 85% of sales agents citing it as the cause of embarrassing mistakes, according to marketing analysis firm MarTech Series.