Email management is a bigger challenge every year. In 2019, business email accounted for more than 128.8 billion emails sent and received per day, according to the Radicati Group. Adding to the challenge, many emails never make it to the right business account because they are sent to bulk accounts like info@company.com Regardless of where the emails land, the average full-time worker spends 28% of the workday reading and answering email, according to a McKinsey analysis. That amounts to a staggering 2.6 hours spent each day. Corporate email continues to rule in the business world, but the deluge is impairing productivity, not to mention becoming unmanageable from a corporate perspective.

As the world of sales continues to evolve, so has the number of sales tactics and technologies to help teams close new customers and retain current ones. Many of the old school sales tips and tricks no longer work and can create confusion. Like a game of football, a strong sales operation isn't about using a lot of tools and hope they will somehow work together; it's about using each tool to join the dots to hit the goal: turn the prospect into a customer. And this starts with the most basic tip in the book: focusing on people. Being good a seizing opportunities and striking goals is important – but the ability to build long-term relationships and growing your customers is what differentiates a good salesperson from a great one.

AI is integrating ever deeper into even small companies. So much so that there are new Artificial Intelligence Tools coming to market seemingly daily. You can use it to streamline your B2B sales processes in real-time. Although big corporations first embraced the concept of AI, it's becoming a trend used by many small businesses to prospect, get leads, understand user behaviors and customer needs, and of course, grow revenue. Research by Marketing Interactive shows that by the end of 2020, 30% of all B2B companies will leverage Artificial Intelligence systems to augment one or many sales processes that can result in more conversions.

ZoomInfo, a global leader in go-to-market (GTM) intelligence solutions, announced that it has acquired Clickagy, a leading provider of artificial intelligence-powered buyer intent data. Along with this acquisition, ZoomInfo is launching Streaming Intent, an innovative solution that identifies companies with above-average search volume on business-to-business (B2B) topics within minutes of their web activity. As ZoomInfo continues to enhance its comprehensive go-to-market intelligence platform, the acquisition of Clickagy provides sellers and marketers with streaming behavioral intent data that is expansive and customizable. Using an advanced natural language processing engine which correctly identifies context, Clickagy's technology delivers stronger, more reliable intent signals in real time. Clickagy's extensive database gathers intent data from over 300,000 publisher domains and includes 6 trillion-plus new keyword-to-device pairings each month, sourced from over 91 percent of accessible devices in the United States.

Machine learning, for marketing, refers to a process of configuring marketing programs in ways that help to analyze customer data and generate intelligent marketing decisions. Machine learning should not be confused with marketing automation systems since this is different from rules-based automation processes that are based on the specific programming and definite instructions from marketers and other users. Big brands such as Netflix, Google, and Amazon have already adopted machine learning tools to analyze customers' behavior to deliver them better-personalized information, content, and solutions via their email marketing campaigns. What's even better is that the costs of machine learning systems have significantly reduced of late that these tools are now easier to afford to adopt even in small and medium businesses. The efficacy of machine learning and hyper-personalization systems in revenue generation has led these tools to rise to popularity that businesses of different sizes and industries are resorting to these technologies.

There is much hype around sales intelligence these days. Companies in a variety of industries are making great strides leveraging AI to extract and learn from data. This is particularly heating up in the sales industry. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 40% of time spent on sales activities can now be automated by AI technologies that already exist. But is Artificial Intelligence the future of sales?

The first version of Vymo only solved a basic need. Salespeople around the world found it tedious to report sales data. Without sales data, managers and leaders couldn't forecast accurately or help their teams achieve targets, which impacted their topline directly. So, we built a mobile-first solution to detect all sales activities and then, based on sales data, our solution did what a manager would do. This is quite contrary to the general perception of artificial intelligence (AI) solving -- or exacerbating, depending on whose views you subscribe to on the matter -- all of the world's most complex problems.

As a modern marketer, you know all too well how challenging it is to satisfy today's demanding buyers. You're doing your best to meet their ever-growing expectations for personalized and relevant experiences in the moment. It's clear that marketers who shift from volume-based, one-size-fits-most communication to engaging segments of one with high-value experiences will be the ones who win over the hearts and minds of their customers. The good news is that you can pivot to engage on a personal level--even on a massive scale--with artificial intelligence (AI) built for marketers. AI helps make sense of all your customer data in the moment so you can truly deliver value-based, relevant experiences, and conversations.

The era of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is upon us. More and more, computer systems will become able to perform tasks that previously required human intelligence, such as decision making, visual perception, and speech and language recognition. Marketing, like most other fields, will feel AI's impact in several areas, including database marketing techniques, search queries and search engine optimization (SEO), personalization, predictive customer service, sales forecasting, customer segmentation, pricing, and many others. Act-On recently asked several marketing experts and analysts for their assessments of the pros and cons of using Artificial Intelligence in marketing and what they foresee for the future. Question: Will Artificial Intelligence (AI) be marketing's friend or foe? How do you see the two co-existing as AI becomes more mainstream?

The era of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is upon us. More and more, computer systems will become able to perform tasks that previously required human intelligence, such as decision making, visual perception, and speech and language recognition. Marketing, like most other fields, will feel AI's impact in several areas, including database marketing techniques, search queries and search engine optimization (SEO), personalization, predictive customer service, sales forecasting, customer segmentation, pricing, and many others. Act-On recently asked several marketing experts and analysts for their assessments of the pros and cons of using Artificial Intelligence in marketing and what they foresee for the future. Question: Will Artificial Intelligence (AI) be marketing's friend or foe? How do you see the two co-existing as AI becomes more mainstream?