In his book The Human Instinct, Kenneth R. Miller makes a rather revealing observation: "A subset of carbon atoms, namely the ones in our brain, can think, while other carbon atoms do no more than allow a pencil to darken a sheet of paper." Although science doesn't conclusively understand thoughts or emotions (or their interplay), what we do know is that they dictate almost everything we do. This is why businesses have been striving to grow the capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) and have been paying more attention to user experience (UX) than ever before. While most B2C applications have a rather fantastic UX that engages and hooks users, a surprising number of enterprise applications seem to have a rather studied disregard for UX. That's almost inexplicable because poor UX discourages users from wholeheartedly embracing what otherwise might often be great products.

The first is Vymo, which is a smartphone app that tracks your sales people wherever they are and then, using a "variety of machine learning approaches" makes suggestions for other prospects to call based on the sales person's location and other factors. Vymo literally learns from the best performers in an organization and, according to the company, abstracts the best behaviors to coach the rest. It helps to predict "next best actions" in the moment so sales people can close more deals. I'm not sure how thrilled my sales people will be to have a Vymo watching their every move but far be it from me to get in the way of anything - and I mean anything - that will help them generate more revenue for my company.

Most people know about one of the greatest salespeople of all time, Steve Jobs. When Jobs introduced the first iPhone, in January of 2007, he had to convince a skeptical world to pay a then-outrageous sum of $600 for a phone made by a company that had never produced a handset before, with a slick back and no physical keyboard to peck out emails. It was a creative act on Jobs's part, an ability to craft a vision of how the world would be and to convince people their lives would be better in that world if they bought his shiny new object. That creative act poses a challenge for a raft of software startups trying to use artificial intelligence to reinvent sales. Companies including Vymo, InsideSales, SalesLoft, and Outreach have gotten hundreds of millions in financing in the last few years, in hopes that by mining historical data such as emails and customer call logs, they can figure out what the best salespeople do.

Most people know about one of the greatest salespeople of all time, Steve Jobs. When Jobs introduced the first iPhone, in January of 2007, he had to convince a skeptical world to pay a then-outrageous sum of $600 for a phone made by a company that had never produced a handset before, with a slick back and no physical keyboard to peck out emails. It was a creative act on Jobs's part, an ability to craft a vision of how the world would be and to convince people their lives would be better in that world if they bought his shiny new object. That creative act poses a challenge for a raft of software startups trying to use artificial intelligence to reinvent sales. Companies including Vymo, InsideSales, SalesLoft, and Outreach have gotten hundreds of millions in financing in the last few years, in hopes that by mining historical data such as emails and customer call logs, they can figure out what the best salespeople do.

Chennai: Why pay a common motor insurance premium if you're statistically safer than the rest of the demographic? Insurance companies are aggregating customer data to gauge premiums dynamically. If you are a middle aged man with two kids and drive an SUV, your premiums will be lesser than a 25 year old youth who just got his first sedan. AI and data analytics is changing the sales game rapidly, equipping sales personnel with the right tools and data so they improve conversions and save time. The next time you go to a shop and your favourite dress is out of stock, the salesperson at the counter would take in your order and source it from the neighbouring retail store and earn brownie points.