Monthly Archives: May 2023

Whether on Facebook Messenger, their website, or even text messaging, more and more brands are leveraging chatbots to service their customers, market their brands, and even sell their products.

But, the if/then logic that powers many chatbots’ conversational abilities limits them from answering unique and new questions, which can hang your customer out to dry and leave them dissatisfied with your customer service.

Fortunately, the next advancement in chatbot technology that can solve this problem is gaining steam — AI-powered chatbots. In this post, we’ll discuss what AI chatbots are and how they work and outline ADD NUMBER of the best AI chatbots to know about.

The rise of language models like GPT and LaMDA (the podcast below discusses how they work) has made way for conversational AI chatbots with advanced capabilities that can mimic a human conversation style, find information online, and produce unique content.

Click here to listen to the full episode

The most important thing to know about an AI chatbot is that it combines ML and NLU to understand what people need and bring the best solutions. Some AI chatbots are better for personal use, like conducting research, and others are best for business use, like featuring a chatbot on your website.

With this in mind, we’ve compiled a list of the best AI chatbots for 2023. Read on to find the right one for you.

1. ChatSpot

Price: In Alpha for HubSpot users

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ChatSpot is HubSpot’s new conversational CRM bot.

Key Features

• Chat-based commands help sales, marketing, and service professionals maximize productivity
• Draft follow-up emails, compile analytics reports, or even prospect
• Connects to HubSpot software and leverages your existing data

2. ChatGPT

Price: Free; ChatGPT Plus $20/month

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ChatGPT is OpenAI’s conversational chatbot powered by GPT-4.

Key Features

• Uses natural language processing to understand the context of conversations to provide related and original responses in a human-like conversation
• Multiple use cases for things like answering simple questions, ideating and getting inspiration, or generating new content (like a marketing email)
• Improves over time as it has more conversations.

3. Bing Chat

Price: Free (requires Microsoft Edge)

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Microsoft describes Bing Chat as an AI-powered co-pilot.

Key Features

• Uses NLP and machine learning to understand conversation prompts
• The compose feature can generate original written content and images, and its powerful search engine capabilities can surface answers from the web
• It’s a conversational tool, so you can continue sending messages until you’re satisfied

4. Bard

Price: Free

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Google’s Bard is a multi-use AI chatbot.

Key Features

• Powered by Google’s LaMDA (instead of GPT)
• Use it for things like brainstorming and ideation, drafting unique and original content, or getting answers to your questions
• Connected to Google’s website index so it can access information from the internet

Note: The four chatbots mentioned above are conversational and generative bots best suited for internal business use for things like ideating, producing content, and getting answers to your queries. Below we’ll go over AI chatbots that are customer-facing.

5. Kommunicate

Price: Start : $40 /mo; Grow: $100 /mo; Business: Custom Pricing

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Kommunicate is a human + Chatbot hybrid platform

Key Features

• Conversational AI and NLP capabilities, which allow businesses to automate aspects of customer support, such as answering frequently asked questions or routing customers to the right support agent. 
• Offers a range of integration options, allowing businesses to seamlessly incorporate it into their existing workflows.
• provides advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, allowing businesses to track and analyze customer interactions and support metrics.

Kommunicate is a platform for real-time, proactive, and personalized support for growing businesses. It helps to engage with their customers across omnichannel channels.

6. HubSpot Chatbot Builder

Free Chatbot Builder Software

HubSpot has a powerful and easy-to-use chatbot builder that allows you to automate and scale live chat conversations.

Key Features

• Customers can get answers to frequently asked questions, book meetings, and navigate through your site.
• Conversations are stored in your CRM so you can qualify leads and trigger automation flows.
• Easy integration across your marketing, sales, and service tools because HubSpot is a CRM platform.

Keep in mind that HubSpot’s chat builder software doesn’t quite fall under the “AI chatbot” category of “AI chatbot” because it uses a rule-based system. However, HubSpot does have code snippets, allowing you to leverage the powerful AI of third-party NLP-driven bots such as Dialogflow.

7. Intercom

Price: Starts at $74/mo

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Intercom’s rule-based chatbot lets you create segmented custom messages to share with audiences based on visitor behavior.

Key Features

• It uses machine learning and behavioral data to respond to site visitors and provide a personalized experience.
• Use your business data to train the bot to carry out tasks and provide answers relevant to your business.
• Code-free builder to easily create a custom branded bot and leverage 250 out-of-the-box integrations.

8. Watson Assistant

Price: Free – $140/month

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IBM Watson Assistant is an AI-powered conversational bot that gives you impressive recommendations for further training so it gets better at its job.

Key Features

• NLP and machine learning to gather context.
• Train it with industry and business-specific data so it gives chatters business-relevant information.
• It can run on your website, messaging channels, customer service tools, and mobile app, and you can quickly get started with the low-code builder.

9. Drift

Price: Contact for pricing

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Drift is an automation-powered conversational bot to help you communicate with site visitors based on their behavior.

Key Features

• Rule-based and AI chatbot with a classifier that categorizes conversations by context for more meaningful conversations.
• Can handle context switching if the conversation flow or subject changes.
• Customizable chat widget for mobile and desktop with helpful out-of-the-box integrations.

10. Infobip

Price: Contact for pricing

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Infobip’s chatbot building platform helps you design your ideal conversation flow with a drag-and-drop builder.

Key Features

• AI and machine learning help you train your chatbot.
• Rule and intent-based bots that understand the context of and replicate a conversational experience.
• Omnichannel usability for WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Etc.

11. Botsify

Price: Starts at $49/month

Botsify is an easy-to-use chatbot builder with multilingual capabilities.

Key Features

• AI and ML-powered self-learning chatbot.
• Use chatbot forms to gather visitor information for further nurturing.
• Create a chatbot across six services (website, messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, WordPress, and SMS).

12. Appy Pie Chatbot

Price: Starts at $6/per bot per month

Appy Pie Chatbot helps you design a wide range of conversational chatbots with a no-code builder.

Key Features

• GPT-3 powered intuitive chatbot with contextual understanding.
• Leverages your business data to give accurate results to queries.
• Deploy a chatbot on your website or mobile app.

13. Bold360

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Bold360 helps brands build omnichannel chatbots to deliver business-related answers.

Key Features

• NLP technology interprets complex language, remembers context, and generates natural responses.
• Chatbot maintains your brand personality and uses your business information to have quality and relevant information.
• Live agent chat routing for conversions that need a human touch.

14. Zendesk Answer Bot

Price: $49/per agent per month

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Zendesk Answer Bot integrates with your knowledge base and leverages data to have quality, omnichannel conversations.

Key Features

• Use Flow Builder to create custom AI-powered conversation flows.
• Deep learning capabilities to contextualize conversations and understand intent.
• Escalation to live agents who get insights and suggestions from AI to bring quick solutions.

15. Salesforce Einstein

Price: Available through cloud products

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Salesforce Einstein is a conversational bot that natively integrates with all Salesforce products.

Key Features

• Powered by predictive intelligence and machine learning.
• Builds contextual understanding and leverages existing Salesforce data to surface the best responses.
• Routing to human agents for more pressing conversations.

16. LivePerson

Price: Contact for pricing

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LivePerson’s AI chatbot is built on 20+ years of messaging transcripts.

Key Features

• The intent manager leverages data to understand the context of conversations.
• Create automated conversation flows across different messaging channels (website, mobile app, Apple Business Chat, etc.)
• Point and click builder to quickly and seamlessly create your bot.

17. Inbenta

Price: Contact for pricing

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Inbenta’s chatbot uses a lexicon and semantic search engine to power conversations.

Key Features

• Its chatbot leverages machine learning and Inbenta’s own NLP engine to detect the context of conversations.
• Use the dialog manager to craft custom conversation paths.
• Escalate conversations to live support agents across multiple channels (your website, Slack, etc.)

18. Ada

Price: Contact for pricing

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Ada is an automated AI chatbot with support for 50+ languages on key channels like Facebook, WhatsApp, and WeChat.

Key Features

• Uses pre-trained machine learning models that you can refine to meet your business needs.
• Intent detection understands context and uses profiles and metadata to personalize conversations.
• Connected to your business’ crucial data to bring appropriate solutions.

Want to learn more about artificial intelligence? Check out this learning path.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in March 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

 

In 2023, having the right data can make or break your brand. But, for good reason, consumer data is harder than ever to get.

As data privacy regulations continue to tighten and third-party data channels are phased out, just 29% of consumers say they trust brands with their data.

While businesses should want the data of prospects and customers to be protected, some of the excess analytics that companies once used to pinpoint behaviors and preferences of target audiences will become inaccessible as we enter a more privacy-first world.

Today, more than ever, it’s up to brands to gain consumer trust, especially if they want to access the customer data needed to create effective and personalized experiences.

But – how do you do that when over half of consumers flat-out decline to share their data?

To help you build a data-gathering process that is effective, while also taking data safety and brand trust into account, we asked 600+ consumers what brands will need to do to make them feel more comfortable with sharing personal data.

How to Earn Trust When Gathering Data

Offering people control over their data, transparency into how it’s being used, and keeping data secure are all key to encouraging consumers to share data.

At the center of all of these considerations is building trust with consumers. Our survey found that 78% of people are more likely to share their data with a company they trust and 65% say trust is the determining factor in whether or not they choose to share personal information.

On top of that, 78% of consumers say they are more likely to buy from a company they trust with their data.

So let’s take a deeper dive into six steps you can take or consider in building trust with consumers (while still fulfilling your data needs). We’ll also look at the top incentives you can offer people for their data to create a mutually beneficial exchange.

1. Give Consumers the Power to Delete Their Data from Your Records

73% of consumers say they should have complete control over how companies use their data.

But right now, once they consent to sharing their data, consumers are mostly powerless to get it back. By letting consumers easily delete their personal data from your brand’s database at any time, you allow them to maintain a sense of ownership.

Empowering consumers in this way also allows them to hold companies accountable. If people decide they no longer support a brand or are concerned about how their data is being used, they can get it back in a flash.

With 46% of consumers saying this level of control would make them more comfortable sharing data with a company, it could significantly boost trust between the two parties.

2. Give Consumers the Choice to Opt-in (and Out)

The second way to make consumers comfortable with sharing data also comes back to control. All you have to do is ask whether or not consumers want to share their data.

Not only does it build trust, but you’ll also improve your data quality by collecting data from people who actually want to give it to you.

3. Emphasize How Data is Securely Stored

Another major concern consumers have with sharing data revolves around how securely it is stored. Especially when it comes to making purchases with credit cards or sharing sensitive personal data, it’s only natural to wonder what could go wrong if there was a breach.

Brands that can demonstrate their commitment to safeguarding consumer data will gain trust with their customers. By prioritizing data security, you create a trustworthy and safe environment that reassures consumers when it comes to sharing their personal information.

4. Clearly Explain How You Plan to Use Each Data Point

Another major concern consumers have is not knowing how their data is used. Without that knowledge, they can’t make an informed decision on whether or not to consent to it, so why would they?

41% of consumers say transparency on how their data is used will make them more likely to share it.

Especially if you’re using that data to benefit the consumer by improving your product or making their experience on your website more personalized, you should communicate that when asking for data.

Struggling to explain why you need a specific data point? This could mean you might not need it and can eliminate one of the data-gathering tasks from your process, and more importantly, avoid worrying consumers by asking them for way too much unnecessary information.

5. Explicitly Pledge to Never Sell Consumers’ Personal Data

At HubSpot, we don’t condone the selling of data and encourage you to build your own contact lists and data samples, especially when the data could be used by sales reps, email marketers or other entities that could make unwanted contact with your consumer.

Many consumers are very concerned about their data being resold to other companies. Suddenly they’re being bombarded with ads, phone calls, and emails from people they don’t know selling products they don’t want.

If you are or aren’t selling consumer data, make that explicitly clear. They should ideally know exactly where their data is going and be able to decline giving it if it could be sold to companies they might not know.

Additionally, if you’ll share data with ANYONE that isn’t part of your immediate company, note which companies the data could be shared with or link to a deeper page or document that goes into deeper transparency about which companies the data will be used by.

6. Comply with Government Regulations (and Flaunt it)

Some countries have strict laws about collecting data from users, and 36% of consumers say it would make them feel more comfortable to know that brands are complying with these regulations.

While some states in the US have enacted data privacy laws, there isn’t a nationwide equivalent to the EU’s GDPR. If you’re complying with data privacy laws in your country or state, make sure to flaunt it so consumers know their privacy is protected.

For example, HubSpot has an entire section of its site devoted to GDPR resources and information about how its tools should be used to create GDPR-compliant data-gathering and tracking strategies.

7. Offer Incentives for Sharing Data

Sharing data with a company can feel very one-sided. Making it a mutually beneficial exchange can help your data quality and build trust with your customers.

We asked consumers about what would incentivize them to share data. Here’s what we found:

Unsurprisingly, money is most preferred with 33% of consumers saying monetary compensation would encourage them to trade their data. This isn’t that shocking as these consumers were paid a small sum of money to give their very thoughts for this post.

Other than money, 28% say discounts or free trials can sway them. Coupons, gift cards, and store credits can all be great ways to reward customers for giving you valuable information.

If you’re a marketer who relies on data to better cater experiences to your loyal customers, you might be in luck with many of them. One in four consumers say they might be more likely to share their data for a more convenient shopping experience and 19% would be interested in sharing it for a more personalized experience.

You can also make trading personal data mutually beneficial by offering valuable content, like access to a blog or newsletter, in exchange for an email address. We discovered that 17% of consumers would be interested in that trade.

Despite all that, 32% of consumers refuse to be swayed, saying none of these would make them more likely to share data – though the tips we went over above could help address that.

The Future of Data Privacy

When it comes to the future of data privacy, all signs point to transparency, ownership, and trust.

With 74% of consumers in our survey saying that data privacy is a human right, creating a mutually beneficial exchange is key to gathering data from your audience and building an effective first-party data strategy.

Check out our 2023 Consumer Trends Report for more insights on topics ranging from data privacy to shopping habits, the impact of the recession, and the metaverse.

Disclaimer: This blog post is not legal advice for your company to use in complying with EU data privacy laws like the GDPR or state-by-state data privacy regulations. Instead, it provides background information to help you better understand the GDPR and existing regulations. This information is not the same as legal advice, where an attorney applies the law to your specific circumstances, so we insist that you consult an attorney if you’d like advice on your interpretation of this information or its accuracy.

In a nutshell, you may not rely on this as legal advice, or as a recommendation of any particular legal understanding.

 

Have you ever been hypnotized by social media? According to our recent Consumer Trends survey, users of it spend an average of three hours a day there.

It’s easy to fall into a social media trap, filled with endless distraction. One minute you’re checking a DM and the next thing you know you’ve spent an hour watching videos of corgis playing fetch.

But, it does make you wonder what consumers actually do while spending all that time on social media. And — as a marketer — you’re likely going a step further by asking: “What’s my target audience doing on there?”

Why Consumers Use (& Love) Social Media

Before asking social media users what the heck they’re doing on social media all day, we asked them to choose the top three reasons they log on in the first place.

And considering the average social media user spends three hours a day on their platforms of choice, it’s no surprise that they log on to do a bit of everything there:

In digging deeper, we determined the top three reasons users log on to each major social media platform:

While Facebook and Instagram are mainly used to share content from our lives and keep up with family, users turn to TikTok and YouTube for entertainment, education, and inspiration. We also have Twitter and LinkedIn, the only platforms that are primarily used to keep up with news and trends.

With that in mind, we can dive a little deeper into the top reasons people use each of these platforms.

What Social Media Users Do on Each Platform

Facebook users primarily keep up with loved ones — but also like to share media on their feeds.

Facebook — used by 69% of U.S. adults is the most popular social media app on our list.

Two in three Facebook users are on it to keep up with friends and family, 43% use it to share pictures and videos, and 26% go to Facebook simply for entertainment. About one in five lean on Facebook for news or trends, as well as to learn new things.

YouTube users seek out entertainment, education, and inspirational content.

YouTube is the second most popular social media platform, used by 57% of U.S. adults. Edutainment thrives on YouTube – the top reasons people visit are to find entertaining content, learn new things, find inspiration, and keep up with news and trends. About one in five YouTubers use the app to keep up with brands and products.

Instagrammers share multimedia content while keeping up with friends, family, and celebrities.

45% of American adults use Instagram, and the top uses are to share pictures/videos (38%), to keep up with friends and family (33%), follow celebrities and influencers (27%), find entertaining content (27%), and keep up with brands/products (24%).

TikTok users watch a mix of entertaining, educational, and inspirational content.

Just about one in three U.S. adults are on TikTok, but this shoots up to 62% when we look at Gen Z.

Overall, TikTok’s used much like YouTube – for entertainment, education, and inspiration. 23% use TikTok to keep up with celebs/influencers and 21% use it to share their own content. About one in five TikTokers go to the platform to follow brands/products, while the same amount use it to keep up with news and trends.

Twitter users crave news, entertainment, and celebrity content.

Twitter stands out as the only platform where keeping up with news and cultural trends is the #1 reason people use the app. Finding entertaining content (27%), keeping up with celebrities (26%), and learning new things (23%) are also top reasons for Twitter usage.

LinkedIn users surf feeds for education, industry news, and brand updates.

As the only social media platform on this list geared towards professionals, it’s no surprise that the top reason people use LinkedIn is to learn new things. About 1 in 4 LinkedIn users also log on to keep up with news or trends, brands and their products, and their network of friends and family.

More Social Media Trends

Looking for more social trends? Check out HubSpot’s Social Media Trends 2023 Report blog pos, or the full PDF version below. In this content, we dig into data from 1,200+ social media marketers as well as key insights comparing marketer data to our bi-annual Consumer Trends Report.

If you’ve been on social media lately, you know shopping has taken center stage on most platforms.

But, social commerce a controversial topic — some people love it, others are exhausted by product placements everywhere. And, in our latest research, we discovered that people don’t trust the social media apps they use daily to handle their purchases.

How Consumers Feel About Social Media Shopping

For starters, just 41% of social media users feel comfortable buying products directly on social apps, and only 37% trust platforms with their card info.

And when it comes to the products sold directly on social platforms, just 21% of social media users view them as high-quality.

Still, around one in five social media users buy on social media regularly, and 75% of those shoppers say they’re satisfied with their latest purchase.

So why are people so suspicious of social shopping? Let’s take a look at the biggest concerns consumers have with shopping on social, how you can address them, and which platforms are most trusted for shopping.

The Biggest Social Shopping Concerns

By far, the biggest concern of consumers is that companies selling products directly on social media aren’t legitimate or could be scamming customers.

As mentioned above, suspicions regarding the quality of the product and sharing card information with social platforms also play a huge role.

On top of that, one-third of social media users are concerned that their purchase will never be delivered, and the same amount worry about the item will not be as described when and if they do get it.

What Can Social Sellers Do to Build Trust?

1. Make and Stand By Customer Promises

First, directly address common consumer objections or concerns by promising and following through on guarantees like:

• a set, transparent, and explainable shipping speed
• Refunds and/or replacement warranties
• Customer service availability (ideally on multiple channels)

While this step is a foundational standard that most businesses should follow, the promises above won’t be enough to gain full trust, especially if you’re a brand selling exclusively on social.

2. Build Community

The next step is to foster a trusting community with your audience.

You can do this by responding to their comments or questions, addressing concerns in review responses, and asking your community for feedback. You should also aim to build content strategies fueled with funny, relatable, and valuable posts that are relevant to your prospects andd show the humanity behind your brand, without making the content feel like an ad.

For example, if you sell peanut butter, make a poll on your story about crunchy vs. smooth to end the debate once and for all. Or create a short video chock-full of fun facts about peanuts: (Did you know astronaut Alan Shepard once brought a peanut to the moon and back?).

Encourage Customer Engagement and UGC

Time and time again, research has shown that word of mouth, recommendations from loved ones, and product reviews from trusted, or relatable, sources can drive consumers through their buyer’s journey. And, this makes sense: Are you more likely to trust a random website selling your a product, or a friend who already used that same item?

With this in mind, encourage happy customers to provide positive reviews or user-generated content to build social proof that your product is legitimate and customers are satisfied with it.

Similarly, try working with small influencers with niche, tight-knit communities related to your product – their stamp of approval can help bridge the trust gap.

Zone in on the Right Channels

When it comes to social selling you also have to consider the platform you’re using, because they aren’t all equally equipped for social commerce just yet, and different audiences are looking for different things.

For example, products you prioritize selling on Facebook, where the demographic skews older, might be different from products you’d sell on a Gen-Z-heavy platform like TikTok. Like content preferences, consumers also trust certain platforms to a different extent – especially when giving personal or credit card information.

Next, let’s take a look at the platform consumers trust most for shopping.

Most Trusted Social Shopping Platforms

Facebook has the most trusted social shopping platform, according to 38% of social users. YouTube comes in 2nd place (17%), followed by Instagram (14%).

Though not exactly the same as social shopping (where you buy directly in the app), it’s important to remember that people have been buying things through Facebook Marketplace for a while now, while shopping experiences on other platforms are much newer and have catching up to do. So, now, with Facebook Shops, it feels much more natural to start using your credit card to purchase items on a platform that’s already built robust shopping experiences with Marketplace.

One interesting thing to note is that Facebook and Instagram (both owned by Meta) have the same in-app shopping technology and platform, while one is adapted for Facebook, Instagram’s is adapted to Instagram features, Instagram business pages, and UX. However, Instagram has far less trust than Facebook.

Why could this be? We aren’t sure, but one guess could be the age, trust, and sheer size of Facebook – which Instagram could likely catch up to. It will be interesting to see if Instagram ultimately gains more shopping trust due to its growing age, credibility, and product purchasing features in the coming years. So

Channels with the Best Social Shopping Experience

We also asked social media users, which platform has the best in-app shopping experience, and Instagram (despite its lack in consumer trust) came out on top with 30% of the vote, followed by Facebook (29%), and TikTok (15%).

This makes sense as Instagram has been a leader in the social shopping space, though it seems users are somewhat skeptical of the quality of the products being sold on the app. While shopping features and product placements were a key part of Instagram’s cultural and UX evolution, platforms like Faccebook and YouTube started with a focus on content and user experience – and eventually worked shopping in.

What’s Next for Social Shopping?

The good news is social shopping is still evolving, so there’s plenty of time to build trust with social media users.

For more insights, check out our Social Media Trends Report or the full Consumer Trends Report.

And if you’re setting up shop on Instagram, head over to the Instagram Shopping Report for a deeper dive into selling on the app and which tools offer the best ROI.

Lastly, for overall coverage on the latest social media trends and tips from experts in the social marketing industry, download our full Social Media Report below.

Artificial intelligence will change how businesses operate. At this point, that statement won’t surprise you.

In fact, AI’s impact on the workplace is already happening.

62% of business leaders have already invested in AI and automation tools for their employees, according to our State of Artificial Intelligence survey.

What’s more, 65% of survey respondents believe AI innovations will be comparable to the industrial revolution.

At its core, this means one big thing for the future of business: Marketing, sales, and service professionals now have more time to work on complex, higher-impact work. AI enables creativity and innovation to supersede tedious and redundant tasks.

Hours spent drafting professional emails, creating marketing reports, coding, and much more will be replaced by time spent on deeper work: work that better enables you to learn about your email readers, strategize based on pre-synthesized data, and plan stronger web or product experiences for your customers.

But how, specifically, will you see AI impact businesses in 2023? Here are just a few ways AI’s already changing the workplace, according to our State of AI survey of 1,350 U.S. professionals.

How AI Will Revolutionize the Future of Business, According to HubSpot’s CMO

1. AI will enable you to obsess over your customers.

At Inbound 2022, we discussed the crisis of disconnection facing businesses today. Many SMBs are trying to find new ways to connect with customers in a hybrid world and rely on cobbled-point solutions that don’t reliably connect their customer data in an efficient, streamlined way.

AI is one of the most compelling solutions to the crisis of disconnection when it comes to understanding our customers.

Business leaders agree. Our research found a whopping 63% of business professionals feel that AI already helps their employees understand their customers better.

AI can help you pull data from disparate sources into one single source of truth and glean unique insights about your customers that you otherwise might’ve missed.

But most importantly, it gives you the time to obsess over your customers again.

It gives your sales team time to genuinely connect with customers and work with them to identify how your products can solve for their unique needs.

It gives your support team the ability to focus on complex customer challenges rather than being bogged down by tickets that could be answered by a chatbot.

And it gives your leaders the insights they need to make more high-impact, powerful decisions that align with what matters most to your customers.

2. AI will automate data analysis for better decision-making.

One of the most time-consuming aspects of any leader’s job is wrangling the right data. It can take hours for a business leader, analyst, or marketer to analyze customer data and uncover meaningful insights, leaving less time to actually use it to make critical decisions. Not to mention, a manual data analysis process is inherently prone to human error.

Fortunately, predictive analytics — which uses machine learning algorithms, data mining, and statistical techniques to analyze large amounts of data and make powerful predictions about future trends or behaviors — can help streamline and supercharge your analytics processes.

There are three main benefits to leveraging AI for data analysis:

• AI algorithms can discover patterns that might not be obvious to humans.
• AI can learn from your data and improve its predictions over time.
• You don’t have to do it yourself.

Smarter data ultimately means a more personalized customer experience. Truly understanding your customer data helps you improve how you engage with each individual prospect.

Additionally, predictive analytics can help each organization expand its reach. Sales leaders, for instance, can leverage AI-based insights to formulate reports, develop key account strategies, and build more powerful forecasts on their pipelines.

Among the leaders we surveyed, one-fourth reported the biggest benefit of AI is its ability to enable their employees to make better data-driven decisions.

My bet? The best leaders of the near future will see AI as an indispensable part of their reporting and analytics processes.

3. AI will reduce business costs and improve efficiency.

In today’s difficult economic climate, business leaders need to do more with less.

There are innumerable ways AI can help your business save money – 28% of business leaders have already found that AI helps their company cut costs.

For one, it will help automate time-consuming, manual tasks. For instance, many customer support reps need to spend extensive time responding to recurring questions from customers. By leveraging AI, you can automate responses to commonly asked questions, which frees up your support reps for more complex issues.

A full 91% of customer support reps who use AI say that chatbots already effectively respond to customer service requests.

Additionally, you can leverage AI for predictive maintenance. Run or work at a business that uses lots of equipment or machinery? AI can help businesses predict equipment failures so you can schedule maintenance before a breakdown, minimizing repair costs. Dealing with inventory issues? AI could help predict when or if inventory is running high or low to help prevent excess storage costs or other business waste.

Ultimately, AI will improve efficiencies across the business – all while enhancing the customer experience. On average, AI already saves the average employee 2.5 hours per day.

With all that extra time, your business and employees can scale a stronger human connection.

4. Business leaders will invest in new hires specifically trained in AI.

So the question on everyone’s mind is: Is AI going to steal my job?

The short answer: no. AI is more likely to optimize the impact of existing roles and create room for additional hiring opportunities.

On Google Trends, the term “prompt engineer” — which was practically non-existent at the start of 2023 — has risen rapidly, hitting peak popularity in early April.

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And our AI survey found that 66% of business leaders have already hired a new employee specifically to help with leveraging and implementing AI.

This number will only increase.

At HubSpot, we’ve created dedicated task forces across departments with the specific purpose of identifying how we should implement AI into our current processes across the organization.

Other businesses will do the same — either identifying internal employees who can focus on AI for their business, or hiring new AI experts or consultants to fill that need.

5. AI can help businesses detect fraud.

Another benefit of AI? It will make fraud detection easier for businesses of all sizes.

In 2022, 65% of businesses were victims of fraudulent attacks or attempts.

Fraud can be detrimental financially and legally for any business. Fraud is also increasingly challenging to detect as it becomes more sophisticated.

In 2023, businesses will increasingly leverage AI tools to detect and deter fraudulent activity. AI can point out anomalies in data, such as unusual spending behavior, which helps your employees identify potential fraudsters.

Additionally, AI can use data to make predictions on the likelihood that a particular transaction is fraudulent. Over time, AI algorithms will become better at detecting fraudulent activity, such as suspicious logins, odd transactions based on consumer behavior, or identity theft.

6. AI will help businesses build better products.

In the future, we’ll also begin to see business leaders leverage AI to uncover new product opportunities.

For instance, software engineers can use AI tools to sift through feedback, engagement, or other product usage data to determine which features they should improve on an existing product, or discover new product ideas based on gaps in their offerings.

But it goes beyond that. AI algorithms can also help you design your product.

Yep – you heard that right. AI will be able to analyze data on customer usage patterns, feedback, and preferences to provide you with invaluable insights necessary to create more user-friendly, engaging, effective products for your customers.

It will also help you speed up the product development process start-to-finish with rapid prototyping. AI algorithms can seamlessly and instantly provide different design options, so your team can quickly identify the most promising option and iterate in real-time.

Preparing for an Era of AI Disruption

AI is poised to disrupt virtually every industry. But it’s not something we need to fear.

The key to long-term growth and success is to evolve quickly with AI and accept it’s here to stay.

In the early stages of AI, you’ll want to remain focused on your highest priorities, and how your business can get the most out of AI. If you’re interested in learning more about how you can use AI on a tactical level, or get more original data in our State of AI Series, dive into our AI learning path, or download the offer below.