CIO OPINION
Software providers gain economies as they upgrade the solutions they use , providing business benefits that can often translate to improved customer service . solving business problems , increasing teamwork , exposing teammates to new ideas and colleagues and growing their skills and knowledge .
AI in your own offering
This is the most exciting part of the SaaS business . Stay fully driven by customer needs . Consistently successful leaders want to be known for the quality of their offerings rather than their ambition .
Many of these solutions are being built into the SaaS solutions used by other providers , like CRM , revenue platforms , or ERP . Software providers gain economies as they upgrade the solutions they use , providing business benefits that can often translate to improved customer service .
Avoid the hype , find the real need
Consider the AI element . Is the most useful form factor an AI-powered assistant – front and centre to the experience , or a helpful element of the back end ? A sales and marketing solution could use an AI-powered assistant bot to offer user tips . At the backend AI could automatically match leads in the sales pipeline with new offers , setting up the interaction for a human to review and finesse .
Expertise is important and to get the most from new technologies raising levels of data literacy and systems knowledge throughout the organisation will ensure that users can better judge AI outputs and suitability .
It is worth exploring team creativity and ideation . Colleagues may have insights on the tweaks , quick wins or strategic projects that could help them leverage AI for efficiency and productivity .
A hackathon might be a great way to get teams across the business to solve problems together . In a hackathon teams will compete to achieve a specific business goal and develop new ideas to put into practice . They also come with other benefits beyond
Will you build a new offering to showcase a new AI ability or work it into an existing solution ? Weigh up the pros and cons – whilst considering that a platform approach may create the best way to solve many customer challenges over a longer term .
When engineering new AI into solutions , bear in mind the second-order impact on users . If the offering will disrupt user workflows or experiences , it ’ s right to be upfront and ensure user testing and feedback inform marketing and sales conversations .
In a changing paradigm you don ’ t want to be the business that implements a great idea spectacularly wrong by misjudging its social impact . p
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