AI and the Dynamics 365 October ’18 Release

Are you as excited about AI and the Dynamics 365 October ’18 Release as I am? In case you don’t know, AI stands for Artificial Intelligence. Some people may also refer to it as machine learning. Humans have natural intelligence but machines do not, despite what you may see in movies. However, machines are programmed to think and learn thus the term Artificial Intelligence.

The upcoming October 2018 release of Dynamics 365 includes a wealth of AI features for Customer Service, Sales, and Market Insights. Some features are only available as preview items but several are going to be available for general use.

I am most excited about the AI for Sales features that are going to be available in the upcoming release!

Who Knows Whom

If you’re in sales then you know that warm introductions usually lead to more opportunities than cold calls. Who knows whom will allow your sales team to easily identify these connections and get introduced via an existing customer/colleague.

Talking Points

As a sales person, you interact with several people over a period of time. Sometimes it’s difficult to remember every detail from the phone call you had yesterday or the lunch you had last week. Talking points will scan your past communications to find and deliver key details on every day talking points such as sports, health, family, and entertainment. It helps to add a personal touch to every conversation no matter how long it’s been since you’ve talked to your connection. I would love this functionality on my personal cell phone for dinner parties!

Notes Analysis

This feature will almost act as your personal assistant by offering intelligence insights while you’re taking notes. It will analyze your interactions and suggest additional/next steps such as creating follow up tasks or appointments.

Predictive Lead Scoring and Predictive Opportunity Scoring

Lead Scoring has been around for quite some time. Your leads are scored through various factors that you or your organization define. Imagine a machine learning model-based predictive scoring mechanism that will help you determine if your leads will turn into an opportunity and your opportunities will turn into sales. In addition to displaying the score, the system will also provide you with the key factors as to why the lead or opportunity was assigned the score. Now your sales reps can focus on deals that they are more likely to win.

Relationship Analytics

Have you been harnessing the Relationship Assistant? Relationship Analytics takes it to the next level by providing you with an even better holistic analysis of your engagements from Dynamics 365, Exchange Online, and LinkedIn InMail. It allows sales reps to see a more accurate view of deals in their pipeline and prioritize their time accordingly.

Sales Team Performance

All of the above features come together to provide a sales manager with better visibility and analysis of their team. Not only will a sales manager be presented with a home page providing answers to their most common questions, they will be able to search using natural language to produce and receive sales reports. For the upcoming release, this feature will only be available in preview mode.

Call Intelligence

Call Intelligence is another feature that will be available in preview mode only. This feature allows for call center telephony recording systems to be connected to Dynamics 365. This functionality will allow managers insights into their employees’ conversations with customers. Managers will be able to view call statistics based on sentiment, keyword mentions, and KPIs. Email/text sentiment has been available for quite some time but call intelligence will analyze your VERBAL communications. Managers will be able to better benchmark against conversational KPIs, such as talk-to-listen ratios and longest customer monologue.

These upcoming AI features will change the way you do business. You will be able to provide your sales team with better analytics and allow them to focus on better relationships with their customers that will lead to more closed deals. If you’re interested in any of these features or hearing more about AI, please contact us today!

Beringer Technology Group, a leading Microsoft Gold Certified Partner specializing in Microsoft Dynamics 365 and CRM for Distribution. We also provide expert Managed IT Services, Backup and Disaster Recovery, Cloud Based Computing and Unified Communication Solutions.