Automate or Die

In recent weeks, the four tech giants—Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft—have pledged to spend nearly $200bn this year, mostly on data centres, chips and other gear for building, training and deploying generative-ai models. That is 45% more than last year.

The list of AI applications continues to grow and accelerate, with solutions ranging from the logical to the fantastical. The marketplace is flooding with innovations, solutions and technology fueled by AI advancements. With all the noise, it can be difficult for entrepreneurs to filter through these updates to understand what is worth exploring. We are so overloaded with opportunities that it can create a situation of option paralysis.

However, there is one area of AI advancement where the benefit is already proving to be undisputable: automation. Each week, a new opportunity is revealed to show how a previously manual task or workflow can now be AI-automated. 

This creates a situation where employees across the organisation can explore options to free up time previously restricted by short-term everyday tasks and focus on long-term, high-impact strategic initiatives.

If time is money, then automation is a gold mine...

At OWOW, we believe in empowering our wizKids to constantly experiment with the latest solutions. This approach not only gives us a competitive edge but also enables us to effectively guide our partners and clients. Let us show you how.

To explore this further, we will demonstrate our approach to integrating AI automation tools and how you can apply these strategies as well.

Future Proofing with AI-powered Automation

Before you automate, you need to investigate.

We recently created an audit of our entire sales process to identify opportunities to introduce AI-powered automation. We reviewed our CRM data, sales data, and client testimonials to identify areas in which AI can positively influence our business.

Our wizkids are visual learners. We held a workshop to convert this process into a miro board to provide a clear, top-level strategic view of our buyers' journey.

Our investigation presented three clear opportunities to help revolutionise our growth strategy with AI automation.

Step One - Automating Customer Insights with Grain

Our CRM data can provide a lot of quantitative insight into our target clients. But it doesn't show exactly why we won or lost them. Capturing qualitative data can help our growth teams use our previous pitches to improve our future ones.

This is why we introduced Grain.ai into our sales process. Grain uses AI to record, transcribe, and summarise our sales calls. All this information is analysed and communicated to our CRM to help us cleverly understand our clients and our own differentiated value in the marketplace.

Step Two - Automating Proposals and Quotes with Folk CRM

Folk CRM allows for sniper-style lead generation and nurturing. Our founders can now use automated reminders to update the growth team on the next steps as soon as a client meeting is over. We know that slow response times lead to a higher possibility of lost sales.

Our automation solution was aimed at significantly reducing the time between sales calls and proposals sent.

Our founders now combine their meeting notes with the Grain recorded data to align with the marketing team about next steps and transfer all required information to build a proposal or quote. All outbound communication with leads can then be enriched with Folk's AI features to ensure we have the correct contact details and business information and personalise every message to our clients.

Step Three - Automating Feedback Loops with Zapier

Once all our systems are up and running, we need them to talk to one another - this is the crux of automation. That's where Zapier comes in. Zapier is the connective tissue between all of our systems. From the meeting request in Calendly to the recording call in Grain to the automated response in Folk, Zapier connects them all.

Zapier's new AI features let users prompt the automation they'd like to create and give back a framework that can then be customized, significantly reducing manual steps.

This allows us to create feedback loops to give our team clear transparency into the health of our sales pipeline and keeps our systems working like a well-oiled machine.

Through this experimentation, we have brought the sales process from a high-time investment process requiring many headcounts to an automated process requiring only a few key roles for a few hours a week.

This has created the ability to learn more about our clients, create more effective outbound lead generation, and make quicker and better proposals and quotes.

 OWOW the AI Automated Agency.

At OWOW, we’re not just sporadically using AI in our daily work lives; we’re investing in it heavily.

We are on a mission to touch one billion lives through better-designed technology. We aim to achieve this is through taking advantage of the latest tech advancements.

Automation isn't just about doing the same tasks faster—it's about transforming how businesses operate and innovate. By leveraging AI algorithms for predictive analytics, businesses can anticipate market trends, identify emerging opportunities, and make data-driven decisions with unprecedented speed and precision.

Moreover, automation enables rapid prototyping and iterative testing, accelerating the innovation cycle and enabling businesses to bring new products and services to market faster than ever before. In this way, automation catalyses growth and competitive advantage in an increasingly dynamic and disruptive marketplace.

Advice from the OWOW wizkids...

AI advancement has focused so much on the creative world via copy creation and design. The real reward for embracing AI is not just to boost creative work but in the automation of time-consuming tasks and processes. To quote game designer Joanna Maciejewska

"I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes"

To successfully implement an automation strategy, start by auditing a critical process or workflow. Highlight key opportunities, and then experiment with AI tools and solutions. Finally, set up the right feedback loops and regular reviews to ensure the process is efficient and future-proof.

Need guidance in the age of automation? Contact Elliott Rayner for a zero-commitment automation Workshop with OWOW .

Visit our website - www.owow.io.