Mike Boyle

Well, in addition to AI, there’s two other terms that are being bantered about these days that may be confusing people. Can you talk about the difference between AI machine learning and deep learning?

Frank Mendoza

Yeah, it’s a great question. So there is a lot of interchangeable use of these terms. And the reality is AI is so it’s a nebulous term right now. It’s very large, it’s a discipline, if you will. Right. So think physics, think chemistry, think mathematics. That’s AI, right?

So, it’s this big overarching discipline on which things are being bucketed right now. Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence. Machine learning is where you are feeding data, whether that data be, again, sound, it could be text, it could be structured data like what you would find in a typical Excel spreadsheet, rows and columns. But you’re feeding it data into this machine learning algorithm and the algorithm is taking that and identifying patterns and using different algorithms to determine what’s the best approach to make an informed prediction. The deep learning is then a further subset of machine learning. Deep learning is when you’re starting to take advantage of what’s considered neural networks. These are nodes that take into consideration weights and biases. It’s almost a bit of the analogy that has been made to work like a human brain. We’re not sure exactly how it works, but we know it takes different inputs, it attributes different weights against different parameters and attributes and then makes a decision. At the end of the day, it’s not exactly how the brain works, but it’s a good analogy to demonstrate how neural networks work. So again, artificial intelligence is a discipline. Machine learning is a subset of that discipline and deep learning is a further subset of machine learning that leverages neural networks.

Mike Boyle

I know that we have a lot of people in marketing who come by and check out our podcast. Very grateful to them. Thank you. Let’s focus just for a moment here on marketers and maybe some common mistakes that they might be making when they go to select a MarTech solution for AI.

Frank Mendoza

Yeah, it’s something that I think a lot of marketers are currently faced with almost this analysis paralysis, right? There’s so many solutions out there and the landscape is not getting smaller, it’s getting larger by the day where new solutions are being selected, and are being created using these artificial intelligence. You know, when Chat GPT opened up their API, I think you would probably recognize this Mike, and a lot of your viewers would too, which is if you had this proliferation of apps just come out and say, hey, we are now an AI app, right? And so that makes the job of selecting these solutions that much harder. A couple of things to consider when you’re thinking about this. Again, it goes back to our intentional question. You need to have intention when you’re selecting these solutions to ensure that it’s solving a problem that is imminent in your organization.

So, things to consider would be how well does it integrate with your existing MarTech stack, right? Are you introducing something that is vastly different and not going to play well with some of the other pieces of your MarTech stack? Like we mentioned before, data is pivotal to making these solutions successful. And so in order for it to be successful, it’s got to have access to the various data elements and make sure that you can populate those and train against those and eventually provide you predictions and content. If that’s the solution, that’s going to allow you to make better decisions and at the end of the day, satisfy your customers, that much better.

Mike Boyle

Earlier in our conversation, it was funny. You alluded to, ‘hey, the calendar changed to January’ and everybody started freaking out. Everybody started hearing about generative. Companies like Salesforce have been in the AI game for years. Of course, they have all their GPT products that are out there and that are coming. So, you’re a business, you’re reading all this, you’re hearing these things…. What should a company do first to focus on an AI plan?

Frank Mendoza

Yeah. One of the things, again, alluded to it a little earlier, right? Which is data. Data is pivotal. What I like about the approach that Salesforce is taking right now is they have the data, right? When you’re talking about their CRM solutions and the introduction of tableau and other solutions, they have the data. And it’s really about aligning that data to your objectives. Right? There are different data sources that are going to be available to an organization. Everything from transactional data, customer data, master data, all these different data elements. And what you really want to do is focus in on what is the use case that you’re going after and really identify the elements of data that are going to help you feed that algorithm to make those predictions. In some cases, these generative AI solutions, it’s going to be amazing. I think what you’re going to see here, Mike, in the near future around personalization, the ability to take an account within Salesforce, really start to understand that client from a personal perspective and then targeted very personalized messaging that can be crafted with really unique image sets and things like that are going to be amazing in the near future here.

Mike Boyle

Staying on the generative AI topic here for a second, focusing on that. There are tools out there like ChatGPT, DALL-E, and Midjourney. How are companies going to be using tools such as that in the future?

Frank Mendoza

I think what you’re going to recognize is a plethora of use cases that are going to be available to people. I think everything from creating ad campaigns very quickly, iterating on marketing messages and sharing it out via their social networks. I think these things are going to be amazing because you have the ability to create something, test it, and iterate on it very quickly. I call this the age of iteration that we’re about to march into those solutions though, like I keep mentioning, Mike, they need a strategic approach though, right? We talked about the shiny object syndrome before. Just because you can mimic a voice, is that the best use? And do you want to put your resources, energy and time to go and do that? Is that really going to be the best use of your effort? I don’t know. For an organization. That’s their competitive advantage or their unique selling proposition. Maybe it is, but just because you can doesn’t necessarily mean you should. And I think that’s where the key message needs to lie. These solutions are amazing. They’re going to allow organizations to really level the playing field. I think small, medium organizations are going to be able to create content that is equivalent to the large organizations. But the key here is to be intentional again, and have a strategy, have an approach that is going to make sure that you’re leveraging these tools and technologies that are going to ultimately allow you to achieve your objectives and goals.

Mike Boyle

There’s just a plethora of Pandora’s boxes that are opening.

Frank Mendoza

There are. And I think that’s what makes it really confusing to the person who’s trying to stay abreast of this. I’m in the industry, and it’s hard for me to be in touch with all the different applications that are coming out, all the different pieces that are coming out. But the reality is, I think if you take a different approach, you take a different approach of what problem am I trying to solve? And then what are the solutions out there that could help me solve those? As opposed to saying, ooh, that’s a new shiny thing that just came out. Let me try and fit it into my business when it may not necessarily fit.

Mike Boyle

Yeah. One thing that I’m, as a big music fan myself outside of here, I am watching the news of Universal Music, which is a recording company with a whole stable of artists, and now they’re in talks with their artists about how their voices can be used to create new music.

Frank Mendoza 

Yeah.

Mike Boyle

That’s what I mean about the Pandora’s box. That’s just one example of the things to come.

Frank Mendoza

Yeah. And from that standpoint, I think it’s a scarcity versus an abundance mindset. Right. And again, I think in different aspects, I tend to be an optimist in this space. Of course. Right. And so how do you recognize that this wave is coming? This wave is here? How do I either ride this wave or I’m going to get crushed by this wave? And so I think it really is going to disrupt a lot of business models, and I think people need to approach it as, okay, how do I ensure that my competitive advantage, my unique aspects of my business, are not diminished as a result of generative AI? If anything, they augment and complement that and allow me to do what I need to do to satisfy my customers that much more.

Mike Boyle

Let’s pretend for a moment that I’m the CEO of Mike’s Widget Company. What questions should I be asking myself and my team to make sure that we are AI ready?

Frank Mendoza

Yeah. It’s a lot of conversations right now with that very question. I think it’s really a paradigm shift that, Mike, you need to take. Right. Which is a paradigm shift from inventing with tools to tools inventing now. And so the questions I think you need to ask yourself are really about two aspects of your business. First you have to identify where you’re willing to experiment with this technology. What functions, what processes, what aspects of the customer journey you’re willing to go and investigate and play with this stuff and experiment. But once you’ve identified those functional areas, you have to ask yourself some questions around the tasks themselves as you map out the journey or map out the process, where are there opportunities to leverage this technology? And in some cases, you’ll need someone who understands these technologies, understands their capabilities to help you with this, which is identifying those potential use cases. But once you’ve identified those potential use cases, you need to ask yourself how much human creativity is really required on this process step. And what I mean by human creativity is how much unique creative innovation is necessary that typically we would look towards a human to achieve. And then the second aspect is how much of a competitive advantage is this process step to my organization? Again, that’s going to be key because if it’s high creativity, that human creativity that’s required, Mike, and it’s a highly competitive advantage to my organization.

That’s something I don’t want to necessarily delegate to an AI solution. I want to keep my best people, my best minds and hold on to that because I know it provides a competitive advantage to my organization. However, if it requires lower human creativity and there’s not much competitive advantage, then those are opportunities to delegate to an AI solution, right think email, right think opportunities to maybe answer FAQs on a website. Those types. Not a lot of creativity. It’s a standard kind of template and not a lot of competitive advantage differentiating me from my competitors in that space. So maybe those are opportunities for AI. And then the other piece is whether it’s high creativity and low competitive advantage or high competitive advantage and low creativity.

Those are aspects where you’re looking at either augmenting those processes and opportunities to AI, but certainly not necessarily delegating them entirely to AI. And that’s where you want to maintain that human in the loop and ensure that somebody is recognizing and making a human judgment at the end of the day about whether or not this is ready to publish.

Mike Boyle

Well, still in my role here as CEO of Mike’s Widget Company, how would I ensure that AI and data analytics solutions are aligned with my company’s overall strategies and goals?

Frank Mendoza

Yeah, I think it goes back to what we talked about before, Mike, which is don’t look at a solution, so don’t fall in love with the problem. What is the problem you’re trying to solve? Why is that now important for your overall strategy and your overall goal and your overall objectives? And then go and look at the technology, go look at the opportunities again, right now people are falling in love with the solution. Unfortunately, they want to leverage. I want to use Midjourney. Right? Or I want to use ChatGPT or I want to use DALL-E. I want to use these solutions out there. And the reality is, again, they’re not focused on the problem, they’re focused on the solution. And in my experience, that is a detriment and that’s going to set up for maybe some short term wins but not long term success. I think when you take it from a problem perspective and really recognize what the problems are, you may find that again, what we talked about earlier, which is maybe AI is the solution, but maybe there are other opportunities that allow you to attack some low hanging fruit and get you to resolution of that problem that much quicker.

Mike Boyle

Two more questions for you, Frank. With your vast experience, could you share some examples of how AI and data analytics have been used to enhance customer experience or improve customer engagement? As you are well aware, customer experience is a big, big thing at companies these days.

Frank Mendoza

Absolutely, it’ll continue to be a big thing. I think examples, of course there are a plethora of examples like I mentioned that are attacking. This is everything from leveraging the solutions to predict customer churn like we talked about before, maybe even recognizing people who might have upsell opportunities. And look at those. So there are opportunities to engage customers. We talked about FAQs and engaging people where they are when they need that information quicker. I think these new solutions, like we discussed Mike, are really amazing in terms of they’re going to really offer more personalization in the near future. This is going to allow you to do better segmentation that’s going to lead to improved targeting. It’s going to have so much opportunity to really tie in. One of the things that really excites me is the opportunity to really open up the market potentially for organizations that are looking at leveraging these tools to maybe hit an unrecognized market. Because now they can leverage these tools to create unique marketing messages to those folks with imaging and branding and all those elements that right now the cost is not there. It was prohibitive to allow you to even reach out to those segments.

Mike Boyle

The last question I have for you Frank, I’ve heard over these last several months pros and the cons. But I know this kind of bugs people. It stays in the back of their head. Since Generative AI has the potential to replace many jobs, I said potential. Where should people look to improve their skill set in the AI arena?

Frank Mendoza

Yeah, I think there is no question about it. I think this is a disruptive technology in all the spirit of that word right there will be displacement of jobs. That’s no question about it. I think it’s imperative for people right now to start experimenting with this, to start recognizing where they can take advantage of it. I encourage people not to put their head in the sand and just because you don’t like it, I’m not going to play with it, right? I’m not going to experiment with it. It’s the wrong approach.

I think, like I said, this wave is coming. This wave is here. People are recognizing it. But how can you take advantage of it and augment yourself, your business and the experience that you can give to the customers? But I always like to use this analogy, Mike. There are three aspects that I look at. There’s knowledge, there’s creativity, and there’s wisdom. Knowledge is what you know.

And in the past, people have been paid immense amount of dollars to know something. Think of jeopardy. Right? The amazing things that people can answer on Jeopardy. It’s based on their ability to memorize and retain information and know a certain subject. And in the past, that has been rewarded with the internet and certainly with these generative AI solutions being trained on the internet. Knowledge has now, to some extent, been commoditized. The ability for ChatGPT to solve and answer questions on the medical exam and pass the legal bar demonstrates it has knowledge.

But I think the evolution moves you into creativity, which is how do I create something based on my knowledge of a subject? And then wisdom is just because you can create that thing. Should you create that thing and does it add any value to the world? So, if you will, knowledge leads to creativity, then leads to wisdom. And wisdom, I think, in my experience, has been the hardest to attain because it comes about because of experience. You have to have experience. And what I would focus people’s attention on as you move into this post generative AI world is focus your energy and attention on your ability to create new things that are novel, leveraging and augmenting AI. And then more importantly, focus on your wisdom. Focus on the ability to say, should that be created? Is there value in creating it and really using and leveraging that emotional human judgment that each of us innately have in ourselves to ensure that what we’re creating is going to continue to add value to the world?

Mike Boyle

Words to live by, no doubt. Frank Mendoza, the founder and managing partner of Catalytics. Thank you so much for joining us today. I think we’ve just scratched the surface. There’s going to be a ton more to talk about on the subject of AI and GPT and everything else associated with this crazy world that we’ve just created. So, please come back, I’d love to have you back and we can go deeper on some other things. Is that possible?

Frank Mendoza

Absolutely, Mike, it’s been a great pleasure to be here today. I appreciate the questions. I appreciate, again, the opportunity to speak with your audience. I really look forward to hearing how those folks are tackling this AI journey of theirs and hopefully being a part.

Mike Boyle

Well, kind of along those lines. We want to let folks know who are listening that you’ve been very gracious to offer a free AI strategy meeting with.

Frank Mendoza

Yeah, I appreciate that, Mike. I’d love to offer your audience the opportunity to know, question and answer a little bit, get deeper in terms of maybe their specific use cases, understand what they might be experiencing right now in terms of challenges that they’re looking for, and just offer them that piece. So if you could, Mike, I’d welcome the opportunity to include that in your show notes. Just a link to sign up for a free strategy session.

Mike Boyle

Absolutely. In addition to a link to book a meeting with Frank, there’ll be some other helpful links with information about Frank. And I should also add that Advictorium has put together an ebook, which is called Exploring Salesforce’s GPT-Powered AI Tools, and there will be a link for that free download in this show’s notes. Again, Frank, thank you. Look forward to having you back.

Frank Mendoza

Thanks, Mike. I really do appreciate it.

Mike Boyle

Hey, and to the audience, if this is your first time listening to our podcast, a big ol thank you. Very grateful for that. Remember, if you’re listening to us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, you have the opportunity to give us a five star review if you feel that way. Thank you very much. You can also subscribe to this podcast anywhere that you get a podcast. So, tell your friends, tell your family, tell your colleagues. We do appreciate it.

I’m Mike Boyle from Ad Victoriam Solutions. Thanks for listening to the “Salesforce Simplified” podcast. Our next episode is just around the corner. 

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