Artificial Intelligence Decisions… Data Determines the Destination

Have you ever heard the George Carlin comedy sketch about Football vs. Baseball? You can watch it here and some?of the lines include:

• “Football is played in a stadium; baseball is played in the park.”
• “In football, you wear a helmet; in baseball, you wear a cap.”
• “In football, you get a penalty; in baseball, you make an error – whoops!”
• “Football is rigidly timed; baseball has no time limit, we don't know when it's going to end! We might even have extra innings!”
• “The object in football is to march downfield, penetrate enemy territory, and get into the end zone; in baseball, the object is to go home! ‘I'm going home!'”

One of my favorite jokes is: “Why do they call baseball America's pastime? Because it helps pass the time until football season!”

Draft or Drift?

In sports (and in business), two factors affect success. The physical and the mental are two parts of the whole, yet one is easier to evaluate to predict success… especially in football.

Players in the draft attend the Combine, where teams measure physical traits like speed, agility, vertical jump, and others. Teams also interview candidates for personality, intelligence, football IQ, coachability, and character. I believe it's much harder to predict success when it comes to mental acuity over physical ability.

In many cases, the top drafts become busts, while players taken later become superstars. Devin Hester was drafted as a cornerback but ended up being the greatest kick returner in NFL history. His combination of speed of decisions with his physical speed made him successful. Tom Brady (often referred to as the G.O.A.T. – greatest of all time) was drafted as a quarterback as the 199th pick in the 6th round.

I would argue that both of these players' agility in decision-making made them more successful than their physical ability, but agility in decision-making was not evident when they were picked in the draft.

Artificial Decision Making

In business, we tend to focus more on the mental than the physical of the people we work with. This is why artificial intelligence is both an opportunity and a detriment.

AI has the benefit of agility and speed with decision-making. It also has a bit more consistency and predictability than humans. If you take a robot with adequate physical abilities and supercharge it with AI, it can score wins in a more frequent and predictable model.

The scary part is that it learns from the past and tries to predict the future. When AI makes decisions based on an unforeseen circumstance, it will either shut down or fail. It may learn from mistakes but often lacks the emotion or empathy to evaluate its decisions from a moral or personal perspective.

Decisions Require Data

Whether a human or a computer is making a decision, some data is input, analyzed, output, and completed or corrected.

Some data must be collected and input into a storage unit in a suitable form. For example, a simple contact form has fields that separate names, phone numbers, email addresses, companies, and more. Providing multiple fields to collect that data makes sense. What happens if your boss wants more forms filled out and does not want to ask for too much information?

In data collection, the less data people are required to give, the more frequently they will provide you with input. But imagine getting all that info in just one text box. Somebody will have to interpret it and separate it to make it worthwhile. For example, what if someone interjected a comma in their name? Is that person's name Henry Kelly or Kelly Henry? Someone is going to have to dig in to confirm.

When analyzing the data, someone will have to determine its quality. A simple example is determining if it was filled out by a bot (AI) or a human. Is that human interested in buying from you or selling to you?

Adding something like Captcha (are you human checkbox) may satisfy part, but not the buyer/seller question.

Output means that the data is being used for its collected purpose. Is the data to be shared with a salesperson, or is the person immediately added to an email list or drip? What is the desired outcome: nurturing, more fact-finding, please buy something, or just go away? No matter what, the output will require some decisions and even more analysis.

Finally, you have to evaluate what's next. If the original contact buys something, what's next? Do you add them to your accounting system and/or CRM? Do you try to upsell or nurture repeat business? If they don't buy right away, are they level one, two, or three prospects (cold, warm, hot)?

Maybe they were requesting information or services and were not ready to buy. What happens next? What if, somewhere along the way, a bot or seller slipped through the cracks in your system and needs to be removed or deleted?

Each of those steps requires both physical and mental acuity to assure success.

Swing and Miss

At this point, and into the immediate future, I have found that humans are the best decision-makers.

We are also better at interpreting the most important data and how to segment it into more usable marketing information.

If you have ever watched a golf tournament (on TV), you will often hear the golfer and caddy discussing options on which club to play when.

On a standard Par 4, there are the same parts as I mentioned with data.

• Input – Making the initial drive or hit
• Analyze – From where it landed, what is the next best shot to get it on the green?
• Output – Hopefully chipping or putting it in the cup (birdie).
• Completing – If missed, put one more time to make par.

There are many obstacles in the way (sand, water, rough, trees, and more) that can hinder you from your goal. A pro can usually overcome most of them and get a bogie (one over par), while a hacker like me may get a double or triple bogie.

Whether it's a pro with a caddie or a hacker, many decisions have to be made. You have to factor in wind, air density, how fast the greens are, or how tall the rough is. That is a lot of data to process in a short period of time for each stroke, but the more data you collect and utilize, the better the outcome will usually be.

Closing Thought

Golf, football, baseball, and other sports are generally described as a game of inches. Golf is about the six inches between your ears.

Even if you have mastered the physical skills, your mind can keep you guessing. The question is, what data are you paying attention to, and how fast can you make an educated decision?

I find that capturing, processing, and utilizing data is key to success… in sports and in business.

Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas, or questions about business-to-business sales and marketing today! Do you have a sales or marketing communications strategy that works for you? What tips or techniques can you share that work for you and your business?

To learn more about this and other topics on B2b Sales & Marketing, visit our podcast website at?The Bacon Podcast.