Demand for generative AI has reached a fever pitch in business — and like a lot of tech trends, the early waves of excitement are starting to collide with bottom-line reality.
As leaders across all sectors push to adopt generative AI tools like ChatGPT, it’s also becoming clear that most generative AI (GenAI) initiatives for business will quickly fall apart without a foundation of accurate, timely, and comprehensive data.
Why? The magic of GenAI lies in its ability to predict what humans want. But without the right data, GenAI apps can “hallucinate” responses that seem convincing — but aren’t real.
Coupled with the inherent speed of GenAI, you have the very real possibility that even small errors could quickly spread throughout a go-to-market motion, leading your team in wildly wrong directions.
That’s why experts like Boston Consulting Group are advising companies to mandate human double-checking of all GenAI outputs and “limiting its use to non-critical tasks.”
For teams that need to build GenAI into their workflows today, the answer is clear: high-quality B2B data must be the backbone of your AI initiatives.
The Impact of GTM Data on Generative AI
Many business leaders understand the overall importance of data quality. But for too many, the problem may also seem too big to solve or too abstract to really matter.
For example: Despite the core importance of CRM systems to B2B growth, companies still estimate that about a third of their data is inaccurate on average. The same surveys show that 55% of corporate leaders distrust their own data assets.
And yet, those leaders are also bullish on the power of GenAI, with more than 6 in 10 planning to pilot or operate it in some way by 2024 — even though most don’t yet have a consistent GenAI approach in place.
“What we really believe is that the data underlying customer outreach needs to be incredibly accurate, totally enriched, and really deep,” ZoomInfo CEO Henry Schuck recently told LivePerson. “We are in this unique position as a company, with an offering to really fuel that.”
Data Infrastructure That Brings GenAI Tools To Life
ZoomInfo can fuel a wide variety of high-performance AI tools, with data cubes and Enterprise APIs that help ensure GenAI apps are working with the freshest and most reliable information possible:
- APIs and Webhooks: Integrate ZoomInfo data and intelligence into any workflow or system, in real time and at scale.
- Data Cubes: Get access to ZoomInfo’s entire database of continually refreshed company and contact data — delivered how, when and where you need it.
- Data Modeling and Scoring: Our dedicated data services managers can support your custom data delivery and data modeling needs.
Additionally, ZoomInfo Copilot demonstrates how AI built on top of high-quality data can revolutionize the modern sales process, turning go-to-market data into a river of signals, insights, and suggested actions — all pushed to your sellers’ fingertips, at the right time.
Combining first-party CRM data with ZoomInfo’s peerless company and contact data, real-time buying signals, champion moves, and our ecosystem of partners delivers sophisticated go-to-market insights at scale.
During extensive trials with more than 20,000 users, Copilot successfully predicted nearly half of our customers’ existing pipeline, and saved teams 10 hours a week on average.
Good, Better, Best: Writing a GenAI Prospecting Email
Modern GTM teams have figured out how to get in touch with the right people, at the right time, at scale. With generative AI, they’re now figuring out how to send the right message at speeds never before possible.
With tools like ChatGPT, adding more targeted data to get a near-perfect prospecting email is easy. Here’s a real illustration of how more contextual data leads to better emails, step by step.
Good: The Initial Prompt
Let’s say you’re a sales rep who just got a Slack alert about a new lead. We can use AI to write a follow-up prospecting email — let’s start by pasting in basic information about the company and contact:
PROMPT
- Richard Johnson, director of sales from ACME Inc., just downloaded a ZoomInfo platform datasheet.
- Write a follow-up prospecting email.
- ACME is a web infrastructure and security company, providing content delivery networks, DDoS mitigation, internet security, and distributed domain name server services.
- ACME is a mid-market company, based in San Francisco.
Better: Add New to Role, Previous Customer
In this example, our chatbot had already been trained on our core messaging and each one of our solutions. So let’s open this lead’s ZoomInfo contact profile and see if we can provide more context.
In the profile, it shows Richard just started this job. We used ZoomInfo’s Tracker feature to identify him as a customer champion at a previous company. Let’s add that to the prompt.
Right away we can see the email is a lot more personalized, and also speaks to his previous use.
PROMPT
- He just started this new director role last month. He used our ZoomInfo Sales product at his previous company, Inity.
Best: Scoops on Expansion, Hiring, Advertising, Data Quality
Now let’s look at some initiatives going on at Richard’s company. We can see that they just completed an M&A deal, are hiring in sales, and want to expand overseas. We also see that ACME is facing some challenges in outbound, and is spending more on display ads.
All of this information can be sourced from ZoomInfo Scoops — our feed of news and information updates that combines broad research from across public filings and announcements with proprietary research surveys.
Let’s enter a prompt with this new information:
PROMPT
- ACME just made an acquisition.
- They are hiring new sales roles, and expanding into global markets like EMEA and APAC.
- The company is investing in digital advertising, and faces challenges related to data quality.
With that new data, the AI is now suggesting products that could support each of the company’s key initiatives. Note there are plenty of other data types and real-time signals that we can use to further personalize and make this even more relevant, including:
- Intent
- Website pages visited
- Technographic data
Let’s take it a step further and use the information we already provided to multi-thread this account. If we grab the contact info of stakeholders, we can use GenAI tools to draft an email to them:
With a few pieces of relevant information, we turned a generic email into something that a good-fit prospect is likely to respond to. Then, GenAI was able to use the data we added to draft relevant personalized emails to several members of their buying committee.
Note that it helps to continuously provide feedback to GenAI chatbots to improve AI responses.
It isn’t rocket science, but the underlying point is clear: the accuracy and completeness of the contextual data provided is what will have the biggest impact on your results.
ZoomInfo Data and Generative AI : Art of the Possible
Deploying AI at scale for B2B companies requires more than just advanced tools — it demands the right fuel.
With ZoomInfo, data leaders can access more than 100 million accurate company profiles, over 240 million contact profiles, and more than 300 discrete company attributes to drive generative AI campaigns.
Inaccurate, incomplete, and unvetted customer data is like junk food for GenAI. ZoomInfo upholds data quality, constantly refining its reservoir of business data to drive your go-to-market motions.
Whether you’re in finance, insurance, retail, or any sector in between, equip yourself with top-tier data to stay not just afloat, but ahead. Dive deeper with ZoomInfo and speak to a data specialist today.