Evolution and Impact of AI Agents in Business
Steve Chipman of CRM Switch discusses how AI agents transform business growth, referencing Mark Andreessen’s earlier declaration about software eating the world.
Sam Biardo of Technology Advisors notes the improved usefulness of AI agents compared to 10 years ago.
Steve elaborates on various types of agents mentioned by Greg Eisenberg, including acquisition, research, content, and community agents, and discusses ElevenLabs’ conversational AI capabilities.
AI Implementation and Cost Considerations
Steve shares Eisenberg’s observation about cost efficiency ($2,000 in agent costs replacing $2 million in salary costs).
Sam discusses implementing AI in HR applications, noting that 80% of HR queries could be handled by chat agents, potentially saving $45 per interaction. They explore various pricing models, including token-based and per-question pricing structures.
Steve and Sam agreed that determining token usage is complex. Steve mentioned creating an OpenAI API credit balance to words calculator using Bolt from StackBlitz.
CRM Platforms and AI Integration
The discussion shifts to how major CRM platforms are implementing AI. Steve notes Salesforce’s leadership with Agentforce, HubSpot’s more cautious approach with Breeze, and ServiceNow’s competitive position.
Sam observes that AI capability is becoming a must-have feature for CRM platforms, similar to mobile apps in 2005.
Integration Trends and Market Dynamics
Sam shares insights from Starfish’s integration requests, noting increased demand for ServiceNow over Zendesk, strong HubSpot integration requests, and the growing popularity of Infor CloudSuite.
They discuss specific integration needs, highlighting the demand for sales tax software integration with HubSpot for B2C applications.