Map
Framework

AI in customer relationship management (AI-CRM)

The question it answers

When a marketing or customer-care team adds AI to its CRM, how does it change acquiring, developing and retaining customers, and what does it cost in fairness?

Origin
Libai et al., 2020; Huang and Rust, 2021
Diagram type
Hub diagram
Level of analysis
Firm
Topics
Marketing & salesData & analytics
Megaphone aimed at a glass target, icon for marketing and sales

Diagram

AI in customer relationship management (AI-CRM)

AI-CRM
Customer acquisition
Customer development
Customer retention
Predicting customer lifetime value
Adapted treatment of customers

When to use it, and when not to

Use it when

When choosing tools, Huang and Rust sort AI by the work it does: mechanical AI automates repetitive activities, thinking AI processes data to reach decisions (personalisation, at the marketing action stage) and feeling AI analyses interactions and human emotions.

Pitfalls

Pitfall

Libai and colleagues argue that better prediction of customer lifetime value pushes firms to treat customers differently. The result is more customer prioritisation, more service discrimination in markets, and a problem for regulators.

Sources

References

Listed A–Z by author surname, Harvard style. A source with a DOI links to https://doi.org/…; one without links to its page or says plainly that it has no DOI.

  1. Huang, M.-H. and Rust, R.T. (2021) ‘A strategic framework for artificial intelligence in marketing’, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 49(1), pp. 30–50.doi:10.1007/s11747-020-00749-9Source page
  2. Libai, B. et al. (2020) ‘Brave new world? On AI and the management of customer relationships’, Journal of Interactive Marketing, 51, pp. 44–56.doi:10.1016/j.intmar.2020.04.002Source page