In this episode of the Revenue Cafe, Breadcrumbs co-founder, and Chief Product Officer Gary Amaral is joined by Kirk Fackre, Vice President of Sales at iCorps Technologies. Gary and Kirk dive into a discussion about remote work and the hybrid office experience and the future of machine learning and artificial intelligence in marketing. 

Kirk Fackre is a go-to-market leader with extensive sales management, marketing, and technology experience within a diverse mix of companies ranging from enterprise software to SaaS, mobile technology, Digital Health, cybersecurity, and IT strategy. iCorps Technologies offers solutions to secure cloud deployments, including managed security, backup and recovery, and endpoint protection and monitoring by providing cloud consulting, cybersecurity, and outsourced IT services.

Key Takeaways

1. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies are impressive for assembling data and making predictions moving forward for leads and sales conversations. Still, it would be best to weigh the pros and cons when considering ML vs. AI to find what is best for you and deliver you the best leads. 
2. There is no substitute for human contact. The finesse of personal interaction enhances the way we reach out to prospective sales. Personal communication is vital, ML and AI help us put the pieces together, but they are ultimately not going to close the deal. 
3. With remote work and migration out of the cities, living that cottage life with a healthy work-life balance is possible. With that comes a demand for expansion in technology for communication. A tech boom is on the near horizon. Alternative methods of our best communication tool, the internet, are being built today, and that goes hand-in-hand with ML and AI. 

Some topics we discussed include:

• The biggest challenges iCorps faced across 2020 and 2021 and how they approached prospecting in the midst of the pandemic.
• How iCorps Technologies tech teams adapted to remote work with their clients and tactically helped them achieve success in the remote setting.
• What tactics iCorps has explored to commit to team and company communication and human connection.
• What strategic impacts, or shifts in goals and focus, have changed for iCorps Technologies. 
• Benefits of remote work and flexibility for a hybrid office experience post-pandemic. 
• Exploring remote and hybrid work and expansion nationwide as some of the top priorities for 2021. 
• How remote work has brought new business and helped iCorps Technologies identify their top performers.
• What ‘returning to normal’ looks like for iCorps technologies in terms of hiring and sales.
• What is needed to start living the cottage life (hint: it involves expanding rural technology with satellite internet and allowing hybrid office scenarios.)
• A story about how sinking shipping containers full of data centers into the ocean could increase connectivity (and solve cooling efficiently.)
• Kirk’s perspective on the future roles of both Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), followed by a big discussion exploring the question: what makes the distinction between ML and AI?
• Gary and Kick discuss their experiences with ML and AI, including using ML for lead scoring, transparency, the value of human interaction, ethics, and AI data tracking. 
• An eye-opening (and king of scary) story about AI in the medical industry.
• Text messages and marketing: yes or no? Gary and Kirk’s feelings on the progression of adding texts into marketing.
• The Breadcrumbs approach: move from the hard-to-accomplish time-consuming manual analysis to add a machine learning component where, after absorbing all historical data, the system surfaces what it thinks can be a good model eliminating a lot of the back and forth between marketing and sales – but still giving the user the power to decide what’s important for them and navigating away from the predictive lead scoring black box.
• What is temporal reality, and why it’s important for lead scoring.