Fully automating B2B based on AI resources is not achievable due to its sheer degree of both complexity and dynamics
LeadGenius stands for Top of the Funnel Marketing Automation, meaning the company starts by helping its clients to understand which are the target market segments towards which to focus a new product or service and then map that market (detailing the decision makers of each prospect) as also while generating leads.
Prayag starts by explaining the Crowdsourcing concept as distributed Outsourcing, meaning a team scattered about distinct geographies instead a remote team on a single site.
LeadGenius model is somehow unique since it leverages the potential of AIs with the “manual” labour of a remote workforce (the Crowd).
The workflow starts with an AI performing the discovery of prospects raising all the relevant inherent data and information and then the Crowd will fine tune the findings using intuition and human intelligence to.
The workflow starts with an AI performing the discovery of prospects raising all the relevant inherent data and information and then the Crowd will fine tune the findings using intuition and human intelligence to.
Crowd Profiles
Prayag shares that LeadGenius was created following a case study about the entire concept of Crowdsourcing at Berkley University, which was initially focused on it as a way to leverage AI and machine learning, but at a given point the team started to focus on how it could help people on remote locations to work and contribute, adding value while making a living not having to leave their locations.
The focus is not to look after expertise, although having a background in Marketing or Sales helps, but it is not a requirement to be part of the Crowd.
Resources must be educated (meaning having a degree), and fluent in technology (using the internet and available collaborative tools), while fluent in English.
LeadGenius has grown up until now to a team of around 1000 collaborators which represents a “paycheck” of some $5,000,000 per year. And although the company started mainly with Part-Time employees, interestingly some of the resources stayed having built their careers on LeadGenious’ Crowd instead of getting a local job and merely working part-time on the Crowd.
It is a single focused “data analysis” type of work, meaning all the Crowd resources contribute essentially with the same tasks in a piling up effect that creates value by volume.
Recruiting
Prayag explains that once a given resource becomes “proficient” in the workflow and tasks to be accomplished, LeadGenious gives them the chance of internally evolving into management positions which also imply hiring new resources.
The company trusts their best human assets, who are well acquainted with the required to be performed job, to choose and propose new collaborators who best fit the endeavour.
Those elements will have both the tools as a budget to do that.
Community
Upon the research about Crowdsourcing at UC Berkley, it was accessed that work within B2B context cannot be “mechanical”, meaning based on one-time transactions, it needs to be established within a collaborative work context, therefore a community must be raised and solidified with the focus of solving given Business Problems.
Prayag says that in order to build up momentum which allows complex problems to be solved a Crowd cannot be based on one-time interactions yet it must become one alive and working community towards a common goal.
This type of community is encouraged to self-organize itself and it works perfectly.
Prayag strongly points out that within Outsourcing it is not possible to treat people as mere numbers or parts in the machine and expect good results, humans need to have a sense of purpose and recognition to contribute up to the best of their abilities, independently of being all together in one office space or scattered all around the globe.
This type of community is encouraged to self-organize itself and it works perfectly.
Supporting the Crowd is accomplished internally via their senior profiles who are given the appropriate tools to do so.
The work week
At the end of each week the running campaigns (projects) are distributed amongst available resources for the following week, with priority to those who have been previously working on them (through scheduling tools).
Each crowd member will go about processing the information pertaining his/ her tasks within the assigned campaign for the agreed work period, having the chance and tools to connect with supervisors that assist them with doubts and support.
Crowdsourcing – Engine start challenges
On Prayag’ perspective the future will not be purely based on AI, yet a symbiotic relationship between human intuition integrated with AI.
Building a Crowdsourcing community basically is, building a community. So, one must seed the community, find the assets within that bear the most potential and grow the community with their support.
On AI
The AI community tends to assume that given the proper training and data, anything can be automated.
Yet human knowledge is not only about processing, it comprehends leveraging soft skills and daily life contributions.
Some companies that provide AI services in fact have a significant part of the tasks being completed by humans, and that is not a bad thing, for they leverage human aspects, sensitivity and capability, whereas there are some Crowdsourcing companies that threat human labour force like a chicken farm, with no sense of community, like the case of “CrowdFlower”
Since fully automating B2B is not possible, why not to bring a human contribution to the forefront as a leverage of the AI capacities while adding amazing value to the client?
Remote work based economy adds amazing value to the global community since it enables the best fit resource to contribute with added value expertise or work capacity from a remote location to a company in a major metropolitan area across the world.
In this process, people from remote less favoured regions will have their living standards improved and that is the other part of the value which is added to the global community.
Outsourcing and Crowdsourcing means people and not Hardware or Software, therefore you need to make sure to treat your assets as human beings and nothing else.