SmartCompany goes to the US: Ask your AI questions

We’re in the United States reporting from sea to shining sea this week, keeping you up to date on everything that’s happening in the customer relationship management and AI space.

David Adams is in San Francisco for Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference, and Tegan Jones is in Boston for HubSpot’s Inbound.

CRM software gives your business tools to help you grow deep, lasting and profitable relationships with your customers.

Platforms such as Salesforce and HubSpot help you across your whole sales cycle, from identifying and segmenting prospects to converting them to loyal customers, to keeping them satisfied and coming back for more. If you’re running a customer-focused business, we’re pretty sure we’ll have something interesting for you.

And if you have any specific questions, email us here!

Here’s what David and Tegan have planned this week.

David:

SmartCompany is on the ground in San Francisco, where I will attend the 2024 Dreamforce event as a guest of Salesforce. Proceedings officially kick off Tuesday, but I’m already digging into what the conference could mean for you.

CEO and co-founder Marc Benioff set the scene on Friday, when he teased the next generation of AI-powered tools — called agents, in the Salesforce parlance — and his company’s vision for artificially intelligent sales and customer service assistants.

According to Benioff, each conversation held by an AI agent will cost the client US$2 to begin with.

The conversations I’m having with (human) attendees indicate a real interest in that kind of technology, especially for enterprise-level companies.

I’m keen to find out more in the coming days, especially about the technology’s accessibility for smaller businesses.

Between speaking to Australian business representatives and industry experts, I’m also keen to:

• Watch Benioff and Jensen Huang, CEO of chipmaker Nvidia, unpack their vision for AI development,
• Hear how homegrown unicorn Canva is leveraging AI,
• Get a feel for how tech leaders think these technologies can actually help employees,
• Understand why companies like Salesforce believe AI upgrades could help small business build scale, and what limitations currently exist.

Have any questions? Shoot an enquiry to SmartCompany, and I’ll do my best to find some answers. If you have any tips on the best burrito in town, please don’t hesitate to reach out, either.

Tegan:

While David is basking in the California sun*, I will be over on the East Coast hoping that the fall vibes start rolling in early. I have every intention of becoming the most basic pumpkin spice latte gal, and feel no shame about that.

Besides hitting up Salem and a Red Sox game, I’m in Boston for HubSpot’s annual INBOUND conference.

Being the resident technology reporter here at SmartCompany, I’ll be doing a lot of interviews on AI, as well as hitting up as many tech and SME-focused panels as possible.

Here are the sessions I’m most keen to check out:

• My interview with the founders of New Zealand startup Tracksuit, which raised over $20 million earlier this year
• Free the Tampons: A Journey To Menstrual Equity
• Recoding the Future with Kara Swisher
• From Center Court to Venture Capital with Serena Williams
• AI Prompt Teardown: Live Feedback on What You’re Doing Wrong
• $1M Pitch Competition With HubSpot for Startups and Ventures
• Thriving in Discomfort: How Being Uncomfortable Fuels Growth

But hey, if there’s anything you want me to look into or ask about while I’m there, let us know!

*Note: David can confirm it is actually very foggy in San Francisco!

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