The "System of Intelligence"
The biggest opportunity in GTM tech • The Signal
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Boo! 👻
Hope everyone is having a great end of quarter. /giphy Glengarry Glen Ross. (Ngl, I miss end of month/quarter energy.)
Today’s post is short and sweet. But, something I’ve been thinking about for many years now. It’s the premise in which I started my last company, Groundswell, and fundraised on the vision. I still think there’s a massive gap in the market around this design space: the “System of Intelligence.” We called it the “brain for revenue teams” (maybe “nervous system” is more anatomically accurate).
Anyway, here’s what we’ll cover in today’s bite-sized post:
What is a “System of Intelligence”?
Where does it sit in the current tech stack?
How will AI impact this space?
Who is building this?
Let’s get into it.
The "System of Intelligence"
This is the category of GTM tech that I’m most interested in.
Because I believe it’s the biggest opportunity in GTM tech.
And GenAI only exacerbates the need (and likelihood) of a “System of Intelligence” being built and adopted in GTM teams around the world.
Where does it sit in the current tech stack?
Here’s a simple visual I put together to show how I see a “System of Intelligence” fits into the existing tech stack:
In fact, I think it has the opportunity to dethrone CRM.
The question a “System of Intelligence” answers is what humans do today. Knowledge work. But, slowly… when I squint—I can start to see a path for AI to actually start making 6-figure jobs obsolete. SDRs? Yes. CSMs? Yes.
BUT, I don’t think AI replaces the best reps. I do think reps using AI will replace reps.
The most important question a GTM Leader can ask is the following:
“What Company/Person are you reaching out to this week?”
Ask 20 reps at the same company that question.
You’ll get 20 different answers.
This is obviously not efficient, or scientific. Everyone knows it.
But there still isn’t a solution.
Sales engagement was an attempt to OpErAtIoNaLiZe a reps workflow. But, SEPs don’t have all the data required to train a model to be “intelligent” (sorry SEPs). CRM (sorta) and data warehouses (increasingly so) have the most data in them.
GTM teams need a “System of Intelligence” (a machine) that answers this question for them. Magically.
I don’t want to go into “solution mode.” (If I knew the right solution, I’d be building that right now — I don’t).
But, I do have incredibly strong (and increasing) conviction that this is the biggest opportunity in GTM tech.
How to execute those actions is a whole other can of worms. I think there will be several ways that emerge, when it comes to the execution/workflows. (See also: The New Playbook for Pipeline Generation is Emerging)
PS - One of those ways is finding the warmest path into an account. Next week’s post is a deep dive on this concept. Don’t miss it. (If you’re not already, subscribe so you get that post directly into your inbox).
How will AI impact this space?
Tomasz Tonguz recently published a piece that speaks to this concept a little bit. His focus is on the CRM being disrupted based on the new workflows of AI agents, compared to humans. In the article he says:
When AI products are sold as services, they replace in-house labor. This changes internal processes.
When the internal processes change, the opportunity to replace the system of record arises because the existing workflows are no longer relevant.
I think this is right. As AI Agents become more prevalent, there will be a need/opportunity to rethink the CRM and the applications.
Who is building this?
Innovation will happen in this space, and I’m excited to see who is building here.
I’m always trying to learn. Reach out if you’re using a product that you think is a “System of Intelligence.”
Thank you for your trust and attention — I do not take it lightly.
Happy Halloween (to all who celebrate).
See you next week,
Brendan 🎃
Hi Brendon, love this article as usual! Very interesting way to segment the functions. To be more concrete on this Systems of intelligence, in practice, is this some sort of recommendation engine? Try to recommend prospects at the right time, recommend best play or recommend best emails to out reach? In that regards, many applications layer or even data layer players are already doing them. You think the need is more on the level of intelligence leap(eg. Siri vs chatGPT) or some fundamental functionalities are different?