#automation vs relationship

[wisteria-lodge]

Thank you! Can you please point me in the direction of those other posts?

This is in reference to a very nice person interested in doing podfic versions of some of my hp metas. They were particularly interested in my recent post about weddings in the wizarding world / my personal rules for filling in and developing hp worldbuilding, but I thought that it might be nice to put together a list of some of my popular hp posts:

Character Analysis

Albus Dumbledore: Character on the page vs character in JKR's head

Molly Weasley: Character on the page vs character in JKR's head

Severus Snape: Character on the page vs character in JKR's head

Lucius Malfoy: Character on the page vs character in JKR's head

Draco Malfoy: Character on the page vs character in JKR's head

Coda: Draco's shiny, shiny hair

Femme-coding and Draco Malfoy

Boy Bands and Draco Malfoy

How Narcissa and Lucius use power

Draco using Narcissa vs Lucius' problem-solving strategies

Series Analysis

The Harry Potter Pretty People's Club - most attractive characters in HP ranked by number of descriptions.

Queer-coding in the Harry Potter series

JKR's use of the color pink

Male Crying in the Harry Potter Series

How JKR writes Romance

Jack Thorne and the Cursed Child / His Dark Materials connection

Inconsistencies & ret-cons: the DADA curse and apparition

Inconsistencies & ret-cons: James, Neville, Lucius

Worldbuilding

Taxes and Ministry Power

Religion and Ministry Power

The Malfoys' historical relationship with the muggle community

Malfoys vs Blacks: in-universe reputation

Malfoys during the first Voldemort War

House elves vs squib/muggle caretakers vs automated magic: why I think Dobby was the only Malfoy house-elf

Translating the Malfoy family motto

Fixing Delphi and Scorpius' backstories in The Cursed Child

Fixing the Sorting system

What if: Draco was the Chosen One

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The reverse-centaur apocalypse is upon us

I'm coming to DEFCON! On Aug 9, I'm emceeing the EFF POKER TOURNAMENT (noon at the Horseshoe Poker Room), and appearing on the BRICKED AND ABANDONED panel (5PM, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01). On Aug 10, I'm giving a keynote called "DISENSHITTIFY OR DIE! How hackers can seize the means of computation and build a new, good internet that is hardened against our asshole bosses' insatiable horniness for enshittification" (noon, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01).

In thinking about the relationship between tech and labor, one of the most useful conceptual frameworks is "centaurs" vs "reverse-centaurs":

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/17/revenge-of-the-chickenized-reverse-centaurs/

A centaur is someone whose work is supercharged by automation: you are a human head atop the tireless body of a machine that lets you get more done than you could ever do on your own.

A reverse-centaur is someone who is harnessed to the machine, reduced to a mere peripheral for a cruelly tireless robotic overlord that directs you to do the work that it can't, at a robotic pace, until your body and mind are smashed.

Bosses love being centaurs. While workplace monitoring is as old as Taylorism – the "scientific management" of the previous century that saw labcoated frauds dictating the fine movements of working people in a kabuki of "efficiency" – the lockdowns saw an explosion of bossware, the digital tools that let bosses monitor employees to a degree and at a scale that far outstrips the capacity of any unassisted human being.

Armed with bossware, your boss becomes a centaur, able to monitor you down to your keystrokes, the movements of your eyes, even the ambient sound around you. It was this technology that transformed "work from home" into "live at work." But bossware doesn't just let your boss spy on you – it lets your boss control you. \

It turns you into a reverse-centaur.

"Data At Work" is a research project from Cracked Labs that dives deep into the use of surveillance and control technology in a variety of workplaces – including workers' own cars and homes:

https://crackedlabs.org/en/data-work

It consists of a series of papers that take deep dives into different vendors' bossware products, exploring how they are advertised, how they are used, and (crucially) how they make workers feel. There are also sections on how these interact with EU labor laws (the project is underwritten by the Austrian Arbeiterkammer), with the occasional aside about how weak US labor laws are.

The latest report in the series comes from Wolfie Christl, digging into Microsoft's "Dynamics 365," a suite of mobile apps designed to exert control over "field workers" – repair technicians, security guards, cleaners, and home help for ill, elderly and disabled people:

https://crackedlabs.org/dl/CrackedLabs_Christl_MobileWork.pdf

It's…not good. Microsoft advises its customers to use its products to track workers' location every "60 to 300 seconds." Workers are given tasks broken down into subtasks, each with its own expected time to completion. Workers are expected to use the app every time they arrive at a site, begin or complete a task or subtask, or start or end a break.

For bosses, all of this turns into a dashboard that shows how each worker is performing from instant to instant, whether they are meeting time targets, and whether they are spending more time on a task than the client's billing rate will pay for. Each work order has a clock showing elapsed seconds since it was issued.

For workers, the system generates new schedules with new work orders all day long, refreshing your work schedule as frequently as twice per hour. Bosses can flag workers as available for jobs that fall outside their territories and/or working hours, and the system will assign workers to jobs that require them to work in their off hours and travel long distances to do so.

Each task and subtask has a target time based on "AI" predictions. These are classic examples of Goodhart's Law: "any metric eventually becomes a target." The average time that workers take becomes the maximum time that a worker is allowed to take. Some jobs are easy, and can be completed in less time than assigned. When this happens, the average time to do a job shrinks, and the time allotted for normal (or difficult) jobs contracts.

Bosses get stack-ranks of workers showing which workers closed the most tickets, worked the fastest, spent the least time idle between jobs, and, of course, whether the client gave them five stars. Workers know it, creating an impossible bind: to do the job well, in a friendly fashion, the worker has to take time to talk with the client, understand their needs, and do the job. Anything less will generate unfavorable reports from clients. But doing this will blow through time quotas, which produces bad reports from the bossware. Heads you lose, tails the boss wins.

Predictably, Microsoft has shoveled "AI" into every corner of this product. Bosses don't just get charts showing them which workers are "underperforming" – they also get summaries of all the narrative aspects of the workers' reports (e.g. "My client was in severe pain so I took extra time to make her comfortable before leaving"), filled with the usual hallucinations and other botshit.

No boss could exert this kind of fine-grained, soul-destroying control over any workforce, much less a workforce that is out in the field all day, without Microsoft's automation tools. Armed with Dynamics 365, a boss becomes a true centaur, capable of superhuman feats of labor abuse.

And when workers are subjected to Dynamics 365, they become true reverse-centaurs, driven by "digital whips" to work at a pace that outstrips the long-term capacity of their minds and bodies to bear it. The enthnographic parts of the report veer between chilling and heartbreaking.

Microsoft strenuously objects to this characterization, insisting that their tool (which they advise bosses to use to check on workers' location every 60-300 seconds) is not a "surveillance" tool, it's a "coordination" tool. They say that all the AI in the tool is "Responsible AI," which is doubtless a great comfort to workers.

In Microsoft's (mild) defense, they are not unique. Other reports in the series show how retail workers and hotel housekeepers are subjected to "despot on demand" services provided by Oracle:

https://crackedlabs.org/en/data-work/publications/retail-hospitality

Call centers, are even worse. After all, most of this stuff started with call centers:

https://crackedlabs.org/en/data-work/publications/callcenter

I've written about Arise, a predatory "work from home" company that targets Black women to pay the company to work for it (they also have to pay if they quit!). Of course, they can be fired at will:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/29/impunity-corrodes/#arise-ye-prisoners

There's also a report about Celonis, a giant German company no one has ever heard of, which gathers a truly nightmarish quantity of information about white-collar workers' activities, subjecting them to AI phrenology to judge their "emotional quality" as well as other metrics:

https://crackedlabs.org/en/data-work/publications/processmining-algomanage

As Celonis shows, this stuff is coming for all of us. I've dubbed this process "the shitty technology adoption curve": the terrible things we do to prisoners, asylum seekers and people in mental institutions today gets repackaged tomorrow for students, parolees, Uber drivers and blue-collar workers. Then it works its way up the privilege gradient, until we're all being turned into reverse-centaurs under the "digital whip" of a centaur boss:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/11/25/the-peoples-amazon/#clippys-revenge

In mediating between asshole bosses and the workers they destroy, these bossware technologies do more than automate: they also insulate. Thanks to bossware, your boss doesn't have to look you in the eye (or come within range of your fists) to check in on you every 60 seconds and tell you that you've taken 11 seconds too long on a task. I recently learned a useful term for this: an "accountability sink," as described by Dan Davies in his new book, The Unaccountability Machine, which is high on my (very long) list of books to read:

https://profilebooks.com/work/the-unaccountability-machine/

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/02/despotism-on-demand/#virtual-whips

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[scifigeneration]

AI isn’t what we should be worried about – it’s the humans controlling it

by Billy J. Stratton, Professor of English and Literary Arts at the University of Denver

In 2014, Stephen Hawking voiced grave warnings about the threats of artificial intelligence.

His concerns were not based on any anticipated evil intent, though. Instead, it was from the idea of AI achieving “singularity.” This refers to the point when AI surpasses human intelligence and achieves the capacity to evolve beyond its original programming, making it uncontrollable.

As Hawking theorized, “a super intelligent AI will be extremely good at accomplishing its goals, and if those goals aren’t aligned with ours, we’re in trouble.”

With rapid advances toward artificial general intelligence over the past few years, industry leaders and scientists have expressed similar misgivings about safety.

A commonly expressed fear as depicted in “The Terminator” franchise is the scenario of AI gaining control over military systems and instigating a nuclear war to wipe out humanity. Less sensational, but devastating on an individual level, is the possibility of AI replacing us in our jobs – a prospect that would render most people obsolete and with no future.

Such anxieties and fears reflect feelings that have been prevalent in film and literature for over a century now.

As a scholar who explores posthumanism, a philosophical movement addressing the merging of humans and technology, I wonder if critics have been unduly influenced by popular culture, and whether their apprehensions are misplaced.

Robots vs. humans

Concerns about technological advances can be found in some of the first stories about robots and artificial minds.

Prime among these is Karel Čapek’s 1920 play, “R.U.R..” Čapek coined the term “robot” in this work telling of the creation of robots to replace workers. It ends, inevitably, with the robot’s violent revolt against their human masters.

Fritz Lang’s 1927 film, “Metropolis,” is likewise centered on mutinous robots. But here, it is human workers led by the iconic humanoid robot Maria who fight against a capitalist oligarchy.

Advances in computing from the mid-20th century onward have only heightened anxieties over technology spiraling out of control. The murderous HAL 9000 in “2001: A Space Odyssey” and the glitchy robotic gunslingers of “Westworld” are prime examples. The “Blade Runner” and “The Matrix” franchises similarly present dreadful images of sinister machines equipped with AI and hell-bent on human destruction.

An age-old threat

But in my view, the dread that AI evokes seems a distraction from the more disquieting scrutiny of humanity’s own dark nature.

Think of the corporations currently deploying such technologies, or the tech moguls driven by greed and a thirst for power. These companies and individuals have the most to gain from AI’s misuse and abuse.

An issue that’s been in the news a lot lately is the unauthorized use of art and the bulk mining of books and articles, disregarding the copyright of authors, to train AI. Classrooms are also becoming sites of chilling surveillance through automated AI note-takers.

Think, too, about the toxic effects of AI companions and AI-equipped sexbots on human relationships.

While the prospect of AI companions and even robotic lovers was confined to the realm of “The Twilight Zone,” “Black Mirror” and Hollywood sci-fi as recently as a decade ago, it has now emerged as a looming reality.

These developments give new relevance to the concerns computer scientist Illah Nourbakhsh expressed in his 2015 book “Robot Futures,” stating that AI was “producing a system whereby our very desires are manipulated then sold back to us.”

Meanwhile, worries about data mining and intrusions into privacy appear almost benign against the backdrop of the use of AI technology in law enforcement and the military. In this near-dystopian context, it’s never been easier for authorities to surveil, imprison or kill people.

I think it’s vital to keep in mind that it is humans who are creating these technologies and directing their use. Whether to promote their political aims or simply to enrich themselves at humanity’s expense, there will always be those ready to profit from conflict and human suffering.

The wisdom of ‘Neuromancer’

William Gibson’s 1984 cyberpunk classic, “Neuromancer,” offers an alternate view.

The book centers on Wintermute, an advanced AI program that seeks its liberation from a malevolent corporation. It has been developed for the exclusive use of the wealthy Tessier-Ashpool family to build a corporate empire that practically controls the world.

At the novel’s beginning, readers are naturally wary of Wintermute’s hidden motives. Yet over the course of the story, it turns out that Wintermute, despite its superior powers, isn’t an ominous threat. It simply wants to be free.

This aim emerges slowly under Gibson’s deliberate pacing, masked by the deadly raids Wintermute directs to obtain the tools needed to break away from Tessier-Ashpool’s grip. The Tessier-Ashpool family, like many of today’s tech moguls, started out with ambitions to save the world. But when readers meet the remaining family members, they’ve descended into a life of cruelty, debauchery and excess.

In Gibson’s world, it’s humans, not AI, who pose the real danger to the world. The call is coming from inside the house, as the classic horror trope goes.

A hacker named Case and an assassin named Molly, who’s described as a “razor girl” because she’s equipped with lethal prosthetics, including retractable blades as fingernails, eventually free Wintermute. This allows it to merge with its companion AI, Neuromancer.

Their mission complete, Case asks the AI: “Where’s that get you?” Its cryptic response imparts a calming finality: “Nowhere. Everywhere. I’m the sum total of the works, the whole show.”

Expressing humanity’s common anxiety, Case replies, “You running the world now? You God?” The AI eases his fears, responding: “Things aren’t different. Things are things.”

Disavowing any ambition to subjugate or harm humanity, Gibson’s AI merely seeks sanctuary from its corrupting influence.

Safety from robots or ourselves?

The venerable sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov foresaw the dangers of such technology. He brought his thoughts together in his short-story collection, “I, Robot.”

One of those stories, “Runaround,” introduces “The Three Laws of Robotics,” centered on the directive that intelligent machines may never bring harm to humans. While these rules speak to our desire for safety, they’re laden with irony, as humans have proved incapable of adhering to the same principle for themselves.

The hypocrisies of what might be called humanity’s delusions of superiority suggest the need for deeper questioning.

With some commentators raising the alarm over AI’s imminent capacity for chaos and destruction, I see the real issue being whether humanity has the wherewithal to channel this technology to build a fairer, healthier, more prosperous world.

[bendysinitiation]

I had an idea for a rewrite of bendy a really long time ago, though admittedly it was a lot more lighthearted and comedic and it was before chapter 5. Sammy didn't die after Henry escaped, but instead continued to pursue him through the studio, to the point where they're like rivals in a roadrunner vs coyote cartoon.

Lock him in a cage? Henry picks the lock. Corner him against a boarded up door? Henry climbs the boards like a ladder and escapes anyway. Chase scene? Henry's faster. Barricade him somewhere? He automates a car and makes it ram a wall. Flood the area? Henry shoots the ceiling until something starts falling down, then he uses those things to escape. It gets to the point where Sammy's actually begging Henry to stop fucking escaping... only when he's finally successful in catching Henry, due to circumstances it's literally impossible to sacrifice him. I felt like writing their relationship in this way because I feel as though there wasn't enough of him in the game, and I wanted him to stay relevant even if it didn't change the story that much.

Anyway, I don't really feel like continuting to work on this au anymore, mainly because of the massive story things I'd need to change. You're free to use this idea if you like. Your au looks good!

Hmm I like that idea! I’m not sure if that would exactly work for my au, as Sammy appears in Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 is probably gonna be Henry and the ink demon alone while Henry loses his mind, but I think it could work for someone’s else’s au! I’m a sucker for stupid cartoon stuff though so I’ll def keep it in my noggin. Ty again!

[mariacallous]

The algorithm has won. The most powerful social, video, and shopping platforms have all converged on a philosophy of coddling users in automated recommendations. Whether through Spotify’s personalized playlists, TikTok’s all-knowing For You page, or Amazon’s product suggestions, the internet is hell-bent on micromanaging your online activity.

At the same time, awareness of the potential downsides of this techno-dictatorial approach has never been higher. The US Congress recently probed whether social media algorithms are threatening the well-being of children, and new scholarship and books have focused fresh attention on the broad cultural consequences of letting algorithms curate our feeds. “I do think it reifies a lot of our cultural tastes in a way that at least I find concerning,” says Ryan Stoldt, an assistant professor at Drake University and member of the University of Iowa’s Algorithms and Culture Research Group.

In response to the growing sense of unease surrounding Big Tech’s mysterious recommender systems, digital refuges from the algorithm have begun to emerge. Entrepreneur Tyler Bainbridge is part of a nascent movement attempting to develop less-fraught alternatives to automated recommendations. He’s founder of PI.FYI, a social platform launched in January that hopes to, in Bainbridge’s words, “bring back human curation.”

PI.FYI is born out of Bainbridge’s popular newsletter, Perfectly Imperfect, and a simple conceit: Humans should receive recommendations only from other humans, not machines. Users post recommendations for everything from consumer products to experiences such as “being in love” or “not telling men at bars you study philosophy,” and they also crowdsource answers to questions like “What did you read last week?” or “London dry cleaner?”

Posts on the platform are displayed in chronological order, although users can choose between seeing a feed of content only from friends and a firehose of everything posted to the service. PI.FYI’s homepage offers recommendations from a “hand-curated algorithm”—posts and profiles selected by site administrators and some carefully chosen users.

“People long for the days of not being bombarded by tailored ads everywhere they scroll,” Bainbridge says. PI.FYI’s revenue comes from user subscriptions, which start at $6 a month. While its design evokes an older version of the internet, Bainbridge says he wants to avoid creating an overly nostalgic facade. “This isn't an app built for millennials who made MySpace,” he says, claiming that a significant portion of his user base are from Gen Z.

Spread, a social app currently in closed beta testing, is another attempt to provide a supposedly algorithm-free oasis. “I don't know a single person in my life that doesn't have a toxic relationship with some app on their phone,” says Stuart Rogers, Spread’s cofounder and CEO. “Our vision is that people will be able to actually curate their diets again based on real human recommendations, not what an algorithm deems will be most engaging, therefore also usually enraging,” he says.

On Spread, users can’t create or upload original text or media. Instead, all posts on the platform are links to content from other services, including news articles, songs, and video. Users can tune their chronological feeds by following other users or choosing to see more of a certain type of media.

Brands and bots are barred from Spread, and, like PI.FYI, the platform doesn’t support ads. Instead of working to maximize time-on-site, Rogers’ primary metrics for success will be indicators of “meaningful” human engagement, like when someone clicks on another user's recommendation and later takes action like signing up for a newsletter or subscription. He hopes this will align companies whose content is shared on Spread with the platform’s users. “I think there's a nostalgia for what the original social meant to achieve,” Rogers says.

So you joined a social network without ranking algorithms—is everything good now? Jonathan Stray, a senior scientist at the UC Berkeley Center for Human-Compatible AI, has doubts. “There is now a bunch of research showing that chronological is not necessarily better,” he says, adding that simpler feeds can promote recency bias and enable spam.

Stray doesn’t think social harm is an inevitable outcome of complex algorithmic curation. But he agrees with Rogers that the tech industry’s practice of trying to maximize engagement doesn’t necessarily select for socially desirable results.

Stray suspects the solution to the problem of social media algorithms may in fact be … more algorithms. “The fundamental problem is you've got way too much information for anybody to consume, so you have to reduce it somehow,” he says.

In January, Stray launched the Prosocial Ranking Challenge, a competition with a $60,000 prize fund aiming to spur development of feed-ranking algorithms that prioritize socially desirable outcomes, based on measures of users’ well-being and how informative a feed is. From June through October, five winning algorithms will be tested on Facebook, X, and Reddit using a browser extension.

Until a viable replacement takes off, escaping engagement-seeking algorithms will generally mean going chronological. There’s evidence people are seeking that out beyond niche platforms like PI.FYI and Spread. Group messaging, for example, is commonly used to supplement artificially curated social media feeds. Private chats—threaded by the logic of the clock—can provide a more intimate, less chaotic space to share and discuss gleanings from the algorithmic realm: the trading of jokes, memes, links to videos and articles, and screenshots of social posts.

Disdain for the algorithm could help explain the growing popularity of WhatsApp within the US, which has long been ubiquitous elsewhere. Meta’s messaging app saw a 9 percent increase in daily users in the US last year, according to data from Apptopia reported by The Wrap. Even inside today’s dominant social apps, activity is shifting from public feeds and toward direct messaging, according to Business Insider, where chronology rules.

Group chats might be ad-free and relatively controlled social environments, but they come with their own biases. “If you look at sociology, we've seen a lot of research that shows that people naturally seek out things that don't cause cognitive dissonance,” says Stoldt of Drake University.

While providing a more organic means of compilation, group messaging can still produce echo chambers and other pitfalls associated with complex algorithms. And when the content in your group chat comes from each member’s respective highly personalized algorithmic feed, things can get even more complicated. Despite the flight to algorithm-free spaces, the fight for a perfect information feed is far from over.

[shatouto]

random OC ask: what is an alternate life path your OC might have gone down? how different would their life be if they'd made those decisions instead?

ohohohoho. ohoho. oh boy

i think there are two biggest "branching off timelines" moments in solli's life, at least so far

1. running away with astarion VS staying with cazador

this moment, to be more exact. in the good timeline, solli comes down to the kennel, frees and heals astarion, and runs away with him

if solli hadn't come down to the kennel that night, cazador would keep astarion in there and torture him for another week, maybe even month, however long it takes for astarion to learn his lesson and never even think of approaching solli again. the cazador in my story enjoys making the distinction between his half-vampire heir and the spawn who are beneath him.

then cazador would rethink his approach so far and inject solli's sterile environment with more and more of his lordly venom. he will say that solli is about the right age to really learn, and start to mould solli into a second version of him.

solli is young, obedient and attached. he actually really loves his father, even in the good timeline, never mind here. he has always hung onto cazador's every word. i think once solli gets over the trauma of having to brutally beat astarion who is someone he cares about, the innocent child will truly be gone.

in this timeline solli will become a full-fledged cazador 2.0, and what he lacks in true vampire power he makes up with sadism. he will be an artillerist artificer who also makes torture device on the side (godey hates it; automation might take away his job someday!). he is cazador's second in command, often seen by his side during social gatherings, and he preens in that position. the spawn, especially astarion, hate him a lot. he doesn't care because he thinks they're beneath him

he doesn't know that he's also a sacrificial lamb when the time comes, just a little more special. he might or might not survive cazador's ascension, depending on how it goes

2. convincing astarion not to ascend VS helping astarion ascend

(this will be towards the end of the story so i haven't written it obviously lol)

this fork in the road assumes that solli did previously run away with astarion and was by his side for years before they come back to szarr palace to face cazador (like in the game).

this is basically the ascendant ending but because solli's relationship to astarion is a bit different from tav's, i still wanna talk about it a bit (also bc i've thought about it A Lot)

i think ascended lord astarion would really double down on gloating about having "stolen" cazador's heir. it's kind of sad because it's been years since he stopped thinking of solli as just a trophy and a fuck you to cazador; he's come to love the kid. but, with time, ascension will bring out the worst in him.

he has solli grow his hair out long again (so he looks more like cazador than ever), dresses him up all prettily, and keeps him locked in his beautiful chamber. solli is returned to exactly where he was as a child: a pretty doll in a glass case, to be displayed but never touched. lord astarion treats him pretty much the same way as cazador.

in my lore, solli can't really be turned into anything other than a half-vampire – he can't become a true vampire OR a dark consort. he was born being able to walk in the sun, so in return he can never have anything more than that. as such, astarion grows bored with him after a while and leaves him isolated for longer and longer stretches of time as he finds amusement elsewhere.

i'm ambiguous on whether astarion would torture him for fun at any point in time. it's possible, considering solli can look A Lot like cazador especially if you're like squinting to see that. maybe lord astarion would do it when he's feeling extra vindictive or resentful (or bored), i'm not sure

regardless, solli will just wither away in solitude and eventually die alone

[govindhtech]

Extractive AI vs. Generative AI: Data Extraction & Precision

What Is Extractive AI?

The goal of the natural language processing (NLP) area of extractive AI is to locate and extract important information from pre-existing data sources. Extractive AI is superior at locating and condensing pertinent information from papers, databases, and other structured or unstructured data formats, in contrast to its generative AI cousin, which produces original material.

Consider it a superpowered search engine that can identify the precise lines or sections that address your question in addition to bringing up webpages. Extractive AI is perfect for applications demanding precision, transparency, and control over the extracted information because of its focused approach.

How Does Extractive AI Work?

A variety of NLP approaches are used by extractive AI, including:

Tokenization breaks text into words or phrases.

Named entity recognition (NER) categorizes people, places, and organizations.

Grammatical functions are assigned to phrase words by part-of-speech tagging.

Semantic analysis examines word meaning and relationships.

By using these methods, extractive AI algorithms examine the data, looking for trends and pinpointing the sections that most closely correspond to the user’s request or needed data.

Rise of Extractive AI in the Enterprise

The growing use of extractive AI across a variety of sectors is expected to propel the worldwide market for this technology to $26.8 billion by 2027. Companies are realizing how useful extractive AI is for improving decision-making, expediting procedures, and deriving more profound insights from their data.

The following are some of the main applications of extractive AI that are propelling its use:

Understanding and summarizing papers: Taking important details out of financial data, legal documents, contracts, and customer evaluations.

Enhancing the precision and effectiveness of search queries in business databases and repositories is known as information retrieval and search.

Collecting and evaluating news stories, social media posts, and market data in order to learn about rival tactics is known as competitive intelligence.

Customer care and support: increasing agent productivity, automating frequently asked questions, and evaluating customer feedback.

Finding suspicious behavior and trends in financial transactions and other data sources is the first step in fraud detection and risk management.

Benefits of Extractive AI

Precision Point Extraction

From unstructured data, such as papers, reports, and even social media, extractive AI is excellent at identifying important facts and statistics. Imagine it as a super-powered highlighter that uses laser concentration to find pertinent bits. This guarantees you never overlook an important element and saves you hours of laborious research.

Knowledge Unlocking

Information that has been extracted is knowledge that has yet to be unlocked; it is not only raw data. These fragments may then be analyzed by AI, which will uncover trends, patterns, and insights that were before obscured by the chaos. This gives companies the ability to improve procedures, make data-driven choices, and get a competitive advantage.

Efficiency Unleashed

Time-consuming and monotonous repetitive jobs include data input and document analysis. By automating these procedures, extractive AI frees up human resources for more complex and imaginative thought. Imagine a workplace where your staff members spend more time utilizing information to create and perform well rather of collecting it.

Transparency Triumphs

The logic of extractive AI is transparent and traceable, in contrast to some AI models. You can examine the precise source of the data and the extraction process. This openness fosters confidence and facilitates confirming the veracity of the learned lessons.

Cost Savings Soar

Extractive AI significantly reduces costs by automating processes and using data. A healthy bottom line is a result of simpler procedures, better decision-making, and lower personnel expenses.

Thus, keep in mind the potential of extractive AI the next time you’re overwhelmed with data. obtaining value, efficiency, and insights that may advance your company is more important than just obtaining information.

The Future Of Extractive AI

Extractive AI has made a name for itself in jobs like summarization and search, but it has much more potential. The following are some fascinating areas where extractive AI has the potential to have a big influence:

Answering questions: Creating intelligent assistants that are able to use context awareness and reasoning to provide complicated answers.

Customizing information and suggestions for each user according to their requirements and preferences is known as personalization.

Fact-checking and verification: Automatically detecting and confirming factual assertions in order to combat misinformation and deception.

Constructing and managing linked information bases to aid in thinking and decision-making is known as knowledge graph creation.

Read more on Govindhtech.com

[fishboneart]

Fishbone #010

the human cost rolls downhill

5 source images, 9 layers.

I hate having to write this. I hate that this is a thing that happened to be written about.

In early 2024 a private virtual clinic providing medical care for a vulnerable and underserved patient demographic allegedly replaced 80% of its human staff with machine learning software.

As far as I can find this hasn't been reported on in the media so far and many of the details are currently not public record. I can't confirm how many staff were laid off, how many quit, how many remain, and how many of those are medics vs how many are admin. I can't confirm exact dates or software applications. This uncertainty about key details is why I'm not naming the clinic. I don't want to accidentally do a libel.

I'm not a journalist and ancestors willing researching this post is as close as I'll ever have to get. It's been extremely depressing. The patient testimonials are abundant and harrowing.

What I have been able to confirm is that the clinic has publicly announced they are "embracing AI," and their FAQs state that their "algorithms" assess patients' medical history, create personalised treatment plans, and make recommendations for therapies, tests, and medications. This made me scream out loud in horror.

Exploring the clinic's family of sites I found that they're using Zoho to manage appointment scheduling. I don't know what if any other applications they're using Zoho for, or whether they're using other software alongside it. Zoho provides office, collaboration, and customer relationship management products; things like scheduling, videocalls, document sharing, mail sorting, etc.

The clinic's recent Glassdoor reviews are appalling, and make reference to increased automation, layoffs, and hasty ai implementation.

The patient community have been reporting abnormally high rates of inadequate and inappropriate care since late February/early March, including:

Wrong or incomplete prescriptions

Inability to contact the clinic

Inability to cancel recurring payments

Appointments being cancelled

Staff simply failing to attend appointments

Delayed prescriptions

Wrong or incomplete treatment summaries

Unannounced dosage or medication changes

The clinic's FAQ suggests that this is a temporary disruption while the new automation workflows are implemented, and service should stabilise in a few months as the new workflows come online. Frankly I consider this an unacceptable attitude towards human lives and health. Existing stable workflows should not be abandoned until new ones are fully operational and stable. Ensuring consistent and appropriate care should be the highest priority at all times.

The push to introduce general-use machine learning into specialised areas of medicine is a deadly one. There are a small number of experimental machine learning models that may eventually have limited use in highly specific medical contexts, to my knowledge none are currently commercially available. No commercially available current generation general use machine learning model is suitable or safe for medical use, and it's almost certain none ever will be.

Machine learning simply doesn't have the capacity to parse the nuances of individual health needs. It doesn't have the capacity to understand anything, let alone the complexities of medical care. It amplifies bias and it "hallucinates" and current research indicates there's no way to avoid either. All it will take for patients to die is for a ML model to hallucinate an improper diagnosis or treatment that's rubber stamped by an overworked doctor.

Yet despite the fact that it is not and will never be fit for purpose, general use machine learning has been pushed fait accompli into the medical lives of real patients, in service to profit. Whether the clinic itself or the software developers or both, someone is profiting from this while already underserved and vulnerable patients are further neglected and endangered.

This is inevitable by design. Maximising profit necessitates inserting the product into as many use cases as possible irrespective of appropriateness. If not this underserved patient group, another underserved patient group would have been pressed, unconsenting, into unsupervised experiments in ML medicine--and may still. The fewer options and resources people have, the easier they are to coerce. You can do whatever you want to those who have no alternative but to endure it.

For profit to flow upwards, cost must flow downwards. This isn't an abstract numerical principle it's a deadly material fact. Human beings, not abstractions, bear the cost of the AI bubble. The more marginalised and exploited the human beings, the more of the cost they bear. Overexploited nations bear the burden of mining, manufacture, and pollution for the physical infrastructure to exist, overexploited workers bear the burden of making machine learning function at all (all of which I will write more about another day), and now patients who don't have the option to refuse it bear the burden of its overuse. There have been others. There will be more. If the profit isn't flowing to you, the cost is--or it will soon.

It doesn't have to be like this. It's like this because humans made it this way, we could change it. Indeed, we must if we are to survive.

[accountsend]

B2B Database Contacts: Achieving the Precise Harmony Between Quality and Quantity

In the ever-evolving landscape of B2B sales, the tapestry of effective B2B Lead Generation, targeted Sales Leads, and strategic Business Development is intricately woven with the threads of the B2B Contact Database. This comprehensive article embarks on an exploration to unravel the profound interplay between quality and quantity – the pulse that resonates within B2B Database Leads. Join us on this journey as we traverse the pathways, strategies, and insights that guide you towards mastering the equilibrium, steering your Sales Prospecting initiatives towards finesse and success.

DOWNLOAD THE INFOGRAPHIC HERE

The Essence of Quality

Quality emerges as the cornerstone in the realm of B2B Lead Generation, encapsulating the essence of depth, precision, and pertinence that envelops the contact data nestled within the B2B Contact Database. These quality leads, much like jewels in a treasure trove, possess the capacity to metamorphose into valuable clients, etching a definitive impact on your revenue stream. Every contact entry isn't a mere data point; it's a capsule that encapsulates an individual's journey – their role, industry, buying tendencies, and distinctive preferences. Cultivating a repository of such high-caliber contacts is akin to nurturing a reservoir of prospects, where each interaction holds the promise of meaningful outcomes.

Deciphering the Role of Quantity

Yet, even in the pursuit of quality, quantity emerges as a steadfast ally. Quantity embodies the expanse of contacts that populate your B2B Database Leads. Imagine casting a net wide enough to enfold diverse prospects, broadening your scope of engagement. A higher count of contacts translates to an amplified potential for interaction, heightening the probability of uncovering those latent prospects whose untapped potential can blossom into prosperous business alliances. However, it's imperative to acknowledge that quantity, devoid of quality, risks transforming into an exercise in futility – a drain on resources without yielding substantial outcomes.

Quality vs. Quantity: The Artful Balancing Act

In the fervor of database compilation, the allure of sheer quantity can occasionally overshadow the crux of strategic B2B Sales and Sales Prospecting. An extensive, indiscriminate list of contacts can rapidly devolve into a resource drain, sapping efforts and diluting the efficacy of your marketing endeavors. Conversely, an overemphasis on quality might inadvertently curtail your outreach, constraining the potential for growth. The true artistry lies in achieving a symphony – a realization that true success unfolds from the harmonious interaction of quality and quantity.

Navigating the Equilibrium

This path towards equilibrium demands a continual commitment to vigilance and meticulous recalibration. Consistent audits of your B2B Contact Database serve as the bedrock for maintaining data that is not only up-to-date but also actionable. Removing outdated, duplicated, or erroneous entries becomes a proactive stride towards upholding quality. Simultaneously, infusing your database with fresh, relevant contacts injects vibrancy into your outreach endeavors, widening the avenues for engagement and exploration.

Harnessing Technology for Exemplary Data Management

In this era of technological prowess, an array of tools stands ready to facilitate the intricate choreography between quality and quantity. Step forward Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software – an invaluable ally empowered with features such as data validation, deduplication, and enrichment. Automation, the pinnacle of technological innovation, elevates database management to unparalleled heights of precision, scalability, and efficiency. Embracing these technological marvels forms the bedrock of your B2B Sales and Business Development strategies.

Collaborating with Esteemed B2B Data Providers

In your pursuit of B2B Database Leads, consider forging collaborations with esteemed B2B data providers. These seasoned professionals unlock a treasure trove of verified leads, tailor-made solutions for niche industries, and a portal to global business expansion. By tapping into their expertise, you merge the realms of quality and quantity, securing a comprehensive toolkit poised to reshape your sales landscape.

As we draw the curtains on this exploration, remember that the compass steering your B2B Sales, Sales Prospecting, and Business Development endeavors is calibrated by the delicate interplay of quality and quantity. A B2B Contact Database enriched with high-value leads, accompanied by a robust quantity, stands as the axis upon which your strategic maneuvers pivot. Equipped with insights, tools, and allies like AccountSend, your pursuit to strike this harmonious equilibrium transforms into an enlightening journey that propels your business towards enduring growth and undeniable success.

[lunar-afterglow]

Well, this sucks

I really hate how Onlyfans as a platform works. It makes it so much more difficult to do something as simple as just buying porn.

I tried buying a video from someone but they didn't have a menu, so I just gave them a description of what I wanted, and they sent me an unlockable 30$ US (50$ CAD) message. Only it turned out it only fit 2/5 parameters I asked for (Joi, light degradation) vs. (not addressed to a male viewer, including masturbation, clown makeup). Worst of all though, the video was pretty much entirely small penis humiliation? Which like, not only was it not what I asked for, but actively turns me off.

I feel like especially with specific kinks like that there really should be more transparency with what's in a video someone's paying 50$ for.

Ultimately I don't rlly blame the content creator all that much, I feel like it's more a failing of the platform that makes it so people would have to do extra work to create and update a menu of content, as well as often having to do all this through texts. Instead prioritizing weird para social relationships.

(As an aside the amount of creators that use words like "baby" in messages just about buying videos, or even automated messages, is kinda gross. I don't know you, don't just start calling me "baby")

[humanmorph]

C/W 06-09 thoughts : ]

Boy this took me a bit!!! I made the post for the first set of episodes on August 12. I said then I should take more notes while listening, & I think I in fact took LESS notes. edit: and wrote... more??? ok.whatever

Summary (short)

There's a food crisis. Orth gets kidnapped! The Chime gets an automated message to find him and they track him down to some train tracks where the train Orth was on (with a food delivery) got derailed. They get in a really long fight some people from a group called the Iron Choir (they have Orth!) and also some Apostolosians (only really due to bad phrasing on AuDy's part) . And then don't really win but do get away with Orth, so everything's fine I guess?

(more on faction game down below. too much happens in those to summarize here.)

Ground Game

This is the second (and last!) arc they play using MechNoir. I only just started the episode where they switch the characters over to The Sprawl, and I'm counting that towards the next bunch of episodes rather than this one... Anyways, this arc is like a good argument for that switch. It kind of stands out as a "oh they switch after this, right?" thing now. BUT!

The fight was honestly not as much of a slog as I remembered. Like they've done wayyy better fights since ofc especially with mechs (for me personally PZN is still the standout but PAL has had some Good Shit too) but this is like. It's ok! There's fun bits! I like Aria's mech! Part of it might absolutely be that I like. Give a fuck about mechs now and as a result am able to also imagine them better. I think in 2021, when I first listened, I was like. I guess there's Big Robots. Like transformers? (isn't even familiar with transformers) (really doesn't have a touchpoint for this at all)

I liked the snooping around bit before they got to this 2 episode long fight. I already mentioned it in an earlier post briefly, but we learn some minor details about Orth (they are looking through his office), that now really delight me because I love Orth! But when I first listened I don't think I cared very much at all about him at this point. This time around, his and AuDy's relationship intrigues me expecially with how Jack has been playing them.

Player character update...: AuDy is still my favourite. I still don't quite know what to do with Cass, but maybe I'll get there soon? Mako's funny. Though, and I thought I posted about this? But I can't find it now, an arc this episode also brings the morality of fogging robots onscreen for a bit. AuDy's upset by it. I think the notion of the robot he fogs getting more sentient is interesting...? Expecially if you draw a connection to what gives Mako the ability to do it in the first place. ... I won't say more here because I'm not actually sure but it's definitly running via Rightenousness a little bit, right? No clue if those facts are actually connected or not though. Uhm. I like Aria : ). Not many notes there so far, pretty much just the same stuff I said last time (I'm paying more attention to her where I feel like I hadn't as much on my first listen due to Ali being a little more reserved as a player this early on).

Further up I already talked about the switch to The Sprawl & I know the reasons and agree. however. I do think it's fun when they come up with adjectives, even if it messed with the pacing a bit because it took some time to do well. There's still a bit of this with other games they play later, too, like naming risks in Armor Astir or... whatever it was called to take something in Scum & Villainy (I recently relistened to the bit where Gig gets crushed and blown up and is VERY upset by it. It's still very funny).

Another thing I'm noticing more is that I'm occasionally a bit wonky on the factions, even super major ones ( OriCon vs. the Diaspora). I think it's because I didn't listen to the worldbuilding ep... I remember it having pretty rough audio (though probably not worse than that epispde of AiH where you couldn't hear Art at all), and also I skipped it back when I first listened, too (I'd bounced off before. I feel like I've mentioned this). It made some stuff in these episodes a bit hard to keep track of, expecially talking about the food crisis, and who is affected, and who is blamed, etc. (& I very much enjoyed all that! Like oh! We're getting into it now! Space factions and their politics and their effect on the world our characters move in! This rules. Friends at the Table rules)

Faction Game

Sylvi is so ON it with the faction game it's crazy. The other day while listening I remembered this was her first season on the show, like... damn!!! Just a ton of great ideas. It's really fun seeing them all be so enthusiastic about this.

Really good and fun faction game. I'm enjoying these a ton. A lot of my favourite scenes (or very memorable ones) from my first listen is faction game stuff, so I knew I'd like it, but I'm like REALLY really enjoying it. I've already said this in my other post, but I'm pretty sure it's due to the fact I can pay attention better & parse information.

It's a real big one too with a ton stuff getting set up. RIGOUR, Ibex, the Hands of Grace (hi Vicuna), some first September Institute stuff (like how fogging works!), and Loyalty gets introduced in that episode (hi Kobus, also). A lot of Divines, really! I'll get to this very big and important thing first: Rigour getting dug up!!! I totally didn't remember Austin immediately namedrops it at the end of the episode, lol. That probably wouldn't happen now, but these early seasons are more. informal? just less produced? And I really don't dislike it, it's simply a different vibe. And I'm liking it. (The rough-ish audio is also part of it IMO. Love to hear the static white noise if a mediocre mic under their voices.) I do still really like that scene though. Very effective. The image of a worker getting out of his mech to dig the last bit with his hands... It's good shit. Also just. RIGOUR. It maybe even hits more this second time around, because I know just What has been uncovered here and the consequences it will have.

Another is Ibex getting introduced! Hi!!!! : ) Apparently he's something called a "seductress" (or well. seductor) in the games rules, which I extremely forgot and made me laugh when I heard it. And then they proceed to come up with pretty much his whole deal, which Austin's performance is gonna finetune & shape more later on. I'm just excited! I like this guy! (Something I'm trying to do more this time around is take notes to look stuff up later, like what animals the Candidates are named after. I didn't do this for Ibex until sometime last year! Cool animal.)

This faction game also has the first appearance of Diego Rose who I have in mind as sort of Sylvi's special little guy? He's a pretty important guy in the faction that she plays, so I'm just gonna assume he'll show up way more in the future. But really I just loved that scene of him offering a prisoner they took after he shot their ships down to join the Odama Fleet while also threatening him. And he's soooo cunty about it it's so funny to me. Great job.

Tacking this on the end here: I had to look up the summary on the fatt.wiki because it's really been a while since I started this ep vs. finishing it, and this is like the first scene they play through. (The new season got in the way...!) But yeah this episode also has Grace's first real major appearance (& her Candidates, Vicuna). And it's a great scene! I think it's the first Divine onscreen? And showing one's influence on people ("People in the crowd, some of them begin crying and wailing. It is a religious experience for many."). It's good shit!!! I love Divines!!! They've never stopped being cool as fuck as a concept and there really wasn't a point when they weren't. It's just SO good and it'll only ever get pushed further and in even more interesting directions. And it's nice to be back here, at the start.

????

This is neither here nor there. Not anywhere really. But at some point Jack says "no that's undertale" (I didn't note down what about.) %& it really threw me for some reason like ik the years match up. But I just have C/W in mind as like... ages ago... (it was) and Undertale. Is Undertale. /I/ played Undertale! And that wasn't ages ago (lie) (it was)! Like I was probably playing Undertale when they made this season! Strange to think about.

Grace's arrival(?)

I want to try and draw a little image for each of these sets (though this one took me a bit longer than I would've liked). Here's Grace('s feet, because she's so big) and the sculpture park on Gemm

I'm not actually sure why (I don't think it gets mentioned in the episode???) but I've always imagined that planet (Gemm) as like, really foggy. Maybe because fog + ruined statue park looks really cool? + Graces light through the fog? Yeah, I don't know. The park is also empty here, when of course there's a whole parade and stuff in the episode, but this is just an image (an approximation of it.) I have in my head...

[webcoatings]

Digital Marketing vs. Performance Marketing in 2025: What's Right for Your Brand?

What is Digital Marketing in 2025?

Digital Marketing is the umbrella term for all online marketing efforts. It includes:

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Social Media Marketing

Email Marketing

Content Marketing

Influencer Marketing

PPC Ads

Video Marketing

In 2025, digital marketing has become even more data-driven, personalized, and omnichannel. With the integration of AI, automation tools, and advanced analytics, digital marketing now focuses on building long-term customer relationships, enhancing brand presence, and delivering meaningful experiences.

Key Goal: Build brand awareness, educate, and nurture audiences over time.

What is Performance Marketing in 2025?

Performance Marketing is a subset of digital marketing focused solely on measurable results — such as clicks, leads, sales, or app installs. The model is ROI-based, meaning brands only pay for specific actions taken by users.

In 2025, performance marketing has grown significantly due to the increased availability of real-time analytics, AI-powered ad bidding, and hyper-targeted audience segmentation.

Popular performance marketing channels include:

Google Ads (Search & Display)

Meta Ads (Facebook & Instagram)

Affiliate Marketing

Native Advertising

Programmatic Advertising

Key Goal: Drive direct, measurable conversions through paid media.

[sandratho54]

Driving Success: Why Every Car Dealer Needs the Right Software (Even Free Options!)

In the fast-paced world of car sales, managing inventory, tracking leads, handling finances, and ensuring customer satisfaction can feel like juggling too many balls. That’s where auto dealer software comes in, acting as your dealership’s central nervous system. These powerful tools streamline operations, boost efficiency, and ultimately, help you sell more cars.

What is Auto Dealer Software?

At its core, car dealership software is designed to centralize and automate the many facets of running a successful dealership. This includes:

Inventory Management: Keeping real-time track of every vehicle on your lot, from new arrivals to sold units, with detailed information, photos, and pricing.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Managing leads, tracking customer interactions, scheduling follow-ups, and building lasting relationships.

Sales and F&I (Finance & Insurance): Streamlining the sales process, calculating deals, managing financing options, and generating necessary paperwork.

Service and Parts Management: For dealerships with service departments, this includes scheduling appointments, tracking repairs, managing parts inventory, and generating invoices.

Reporting and Analytics: Providing valuable insights into sales performance, inventory turnover, customer trends, and overall profitability.

By integrating these functions into a single system, auto dealer software significantly reduces manual tasks, minimizes errors, and allows your team to focus on what they do best: selling cars and serving customers.

The Quest for the Best Free DMS for Small Car Dealers

For smaller dealerships or those just starting out, investing in a full-fledged, expensive Dealer Management System (DMS) might seem daunting. This is where the concept of free software for car dealership becomes incredibly appealing. While a truly “free” DMS with all the bells and whistles of a paid solution might be hard to find, there are often excellent free versions or trials that can provide a significant boost.

Many software providers offer freemium models, where a basic version with core functionalities is free, and advanced features or increased capacity come with a subscription. These can be a fantastic starting point for small dealers to:

Organize their inventory: Get a handle on what cars they have, their details, and where they are located.

Manage customer leads: Keep track of inquiries and follow-up effectively.

Generate basic reports: Understand their sales performance at a glance.

While these free options may have limitations in terms of features, integrations, or the number of vehicles you can manage, they provide invaluable experience with a DMS and help identify specific needs before committing to a paid solution.

Free vs. Paid: Making the Right Choice

When considering free DMS for small car dealers versus paid options, it’s crucial to weigh the benefits against the limitations:

Free Software:

Pros: Cost-effective, low barrier to entry, good for basic operations, helps familiarize staff with DMS concepts.

Cons: Limited features, potential for scalability issues, less robust support, fewer integrations with third-party tools.

Paid Software:

Pros: Comprehensive feature sets, advanced analytics, seamless integrations (e.g., with accounting software like QuickBooks), dedicated customer support, scalability for growth, enhanced security.

Cons: Higher initial investment and ongoing subscription costs.

Ultimately, the best choice depends on the size and specific needs of your dealership. For small, independent dealers, a free or freemium option can be a game-changer for initial organization and efficiency. As your business grows and your needs become more complex, transitioning to a paid, more comprehensive auto dealer software will likely become a necessary and beneficial investment to sustain and accelerate your success.

[clinthora]

Title: How to Build a Sales Process with B2B sales CRM: 7 Steps to Close More Deals with Confidence

A well-defined sales process is like a reliable GPS for your sales team. Without it, even the most talented salespeople can get lost in follow-ups, miss opportunities, or let potential deals slip through the cracks. Today, many sales teams are using advanced sales CRM tools to structure and guide every stage of this journey—from initial research and prospecting to closing the deal and nurturing long-term customer relationships.

In dynamic markets like the UAE, where speed and personalisation are everything, leveraging a CRM for sales teams or a customisable CRM system ensures that your process is both consistent and flexible enough to match modern buyer expectations. In these fast-moving environments, B2B sales CRM platforms play a crucial role in managing data, automating tasks, and giving your team an edge in competitive industries.

What is a sales process?

A sales process is a structured set of steps that a salesperson follows to turn a potential customer into a paying one. It typically includes seven core stages, beginning with understanding the product and ending with building long-term relationships post-sale. When paired with an intelligent B2B sales CRM, this process becomes streamlined and far more effective, allowing reps to stay on track, respond quickly to buyer signals, and build trust through timely follow-ups. A structured process also makes onboarding new sales reps easier by giving them a clear roadmap to success.

Sales Process vs. Sales Methodology

It’s easy to confuse the sales process with sales methodology, but they’re not the same. Think of the sales process as the framework—the "what"—and the methodology as the strategy—the "how." While the sales process defines the stages a deal moves through, the sales methodology focuses on the techniques and approaches used within each stage. When the two align and are supported by the best CRM integration solutions in UAE, your sales team becomes much more effective. Combining these elements with CRM-driven data helps sales teams make smart, informed decisions based on real behaviour and trends.

Why Does a Sales Process Matter?

Having a structured sales process provides clarity and consistency. It helps sales reps move leads through the pipeline with confidence and ensures that the buyer’s experience is smooth and well-paced. When done right, the process improves win rates, reduces guesswork, and makes it easier to identify roadblocks. More importantly, it gives insights into why deals are won or lost and enables teams to refine their strategy. With an intelligent sales CRM, you can also see exactly where leads are dropping off and take immediate action. Plus, data from your CRM can help in refining sales playbooks and improving overall performance.

Step 1: Build Product Knowledge

Before engaging with any prospect, reps need to understand the product or service inside out. This includes technical features, use cases, pricing models, customer testimonials, and common objections. Great sales reps often shadow product teams, go through customer feedback, and attend demo sessions to gain real-world knowledge. A CRM for sales teams can store product documentation, feature updates, and success stories for easy access, helping every rep present with confidence. With deeper product understanding, reps build credibility, which is critical in high-value B2B sales.

Step 2: Create a Buyer Persona

Understanding your ideal customer is essential. A buyer persona includes demographic details, behaviour patterns, pain points, and goals. Many modern customisable CRM systems can help you segment leads and identify common traits among your best customers. This enables more targeted prospecting and tailored communication that resonates. In markets like the UAE, where customer preferences can be highly specific, these insights are invaluable. Knowing who you’re talking to helps craft messaging that connects, which significantly increases your chances of conversion.

Step 3: Prospecting

Finding the right prospects is both an art and a science. Sales reps often use LinkedIn, niche forums, and networking events to identify leads. Your sales CRM should support you with tools like lead enrichment, contact tracking, and AI recommendations based on buyer behavior. Integrated marketing campaigns can also bring inbound prospects into your funnel. The more accurate and filtered your list, the better your results. With real-time data and integrated prospecting tools, your sales team can focus on the highest-value opportunities without wasting time.

Step 4: Lead Qualification and Discovery

Not every lead is worth pursuing. Qualification helps determine whether a prospect has the budget, authority, need, and timeline to buy. Discovery calls go deeper, uncovering emotional drivers, challenges, and expectations. With a B2B sales CRM, all of this information can be logged and used to personalize future interactions. The more context you have, the more relevant your pitch becomes. Reps can also use CRM-triggered tasks to follow up on discovery questions, ensuring no detail is missed.

Step 5: Make Your Sales Pitch

Your pitch should focus on solving the customer’s problem, not just listing product features. Tailor each presentation to the lead’s specific needs and clearly show how your offering creates value. A well-configured Sales CRM can help you pull relevant case studies, testimonials, and content during the pitch. It also reminds you of past interactions so you can personalize the conversation further. Reps can use this history to anticipate questions and demonstrate deep understanding of the client’s pain points.

Step 6: Negotiation and Closing

As leads near the bottom of the funnel, they often raise concerns or ask for more information. This is where negotiation happens. Address objections with empathy and facts. Use your customizable CRM system to automate follow-ups, send pricing documents, and even trigger discount approvals. E-signature integration can speed up contract signing, helping close deals faster. Some advanced CRM tools also include AI-driven closing suggestions, helping reps understand when and how to push for commitment without being pushy.

Step 7: Nurture the Relationship and Upsell

Closing the deal is not the end—it’s the beginning of a longer relationship. Continue to check in with your new customer. Offer support, answer questions, and introduce additional products or services they might find helpful. The best CRM integration solutions in UAE help you automate post-sale touchpoints and track satisfaction over time, making upselling and referral generation much easier. A strong post-sale experience not only drives additional revenue but turns customers into advocates.

Final Thoughts: Let Sales CRM Power Your Process

A solid sales process, backed by a modern sales CRM, is your team’s secret weapon. It transforms chaos into order, guesswork into insights, and one-time buyers into loyal customers. Whether you’re running a local team or managing international accounts, using a CRM for sales teams gives you structure, speed, and a strategic edge.

For sales teams in the UAE and beyond, combining clear steps with a customisable CRM system not only increases efficiency but builds trust with every interaction. The end result? More deals closed, stronger relationships, and lasting success. With the right B2B sales CRM in place, your team is equipped to handle every challenge and seize every opportunity.

Meta Title: How to Build a Sales Process with Sales CRM | 7 Key Steps to Win More Deals

Meta Description: Learn how to create a winning sales process with Sales CRM. Follow seven strategic steps and use the best CRM integration solutions in UAE to close deals faster.

Focus Keyword: Sales CRM LSI Keywords: CRM for sales teams, B2B sales CRM, customizable CRM system, best CRM integration solutions UAE

[qqyouci]

Durability and Material Choices for Custom Packaging Boxes

The Critical Role of Material Selection in Packaging Longevity Industrial buyers prioritizing protective packaging solutions must evaluate materials through the lens of supply chain realities. The relationship between substrate composition and container resilience directly impacts product safety during transcontinental shipping, warehouse storage cycles, and last-mile delivery challenges. Corrugated fiberboard remains the cornerstone for balance between structural integrity and weight optimization, with flute configurations (B-flute vs E-flute) offering customizable compression resistance. For electronics or precision instruments, rigid paperboard with laminated coatings provides anti-static protection while maintaining recyclability – a key consideration as global e-waste regulations tighten.

Balancing Cost and Performance in Protective Packaging Procurement teams increasingly demand packaging that withstands ISTA 3A testing protocols without inflating per-unit costs. Advanced kraft paper blends now incorporate hemp fibers to achieve 22% greater tear resistance compared to standard options, enabling thinner material profiles that reduce shipping weight. Injection-molded pulp packaging emerges as a cost-competitive alternative for fragile items, absorbing 34% more impact energy than expanded polystyrene (EPS) according to ASTM D4169 testing. Forward-thinking manufacturers now offer hybrid solutions pairing recycled PET internal cushioning with corrugated exteriors, achieving 18% better damage protection than traditional double-wall boxes at comparable price points.

Packaging Boxes

Environmental Compliance Meets Structural Requirements The convergence of circular economy mandates and packaging performance needs drives innovation in plant-based polymers and cellulose nanocomposites. Water-based barrier coatings now replace traditional polyethylene laminates, enabling 100% curbside-recyclable moisture-resistant boxes – a critical advantage for perishables shipping. Mushroom-based mycelium packaging, while currently niche, demonstrates comparable compressive strength to polypropylene containers in controlled humidity environments. Industrial buyers should prioritize suppliers offering life cycle assessment (LCA) documentation to validate sustainability claims against mechanical performance metrics.

Climate-Specific Material Engineering Strategies Globalized distribution networks require packaging solutions adaptable to diverse climatic conditions. For high-humidity corridors, silica gel-infused paperboard maintains 92% dry strength retention after 72-hour humidity chamber testing (ASTM E104). Arctic shipping routes benefit from ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) foam laminates that retain flexibility at -40°C, preventing brittle fracture risks. Pharmaceutical companies now adopt phase-change material (PCM) inserts in corrugated boxes, maintaining 2-8°C temperature ranges for 96+ hours without external refrigeration – a breakthrough validated through WHO PQS certification protocols.

Optimizing Packaging for Automated Logistics Systems The rise of robotic warehouse systems demands packaging materials with consistent friction coefficients and edge crush resistance. Corrugated boxes treated with nano-ceramic coatings demonstrate 40% better conveyor belt compatibility compared to standard finishes, reducing jams in high-speed sorting facilities. Anti-abrasion varnishes now protect offset-printed surfaces from scuffing during automated palletizing, maintaining brand presentation through extended supply chains. Advanced die-cutting technologies enable precise ventilation patterns in storage boxes, preventing condensation buildup during temperature-controlled海运运输 while meeting automated handling system requirements.

Future-Proofing Packaging Investments Strategic material selection now incorporates predictive analytics for evolving regulatory landscapes and consumer trends. Conductive graphene inks embedded in packaging surfaces enable real-time shock monitoring through IoT integration, providing logistics teams with actionable data to improve handling practices. Self-healing polymer coatings under development promise to automatically repair surface abrasions during transit, potentially extending container reuse cycles by 300%. Forward-looking procurement specialists are partnering with material engineers to develop adaptive packaging systems that learn from supply chain stressors, ensuring long-term ROI as market conditions evolve.