Spiceworks using AI to matchmake customers and partners

Spiceworks is introducing fresh artificial intelligence (AI)-based technology to match up IT providers with potential customers.

Unveiled at its annual user conference SpiceWorld 2018 in Austin, the firm said it wants to create a dedicated IT marketplace that directly connects tech buyers and sellers within the $3 trillion IT industry.

“It’s an evolution of the platform we have today, but we’re changing up how it gets powered. We’re moving into something that can take advantage of the scale we have, though things like applied artificial intelligence,” Nicole Tanzillo, vice president of business operations at Spiceworks, told Microscope.

Currently nearly 20 million IT pros and MSPs visit the Spiceworks community-based platform every quarter. Now the company is seeking to capture users’ behavioural data to better match them with the right products and service providers.

“We see a ton of potential benefit to service that IT provider industry in a way that we haven’t previously because we’re going to understand so much more about what’s going on and make those direct connections – whether the service provider needs an answer, and we can connect them with the right people, or connect them with people that can leverage their services,” said Tanzillo.

Spiceworks said tech buyers and sellers “need a new approach” to making better decisions and driving their businesses forward.

“We’re building the first community-powered marketplace for the IT industry, one that couples unique first-party data and pervasive intelligence to directly connect technology buyers and sellers with the resources they need in any given moment,” said Jay Hallberg, CEO and co-founder of Spiceworks, in a statement.

The updated platform uses AI to analyse billions of data signals from interactions across Spiceworks, including community discussions, how-tos, learning modules, product reviews, and a suite of IT management tools. Its ‘intent segments’ capability can determine which users are in an active buying cycle and can connect tech buyers and sellers.

“They might be actually in an act of buying cycle or they may need help either purchasing or implementing or maintaining a solution and so we can then start creating experiences over here that directly connect [MSPs and customers],” Tanzillo.

Tanzillo said she hoped the platform would evolve to matchmake customers with IT based on their tech stack and their IT needs. “That’s the dream,” she said.

“We can ideally match them up right there in that moment and say, ‘hey here’s one, two or three service providers that are in your area or that serve nationally that we think will be a really good fit.’”