Smart Account Assist Overview

Objective

The purpose of this article is to provide information about Smart Account Assist, a feature tailored to assist in identifying account risks and opportunities, determining next steps, and gaining insights into recent activities.

Applies To

• Outreach User
• Outreach Admin

Notes

• Smart Account Assist currently utilizes the transcripts of the last 80 meetings/calls and the latest 500 emails for analysis. Please note that access to meeting data depends on appropriate licensing that enables Kaia meeting capabilities for customers.
• Smart Account Assist (similarly to Smart Deal Assist) uses artificial intelligence to review and summarize account activities. Chats remain private to each user, and results can be verified using the ‘thumbs-down’ feedback button to let us know when a response misses the mark. 

Overview

Smart Account Assist offers an AI-generated summary of recent account activities, along with answers to critical questions such as "What are the potential risks?" or "What are the next steps?" This tool empowers sales representatives and managers to proactively pinpoint account risks and opportunities, determine the appropriate next steps, and gain insights into recent developments.

Much like the Smart Deal Assist feature, Smart Account Assist operates at the account level, providing comprehensive insights tailored to individual account management needs.

Smart Account Assist consists of two parts: Q&A chat and AI-generated summary which is available on the activity timeline. 

Currently, responses to posted questions or the generation of summaries rely on data derived from the transcripts of the 80 most recent meetings/calls and the analysis of the latest 500 emails.

Note that access to meeting data is contingent upon the appropriate licensing that enables Kaia meeting capabilities for customers.

AI-generated summary

This concise summary, generated by AI, provides an overview of recent account activities. It focuses on key takeaways and agreed-upon next steps, offering valuable insights at a glance.

Users, who have Account Assist enabled for them, will be able to see the AI-generated summary as part of the Engagement Activity timeline tile, which is refreshed daily. If Account Assist is unable to provide a response, the AI-generated summary will not be displayed on the UI.

Q&A chat

The Q&A experience presents users with a curated list of relevant questions tailored to the account-based selling process. Additionally, users have the option to ask 'free-form' questions. This capability relies on advanced machine learning, and accuracy will continue to improve over time. 

Chat window assists users with Outreach defined pre-set questions which are most relevant to users engaging with account-related tasks.

The following primary scenarios were taken into account for finalizing the preset questions:

• Identifying the account’s current state: Quickly identify risk factors or business challenges to determine the best next steps. 
• Preparing for the next meeting: Review and ask questions to remind key follow-ups, action items, or questions asked from previous meetings or emails.
• 1:1 Rep/Manager Account review meeting: Spend 1:1 more efficiently by getting key insights on the account faster. Skim through the summary of recent activities and ask clarifying questions.
• Account hand-off: Newly assigned reps can ramp up on the account faster with quick summaries and the ability to ask questions.

Preset questions:

1. What specific challenges or pain points is the account experiencing today and have they tried to solve this problem before?
2. What are the desired outcomes or business goals the account aims to achieve?
3. What are the biggest objections or concerns raised so far?
4. What are the major risks for the account?
5. What are the risks for account renewal?
6. What alternative solutions is the buyer considering?
7. What’s the buying process and timeline for the account?
8. What are the factors that influence the buyer’s decision process?
9. What are the key takeaways and next steps agreed?

User flow

Users have two options for interacting with the chat window: they can either click on one of the questions displayed, or they can type directly into the input area.

When a user clicks directly on a question, the question is automatically sent into the chat window. 

Once sent, the user has asked their question, and they can expect the answer to appear in the chat window within 3-5 seconds. 

Deep links to Kaia meetings and emails

The system searches for the answer across past activities - currently the last 10 meetings and 80 emails. Multiple meetings and emails may be analyzed and referenced before generating a smart response. To provide users with further context, deep links are offered under the "Links" section.

Deep Links to Kaia Meetings [1]:

Clicking on a deep link to a Kaia meeting opens a new tab, directing users to the specific timestamps mentioned in the response. This feature not only allows managers to verify the answer but also provides additional context by allowing them to explore the discussion before and after the referenced point.

Deep Links to Email Threads [2]:

Deep links to email threads enable users to view the referenced emails associated with the topic of the question. This allows users to gain a deeper understanding of the context surrounding the answer.

Vote to indicate helpfulness of the answer

Users have options to thumbs up or thumbs down the response to indicate its helpfulness. These indications are collected  to refine Outreach’s ML model. 

Procedure

Users

To access the Smart Account Assist feature, navigate to the Account detail page and locate the "Assist" button on the top toolbar.

Clicking on this button will open a chat window with predefined questions that users can ask.
Note: Admins have to enable Smart Account Assist for the users in order to access it.

Admins

Smart Account Assist is initially disabled at both the organization and user levels. To activate this feature, admins must first enable it at the organization level. Once enabled at the org level, all users will gain access to Smart Account Assist.

Note: when Smart Account Assist is enabled for the org, Outreach will process and use only the last 3 months of activities, and then will continue to process new activities daily.

Admins have the capability to manage individual user access through Governance Profiles. Within the Account section of Governance Profiles, administrators can disable Smart Account Assist for specific users by toggling a checkbox.

Enable Smart Account Assist on org level:

1. Access the Outreach Platform. 
2. Go to Administration settings (gear icon in the bottom left corner of the navigation sidebar)
3. Click Org info under the Organization section in the Settings panel.
4. Click on the Gen AI tab in the Organization settings.
5. Enable Smart Account Assist for the org using the toggle button.

Enable or disable Smart Account Assist on user level (through Profiles):

1. In the Administration settings, click Profiles under the “Users and permissions” section in the Settings panel. 
2. Click the applicable profile.
3. Scroll down to the “GenAI features” section.
4. Check or uncheck the checkbox “Can access Smart Account Assist”.

A. Period filters with extended coverage

• Assist now supports up to 80 calls and 500 emails — this expanded scope ensures you never miss context when looking at long histories.
• Choose from preset filter options like Last 7 days, Last 30 days, Last 90 days, Last 365 days, Last 7 days prior to last conversation, Last 30 days prior to last conversation, Last 90 days prior to last conversation, Last 365 days prior to last conversation with a Custom Range.
  • Default filter: All time (80 calls + 500 emails).
• Filters are sticky across all Assist screens (Home page, Account Assist, Side Panel and Slide outs of Account/Prospects), so your selections persist when you return.
• Email and call timestamps will now be shown in both the Assist view and the citations email popup.

Impact:

• More data from up to 80 calls and 500 emails means less chance of missing key interactions.
• Time-filters let you narrow the view to a specific period.
• The same filter stays applied as you move across different screens, so you stay focused.
• Users can clearly see when each email or call happened in the Assist citations, which helps them judge how fresh or relevant the information is.

B. Seller vs Buyer Context

• Assist can now distinguish between seller and buyer in calls, meetings, and emails.
  • This ensures responses pull from what the customer (buyer) is saying, when the question is around the buyer’s perspective
• When users ask questions like “What factors influence the buyer’s decision?” or “What alternative is buyer considering?”, Assist automatically focuses on buyer-tagged content.
• Even if the user doesn’t specify “buyer,” Assist will infer it from context for buyer/seller specific questions.

Impact:

• Enhanced ability to derive meaningful insights from the buyer’s perspective
• Improved relevance of responses to buyer/seller queries, by filtering out extraneous information

C. Assist available across multiple key surface areas

• Account Assist is now available across multiple key surfaces: the Home page, Browser extensions, Record detail view (in the side panels of Accounts/Prospects), Slide outs on the list view of Accounts/Prospects
• Users will be able to access Assist directly from the side panels of Accounts and Prospects.
• Context stays intact: no need to navigate away from your workflow to get insights.

Impact:

• Assist is more accessible now across the platform, so users spend less time switching screens.
• When users execute the tasks, they can choose to have prospect overview defaulted and use assist directly from there.

Please note that only admins have the authority to enable or disable this feature.

Frequently Asked Questions

General FAQ

1. What AI technology does the Smart Account Assist feature use?

We are currently using Azure OpenAI services from Microsoft - to create embeddings based on account’s activity data that would help to generate responses to the questions using generative AI technology. With Azure OpenAI, customers get the security capabilities of Microsoft Azure while running the same models as OpenAI. Assist now runs on GPT-4o

2. The Assist button does not show up on my Account page

Make sure your Admin enabled this feature for you.

3. What data does Smart Account Assist use to generate the responses?

Smart Account Assist uses up to 80 last meetings/calls and 500 emails to generate the response. Customers without a Kaia meeting license will only have access to email data (up to 80 emails). No meetings — voice or video — will be used for Account assist generation.

4. Is Smart Account Assist available only in English?

Smart Account Assist uses Large Language Models (LLMs) which are designed and tested to understand and generate text in English. The LLM models support other languages and will be able to generate results in different languages, however, the accuracy and quality of other languages is not guaranteed in the initial scope. 

5. How much data will Outreach backfill from the moment Smart Account Assist is enabled? 

From the moment admin enabled Account Assist for the org, Outreach will backfill and generate embeddings for activity data (meetings, calls, emails) records starting from the enabled date. Then new activities will be processed daily. 

6. How long will it take to backfill the data?

It depends from company to company and how much data they have. Therefore data backfill might take from hours to several days from the moment Admin enabled Smart Account Assist till the moment it is ready to be used. 

Admins will see the ‘in progress’ or ‘finished’ state on the org settings page of GenAI features. Once data backfill is finished, eligible users will see the Assist button available to them and ready to be used.

Governance and Security FAQ

1. Is Smart Account Assist optional to turn on?

Smart Account Assist is optional to turn on. Only Admins will have control to turn it off/on on org level or user level (via governance profiles).

2. What data is shared and with whom (3rd party)?

Smart Account Assist uses Azure OpenAI by Microsoft. Microsoft has no access to Outreach and Outreach's Customer data. Customer data is also not incorporated or used to train Azure OpenAI models. Smart Account Assist calls Azure OpenAI Service for 1) creating embeddings based on activity data, 2) generate the response to the question based on embeddings

Outreach has opted out of (1) content filtering; (2) abuse monitoring, so Microsoft has no access to Outreach’s data. Customer data is not shared with other customers, nor is it incorporated/used to train the Azure OpenAI models. 

3. Where and how is the data stored?

Smart Account Assist uses the same storage mechanism (Amazon Web Services) that is used for storing Prospects, Accounts, Emails, and other customer data. The same security and privacy measures apply to Smart Account Assist data. Customer’s data is not stored in Microsoft Azure.

4. Can the data be deleted on customer request?

Yes. The data is stored in Amazon Web Services (AWS) and can be deleted upon request with the compliance service.