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Of the three words that comprise customer relationship management, one word binds the other two. As necessity and competition dictate that CRM upgrade itself with artificial intelligence and flights to the cloud, what counts most in successful sales, support and marketing is the relationship companies maintain with their customers and the management of that relationship. The trick is to engage consumers with the most technologically advanced methods by way of chatbots, email, texts, social media and location services, while satisfying that very personal and delicate human connection based on trust.

The June issue of Business Information opens with our editor's note and an examination of the enormous potential of AI in CRM to improve communication with customers and personalize customer service -- the core of a company's ultimate success. Yet technological personalization devoid of human contact can produce the unintended consequences of depersonalizing and jeopardizing those critical relationships.

Along those lines, our cover story emphasizes the importance of devising smart AI in CRM strategies that take this delicate balance into account while focusing attention on today's more knowledgeable, more demanding and technologically savvy consumers. In another feature, we evaluate the factors to consider when choosing the right CRM public, private or hybrid cloud model, and that choice should depend on a company's size, needs, regulatory requirements and artificial intelligence strategies.

Also in this issue, AI applications created and developed specifically for space exploration are finding their way into the enterprise, thanks to a special collaboration between NASA and a business entrepreneur. In addition, designing a human-like chatbot with a winning personality requires a business-minded approach that speaks the customers' language. And as AI and cloud apps take on greater significance in CRM, marketers divulge several problems on the way to deployment and admit they're partly to blame.