What is the minimal required state of our customer data to quickly have AI help us identify cross-sell opportunities? - Data Ideology

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    What is the minimal required state of our customer data to quickly have AI help us identify cross-sell opportunities?

    If we want AI to start spotting cross-sell opportunities quickly, we don’t need perfect data, but we do need a baseline level of completeness and consistency. Think of it like building a house: you don’t need fancy trim work, but you definitely need a solid foundation.

    Here’s the bare minimum I’d say we need in place:

    • Clean Customer Records.
      We need one record per customer, not duplicates floating around under different IDs. If the same buyer shows up three times in the system, the AI won’t know what’s real.

    • Consistent Purchase History.
      At least 12–24 months of reliable transaction data. This means each sale is tied to the right customer and includes basic details like product, date, and quantity. If this is spotty or incomplete, the model can’t learn real patterns.

    • Product Hierarchy.
      Some structure that groups products logically (e.g., categories, families). The AI needs to see relationships—like people who bought Service A often buy Service B.

    • Basic Customer Attributes.
      A few clean fields that help segment the customer base—things like industry, size, region, or account type. Even two or three consistent attributes make the recommendations more relevant.

    • Data Freshness.
      Transactions and customer updates that are reasonably up to date—ideally updated weekly or better. If everything lags by a quarter, you’ll miss timely opportunities.

    What’s Not Strictly Required Right Away:

    • A full CRM replatform.

    • Perfect data enrichment from third parties.

    • Complex behavioral tracking.

    We can get started without those if the basics above are solid.

    Bottom line:
    If you can give me:

    • One clean customer ID,

    • 1–2 years of transaction history tied to it,

    • A clear product list, and

    • A couple of segmentation fields,

    we can have an AI model up and running to surface cross-sell suggestions within a few weeks.

    Anything less than that, and you’ll probably spend more time cleaning and reconciling the outputs than acting on them.