Multi-model Target Engagement Sequence Generator

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Solution Overview

Problem

Constructing strategies to identify the sequence of individuals most likely to create or close opportunities, such as sales or services, typically requires extensive human labor and expertise, and existing methods lack efficiency in scaling these strategies across different opportunity characteristics.

Innovation Solution

A combination of artificial recurrent neural networks (RNNs) and hidden Markov models (HMMs) is trained with historical data to predict the optimal sequence of personas and their relative importance, enabling the efficient identification of high-likelihood interaction sequences for realizing opportunities without substantial human intervention.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Measurement precision

If human experts manually construct engagement strategies, then the quality and accuracy of opportunity creation/closure strategies is improved, but the time consumption and labor cost increase significantly

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvestrategy accuracyVSAvoidtime consumption
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary action by pre-training multiple specialized models (RNNs for sequence generation, HMMs for importance scoring, regression models for engagement value calculation) on historical opportunity data before actual use. These pre-trained models can then rapidly generate engagement strategies without requiring real-time human expert intervention, thus maintaining high accuracy while reducing time consumption.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent replaces the mechanical system of human expert manual strategy construction with an automated computational system. The human expert's cognitive process of analyzing historical data and constructing engagement sequences is substituted with machine learning models that automatically learn patterns from historical opportunities and generate optimized engagement strategies, eliminating the time and labor constraints of manual processes.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

2Measurement precision

If specialized human expertise is used to design engagement strategies, then the quality of strategy for specific opportunity types is improved, but the scalability and adaptability to different opportunity characteristics deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvestrategy qualityVSAvoidscalability
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The system segments the expertise requirement by creating multiple specialized models, each trained on specific opportunity characteristics (e.g., different RNNs for different opportunity types, different HMMs for different persona sequences). This segmentation allows the system to maintain specialized knowledge for each opportunity type while scaling across multiple types simultaneously, as each model can be independently trained and applied to its specific domain.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The framework provides universality by creating a multi-functional system where the same architectural components (RNNs, HMMs, regression models) can be applied across different opportunity types and characteristics. The system universally handles various opportunity scenarios by selecting and combining appropriate pre-trained models based on the specific opportunity characteristics, enabling both specialized quality and broad scalability.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

3Measurement precision

If manual strategy construction methods are used, then the depth of expertise in strategy design is improved, but the productivity and efficiency of generating engagement sequences deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvestrategy depthVSAvoidgeneration efficiency
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent replaces the manual mechanical process of strategy construction with automated computational mechanics. The deep expertise previously requiring hours of human analysis is encoded into pre-trained machine learning models that can generate engagement sequences instantaneously. The computational models process historical data and generate optimized sequences at machine speed, maintaining strategic depth while achieving orders of magnitude improvement in productivity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs the computationally intensive work of learning strategic patterns from historical data in advance during the training phase. Once trained, the models can rapidly generate engagement sequences for new opportunities without requiring repeated deep analysis, thus preserving strategy depth while achieving high generation efficiency during actual use.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentUS12039428B2Multi-model based target engagement sequence generator
Publication Date: 2024.07.16 PALO ALTO NETWORKS INC
  • US12039428B2 patent drawing
  • US12039428B2 patent drawing
  • US12039428B2 patent drawing

AI summary

To identify a target engagement sequence with a highest likelihood of realizing an opportunity, a target engagement sequence generator uses models (artificial recurrent neural network (RNN) and a hidden Markov model (HMM)) trained with historical time series data for a particular combination of values for opportunity characteristics. The trained RNN identifies a sequence of personas for realizing the opportunity described by the opportunity characteristics values. Data from regression analysis indicates key individuals for realizing an opportunity within each organizational classification that occurred within the historical data. The HMM identifies the importance of each persona in the sequence of personas with communicates to the key individuals. The resulting sequence of individuals indicates an optimal sequence of individuals and order for contacting those individuals in order to realize an opportunity. The importance values associated with the key individuals informs how to efficiently allocate resources to each individual interaction.