Ways That AI Does (and Will) Affect Marketing

Nearly every industry uses artificial intelligence - marketing not withstanding. But here’s the thing. 

Most AI in Marketing Pretty Subtle 

It’s generally not the stuff of RoboCop. 

For instance:

• Google uses an AI system to interpret a whole gaggle of search queries.

• Through product recommendations, sentiment analysis, image and voice recognition, AI has the potential to allow social networks to improve at scale.

• The Grid is an AI platform that uses image recognition and cropping, algorithmic palette and typography selection to effectively automate web design.

• The use of AI to analyze credit/debit card usage patterns and device access helps to prevent fraud and data breaches. 

• Content can be generated using structured data which allows the automatic generation of news articles from information like financial reports. 

• AI can analyze thousands of factors allowing the matching of broad patterns of customer behavior to those of individual members. This allows for a more personalized experience.

You’re bored. We get it. This is dull, dull, dull. 

There are plenty of other marketing areas affected by AI, including speech and language recognition, ad targeting, predictive customer service, sales forecasting, the list goes on ad nauseam. But you get the point. So we’ll spare you the snooze fest.   

Sure, Some AI Has A Little More Swagger 

There is a hotel line that has incorporated concierge

robots who interact with guests and answer their questions in an ever so welcoming and helpful manner.

Or if you walk into a certain outdoor clothing store to buy a jacket, you might be greeted by a bot who asks where and when you will be using the jacket so that it can couple that information with weather predictions and other data to help you select the best jacket. No more asking, “does this come in ochre?”

And the more these bots interact with people, the more they seem to “learn.” Which, if you’re of a certain age, is sorta creepy. But whatever.

What’s the Future of AI in Marketing?

Marketers strive to understand their customers and take them on a journey. As AI becomes more prominent, they’ll need to address customers’ fears and concerns about AI.  

This is especially true pertaining to privacy concerns.

And when it comes to creating brand value, advocacy and collaborative issues, marketers must consider the importance of emotional connections. Consumer behavior is driven by hundreds of emotional motivators that affect customer value. 

As of now, AI is not capable of emotion. And AI and machine learning still need people to improve their accuracy and to train algorithms properly.

So what does the future hold? Hard to say.

You could always ask Siri and Alexa.