AI is Changing Digital Marketing
How AI has become more than the plotline of your favorite sci-fi movie.
Artificial intelligence has gained traction recently in the general public through movies and television shows such as Interstellar and Iron Man, which portray AI capabilities with technology and robots. In addition to this technology also being implemented in real life, artificial intelligence has made leaps and bounds in the digital marketing industry.
What is AI?
Artificial intelligence is the creation of a reasoning system in machines to complete tasks generally done by human beings. AI has helped people around the world connect through gateways such as advanced language translation programs, finding photos of family and friends, and communication over social media and email. Artificial intelligence plays a significant role in the buyer’s cycle, all the way from the devices used to research, to the search engine used, and the programs utilized by the business to maintain customer information.
Many people use artificial intelligence every day without noticing, and marketing agencies have developed software to help with time management, productivity, and efficiency. Google and Apple have an autocomplete program that uses artificial intelligence based on data from you and others who use the service. Digital assistants are another form of artificial intelligence that we have begun to rely on as a society, using smartphone technology with automated learning to assist the busy lives of people using voice commands.
Aside from that, image recognition has become mainstream and accessible to us via our cell phones, being able to recognize our faces as an added security measure to be able to use them. In addition to application in systems and products, AI has been used to create programs to change the world of marketing. From CRM systems to data analysis and generation, AI is supplementing and foreseeing marketing opportunities to help consumers and businesses make the right choices.
AI marketing streamlines and utilizes customer information to anticipate trends and improve customer service. Artificial Intelligence is one of the fastest growing marketing technologies, with a 53% expected year-over-year growth. This growth beats the YoY growth of marketing automation, connected devices, social listening tools, and customer identity/access management programming.
Search Engine Autocomplete
Google’s Autocomplete feature in search is one of the most prevalent uses of AI currently. As you type, autocomplete will predict and display potential options to choose from. The search queries seen are a reflection of the search activity of users and on the content of each web page. Google gathers data from all searches and uses trends and analysis to predict what users may be searching for.
Google also uses your unique searching history to provide suggestions for relevant information. Through using this information, Google’s AI platform can analyze massive amounts of data about consumers and predict search trends. Google has also implemented a feature using reverse image search technology. Once you search by photo, Google analyzes the image and creates a mathematical model based on shapes, lines, proportions, colors, and other elements. Then, it matches the model against images already in Google’s index to provide different image sources and like pictures.
This technology is instrumental and can help people solve copyright issues and prevent consumers from buying fake products. Autocomplete can be enabled or disabled, depending on the user’s preferences. Many smartphones now implement some autocomplete technology, suggesting different words or automatically correcting misspellings by assuming what word the user was trying to spell.
Digital Assistants
Artificial intelligence is currently changing the realm of digital assistants and is expected to continue doing so well into the future. Persona digital assistants like Siri, Cortana, and OK Google are being built into computers and smartphones. They learn the sound of your voice and, by constant exposure, learn your dialect and daily needs. Speaking to them can set appointments, text, make calls, answer questions, play music, purchase goods, and use search engines.
Other types of digital assistants, such as Amazon’s Alexa, are freestanding home assistants. Alexa can set alarms, turn off lights, adjust the thermostat, and do everything else a personal digital assistant can. Alexa can connect straight to our Amazon accounts and make ordering and reordering items a breeze. In this way, Amazon has capitalized on their products by using another product they have created. The ease of use from the consumer makes purchasing goods through Alexa more likely. The programming of these systems has created an assistant to individuals and households to automate tasks that usually would have been done by the person themselves.
Work Automation
Businesses often outsource jobs to temporary workers and companies to lessen the load on themselves and save valuable amounts of time. Many companies outsource administrative and marketing tasks to focus their work and precious time in other areas. Recently, these tasks have been able to be handled by machines. These systems make it easier for companies to communicate with their customers, generate leads, and grow their ROI.
There are many examples of software replacing business tasks, such as scheduling, proofreading, e-mail, and contract reviews. Not only do these machines prevent human error, but they also save money and time. Eventually, these systems will be able to work with companies and their priorities to detect patterns and improve over time when available using a more stable and advanced intelligence system - i.e., more humanistic.
Image Recognition
Intelligence in machinery and programs has increased the security of many devices such as smartphones. Artificial intelligence has allowed us to improve existing products and improve user experience, as well as adopt new technology. Some smartphones now have facial recognition, in which the front-facing camera scans the user’s face and matches it to the initial scan taken when setting up the feature. The program has gotten more intelligent with updates, claiming to be able to spot faces in low-light, and with discrepancies such as a hat or glasses.
In addition to smartphones, Facebook has a facial recognition feature in photos where it learns user’s facial features from photos they upload and tag others in. This Facebook technology eventually learns how to suggest automatic tags for faces not yet tagged. Faces can be learned and recognized by programs, being able to detect patterns in facial features and then using that data to identify entire faces further. These programs often keep “learning” and storing data from each detection to further improve the service it provides.
AI Marketing
As the world of purchasing and buying becomes more advanced, opportunities and challenges continue to arise for brands. AI marketing leverages consumer information and uses advancing artificial intelligence programming to spot trends and predict future decisions along the customer’s decision-making and buying cycle. Shopping and researching have never been so convenient, and consumers have never been more confident with their purchasing habits.
A massive opportunity for marketers and other businesses is how artificial intelligence can further personalize the user experience to tailor to each customer’s preferences. Big markets are using search and display to target user’s interests and show them things that are most relevant to what they already buy (and might want to purchase in the future).
AI enhances personalization across the world. YouTube and Amazon are two examples of services that gather data from your browsing history, views, and purchases to be able to suggest relevant videos and products. Google also integrates into many areas of your life to gather data and make your internet experience unique to you. The goal for AI in marketing is not to replace humans, but to enhance their knowledge base and ability to appeal to markets and generate leads. Artificial Intelligence is considered a competitive advantage at this point, and it will get more prevalent sooner rather than later.
In the world of marketing, AI is progressing towards generating information rather than just analyzing it and detecting patterns. With the advancement of video and voice recognition, AI is becoming more advanced at recognizing different types of information. The full potential of AI is not yet known, but there are promising results. Marketers can boost their campaign’s performances and metrics using AI technology without extra time, money, or effort. AI has allowed marketers to make smarter choices with minimal sacrifice.
If you’re interested in getting started with digital marketing for your business, contact Teamwork today to schedule a consultation.
Sources
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/310053
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http://www.businessinsider.com/ai-marketing-report-2018-3
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https://www.martechadvisor.com/articles/machine-learning-amp-ai/the-skills-you-need-to-thrive-in-the-era-of-ai-as-a-marketer/
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https://ai.google/
