Marketing imperatives and Artificial Intelligence
Marketing is a dynamic organization. It is self-sustaining and self-organized. Marketing is pervasive – a part of every organ of business; HR, finance, manufacturing, sales, support, etc. Being a hot testbed for disruption, marketers are the most voracious consumers of technology backed data and analytics. Insights (actionable) is the most valuable commodity for marketers. And disruption is perpetual – it is happening now.
A recent report titled the State of Marketing by Salesforce reveals how marketers perceive the impact Artificial Intelligence (AI) will have over the next 5 years on business. With 64% of marketers saying it has improved their marketing efficiency, this number will only grow as AI matures with time.
With AI being touted as the next big leap of faith for marketers, let’s for a moment take a look at how AI and Machine Learning could potentially transform our way of thinking about marketing imperatives.
Imperative: There is never enough data to go around
According to McKinsey, companies that use customer analytics see profit improving in excess of 126% over their competitors who don’t. With big data and analytics being paired up to make sense of the world our customers live in, AI adds a whole new dimension to it. Built on algorithms that run on data you provide it with, AI offers us a great opportunity to use existing data, make sense of it, learn and solve problems, automate tasks, and thereby generate more data. In short, data makes data, and the more data, the better the execution.
Imperative: Differentiation is key to winning
“Brand lives in your customers’ minds”. True that! And so, every touchpoint that your customer has with your business is a potential candidate for some fresh potion of ‘Rh AI’. With a smarter system, one should be able to differentiate the experience that a brand creates in the minds of its audience. AI will help deliver a consistent message across communication channels which today greatly depends on marketing team composition. With NLP, understanding language and its nuances should not be a challenge. Your AI companion will also take action on your behalf even when you are in bed. Customer support should become more personal and undivided—a win-win.
Imperative: Being innovative is more important than being first
Being able to reason a decision and hold a counter conversation, AI will be a great assistant to have on your side. Ironman could not have saved the world without his trusted assistant Jarvis. Cooper had TARS to navigate a Universe full of excitement. Now that’s fiction. In the real world, drones, driverless cars, fraud and voice detection, Cortana, Siri, etc. are all great use cases where AI continues to side with humans to help innovate. In the business context, the AI system will need to be trained in the environment in which your business operates. It is a slow but worthy effort. Getting there first may not be as important as getting it right. May the best innovation win.
Imperative: User experience defines your marketing goals
As marketers, we remind ourselves over and over that all that we do is for our current / prospective customers. This answers our “whys”. The customer is at the center and marketing is becoming more and more direct and personal. Dynamic and real-time personalization of user experience of all assets will now be possible with endless micro-variations that will help build up a unique experience for each customer. Delivering an experience unique to your brand so you don’t have to worry if it is being transmitted correctly or not. With image recognition and augmented reality, a powerful user experience is already here. All this adds to the sentiment analysis using which marketers can set specific goals to further enhance user experience.
Work will never be the same again. It’s upon us marketers to adopt and implement AI as it will make inroads sooner or later into your dominion. As the ‘cost-of-marketing’ pressure mounts, this leaves us no reason not to look at what AI can do for us. AI is here to stay – I have already rented out space on my ship. Are you on?
Let me know by writing to me or connecting over LinkedIn.
