Can Artificial Intelligence Help Maintain the Human Touch?
When we hear the word automation we often think of a cold, futuristic landscape in which the robots have taken over and any semblance of humanity has slowly disappeared from our grasp. But while I can’t speak for the distant future, artificial intelligence in it current state has proven to be a force to be reckoned in terms of creating consumer value.
AI helps marketers provide something that consumers of today hold in high regard; personalization. Machine learning has the ability to analyze large amounts of data, build predictive models and customize a user’s experience based on their specific behaviors and preferences.
This is a huge asset to marketers, as personalization within the customer journey is crucial for both acquisition and retention. According to a survey by Twilio, 45% of customers said that they would switch to other brands if a company did not provide a personalized experience. 60% of customers also said that they were more likely to become repeat purchasers if they received a personalized experience.
Everyone likes to feel seen and heard in the endless sea of content that we are exposed to each day. Personalization is something that does just that by acknowledging each customer as a unique entity. Relevance is powerful, and. customers are more likely to engage with content or communications that speak directly to their needs, values or experiences.
As businesses scale and grow their customer database, personalization becomes more complex and intricate. This is where AI and machine learning come in, to help streamline the process. Instead of manually coding the necessary conditions for personalization, Artificial intelligence does the work for you by gathering data, analyzing it and providing customers with strategically placed content.
In an Omni channel customer journey, AI-driven personalization that takes place at just the right moment can play a key role in leading customers towards a desired conversion, whether that be a website visit, social media follow, email list signup, or an outright purchase. Here are a few ways in which artificial intelligence can be used to optimize the customer journey.
- Content Personalization
Whether it’s an instagram feed, a streaming platform or a brand website, it is no secret that content is king when it comes to increasing time spent on a site. This is why placing personalized content in front of customers is so important. AI driven content personalization will analyze a piece of content through aspects such as key words, metadata and visuals and then make data-driven decisions on which customers said content would resonate most with.
Netflix poses a good example of this, by using AI to determine which title artwork for a show would be most engaging to a viewer. Social media algorithms are the purest form of content personalization, as no two user’s feeds are the same and content is fed to us based on our past engagement and usage habits.
2. Virtual Customer Assistants
Customer service is typically viewed as nightmarish territory by most consumers (think annoying elevator music and being left on hold for hours). However, AI is changing the game with chat bots, using a machine learning technique known as Natural Language Processing to decipher words that are written and/or spoken by humans.
While real-life customer service representatives may still be important for solving more complex issues, chatbots can lessen their burden by dealing with simple queries directly through a company’s website. What’s more is that chatbots have the ability to pull data on a particular user and generate appropriate recommendations way faster and more efficiently than a human rep, making the experience more seamless overall.
3. E-commerce
A brand website is a customer journey in and of itself, from the initial landing page all the way to the end purchase. Incorporating personalization into a website’s UX provides customers with important touch points that will guide them towards their end goal in a natural and logical way.
E-commerce sites can leverage AI to collect valuable first-party data on visitors, build customer profiles and provide personalized product recommendations, loyalty programs and other in-site content accordingly.
4. Contextual Advertising
With Google’s announcement to phase out third-party cookies on Chrome by 2023, advertisers now face the challenge of reaching their target audiences with the remaining tools at their disposal. Contextual advertising, which involves placing online ads based on the context of the specific web content they appear next to, has increasingly become a part of this conversation. The process uses machine learning to analyze any piece of content in terms of key words, metadata, location and even the weather to define its context. It then places ads relevant ads accordingly.
While different from brand domain-specific personalization, contextual advertising is still extremely valuable as it does not rely on behavioral data. People interacting with these ads are more likely to be engaged due to relevance, and will also feel less imposed upon by the idea of being tracked across the internet. Be sure to read my article on first party data and contextual advertising to learn more.
Conclusion
As consumers continue to scroll through their content-saturated screens, only brands that are able to provide meaningful, personalized communication have any hope of breaking through the noise. With omni-channel strategies becoming the standard, cross channel integration and ensuring that the customer journey is seamless from start to finish is an important challenge that marketers face.
The growth of Artificial Intelligence capabilities and automation in marketing is a key way in which this challenge can be met. These advancements also open up new pathways for brands to nurture customer relationships, and maintain the essence of a one-on-one relationship on a massive scale.
