Does AI Good Enough? 1+1>2
The use of Artificial Intelligence in our daily lives has become common, necessary, and useful. For marketing field, the benefits are even more obvious. A question came to my mind when I did research about AI and marketing. “Does AI Good Enough?” I mean, does AI good enough to work without humans interaction? My perspective and conclusion is: No!
1+1>2. I want to say that there’re some limitations of AI now, and the needs of humans power are irreplaceable. By this way, combining the efficiency of AI with human power of decision, guidance, and emotional connection will create greater benefits and effectiveness.
Now, let’s firstly think of the advantages of AI in marketing areas.
AI can do task faster than humans, and less costly.
With specific directions and enough data, AI can do as much work as possible. It can answer questions quickly. So when customers need any product information or ask for some common question, AI like chatbots can solve these tasks soon. Besides, the costs of hiring workers become expensive. Using AI machines to reduce costs is a smart choice.
AI is extremely effective in tracking and saving data about customers and their buying habits. “What they are searching for?” “What they value the most?” By this way, it’s easier to reach customers with the information or products they need. Personalization can be achieved by forming personal profiles and recommend products that match individual preferences. Hence, advertising methods like email marketing can reach its full potential.
AI can predict who is most likely to purchase & where the best places to advertise.
With sufficient data, AI can answer questions like “Will this person interested in or likely to buy our products?” This is useful in marketing campaign to reach target audiences and in the right ways. There’re numerous places to place ads, for example tv, website, email, and messages. Which are the best ways and how much money to put in are the keys. AI machines can help and simplify this process.
AI-based technology can be really helpful in delivery. There’re some companies and hotels now using robots to do some simple service or to deliver packages. I have seen a robot walking into an elevator and walking to specific rooms for food delivery. I also have seen robots walking around campus for delivery (my undergraduate school, UCI). It’s both time-saving and cost-saving.
Chatbot is one of the most common ways that AI technology applies. Chatbots are effective at answering customers’ questions and providing simple solutions. They are also effective at minimizing dissatisfaction for providing quick responses. AI machines can be used to send welcome letter, promotion deals, birthday letter and so on. These are ways to build up relationships and maintain customer loyalty.
As I mentioned about chatbots, I need to talk about some disadvantages of AI in marketing areas.
Some customers don’t really like talking to computers. This is not only because chatbots cannot create a real conversation environment between humans, but also because chatbots sometimes cannot provide flexible solutions and care about customers’ feelings. These are the limitations of AI.
AI cannot provide reliable prediction and analysis sometimes.
Like I said above, AI has limitations in catching feelings, so sentimental analysis can be hard and makes some analysis or prediction uncertain. AI is good and efficient at performing formulated tasks, but cases without enough data or requiring human intuitions are hard.
Since AI doesn’t have human emotions and intuitions, human interaction is necessary and irreplaceable. Even if AI technology has become more sophisticated and applied broadly nowadays, it is still not humans.
AI cannot complete complicated & disconnected marketing stack.
Marketing includes several different areas and some tasks require multi-areas interaction or information exchange. However, there’re data loss when AI connects with different platforms. The disconnected systems of performing certain marketing tasks are tough for AI. Besides, if there’re delays in collecting data, acting in real time is difficult too.
It’s true that there’re some limitations in AI. It indeeds brings about huge benefits and revenues for humans. We need them, but we still need human interaction. With my conclusion of “1+1>2”, we can achieve the best utility by maximizing the advantages of AI technology accompanied by human supervision, decisions, and actions. :)
