How is AI helping marketing?
Marketing, of all a company’s functions, has perhaps the most to gain from artificial intelligence. Marketing’s core activities are understanding customer needs, matching them to products and services, and persuading people to buy — capabilities that AI can dramatically enhance. This is cemented by a 2018 McKinsey analysis of more than 400 advanced use cases that showed that marketing was the domain where AI would contribute the greatest value.
An August 2019 survey by the American Marketing Association revealed that the implementation of AI had jumped 27% in the previous year and a half. And a 2020 Deloitte global survey of early AI adopters showed that three of the top five AI objectives were marketing-oriented: enhancing existing products and services, creating new products and services, and enhancing relationships with customers.
Firms also employ AI at every stage of the customer journey. When potential customers are in the “consideration” phase and researching a product, AI will target ads at them and can help guide their search. An example of this is the online furniture retailer Wayfair, which uses AI to determine which customers are most likely to be persuaded. It also chooses products to show them based on their browsing histories.
AI-enabled bots from companies such as Vee24 can help marketers understand customers’ needs, increase their engagement in a search, nudge them toward specific web pages, and if needed, connect them to a human sales agent by chat, phone, video, or even “cobrowsing” — allowing an agent to help the customer navigate a shared screen.
I believe that AI will soon become essential for marketing. There are some obstacles to the utilization of AI in marketing like privacy concerns, concerns about data quality, an inherent mistrust of AI, and the investment required for implementation. However, the benefits seem to outweigh the costs, and most enterprises are adopting AI despite anticipating significant barriers.
Innovation and adaptability to change are vital in a changing world. We are now entering the information age and the advent of Big Data is something that can be leveraged to stand out from the crowd.
AI, specifically, can be used to enhance the customer journey. It can streamline marketing campaigns and minimize human error. There is some concern that AI will replace jobs and result in a massive paradigm shift. However, I believe it is a tool that can supplant human knowledge and experience. It doesn’t replace the human touch needed to connect with customers.
To better understand the use of AI in marketing, take a look at the infographic below.
