Why is Artificial Intelligence important for Marketers?
Our Digital Marketing Professor, Joanne Tombrakos likes to start the class with a history lesson of that topic. So here is a history lesson about Artificial Intelligence. Believe me, it’s fun!
A History Lesson
For those who know me know my fondness for movies and TV shows, so it is impossible for me to not mention that while I write about the history lesson.
Movies such as ‘The Wizard of Oz’, ‘Metropolis’ were way ahead of their time. Though fiction, these movies and their creators did not know they were predicting reality. Something, A.I. is good at. When we say A.I., we do not just mean robots and holographic brains, we mean, Netflix recommendations, Medium blog recommendations, Bots, Virtual Reality and everything in between. Would Victor Fleming or Fritz Lang, the directors for the above mentioned movies have known, almost 100 years ago, that their Sci-Fi can become reality?
Alan Turing is considered to be the first person who came up with the idea of Artificial Intelligence. In his 1950 paper “Computing Machinery and Intelligence”, he began by asking the question “Can machines think?”. In this paper, he talked about how machines can be made intelligent so as to copy human behavior.
Logic Theorists is considered to be the first program built around Artificial Intelligence. It was built by Allen Newell, Cliff Shaw, and Herbert Simon five years after Turning’s paper. They presented their findings to John McCarthy and Marvin Minsky at the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence (DSRPAI). John McCarthy is credited to coin the term Artificial Intelligence. In the following years, many scientists worked on what we now know and understand as Artificial Intelligence, a way to mimic humans by using their intelligence.
Importance of Artificial Intelligence
It’s almost impossible to think marketing without A.I.. A lot of what goes into marketing in today’s world is related to data. This data is used as Artificial Intelligence for marketing purposes.
1. Improved Customer Relationships
Having consumer data means marketers can use it to their advantage to build relationships with their customer and identify their needs before they themselves can. For example, if a customer on Amazon has been searching for a lamp and sorted the results from price: low to high; spent 30 mins on a particular lamp and still did not buy it, providing the customer discount for the product may lead to the consumer to buy the product.
2. Cost Management
Artificial Intelligence allows marketers to track consumer activity. When marketers use digital marketing, they can track sales, reach and impressions among other things. Using the real time data, they can shift their resources towards aspects that are beneficial. For example- depending on what the customers are searching for or what is trending ( say Grammy awards ), marketers can bid for their ads on websites that use the keyword “grammy”.
3. Make Predictions
“Since you bought…”, “since you watched…” are phrases we have all seen on our Amazon or Netflix Account. To analyze the data we have as marketers and predict how it can be used to anticipate user needs is a great way for marketers to improve customer relationships. This helps marketers to understand the types of products a consumer will be looking for, thereby allowing them to position campaigns more accurately.
4. Increase marketing efficiency
Following the theme of point number 3, A.I. allows marketers to automate tactical processes. For example- the sorting of marketing data, answering common customer questions (FAQs), and conducting security authorizations (Captcha) allows marketers to ensure the interaction is with a human and not a computer. This helps marketers confirm the data being collected is real.
Marketers, also however use computers to facilitate the Frequently asked questions, so as to save manpower and time. This allows marketing teams more time to work on strategic and analytical work.
5. Enhanced Marketing Measurement
Marketers in today’s world know a lot more about their consumer than they did 50 years ago. They know the sites they visit, how they use the sites, time spent, likes/dislikes, etc. This allows marketers to be personal with the customer and make them feel important. If done right, marketing makes the consumer feel special and not just a target.
We have come a long way of only thinking about A.I. when we saw Matrix, Star Wars or Artificial Intelligence: A.I. to being in a world that is surrounded by Artificial Intelligence. We may say it is important for marketers, but it is important for everyone. Whether you admit or not, you will keep on browsing for 2 hours if Netflix doesn’t suggest you something to watch.
