AI (artificial intelligence) is becoming increasingly used in our world and is seeping into many areas of the marketing industry, and the way we interact with smart technology in our personal lives too. This innovative and revolutionary technology is hugely complex and can raise both intrigue and alarm at once.
Elements of AI are everywhere in our digital world. Examples of everyday AI use include:
Search
Online search is far more potent than it ever was, with search programs like Algolia learning common spelling mistakes, typos, and more. With these types of search programs on websites, users are far likelier to find the product or service they are looking for.
SEM and programmatic advertising
With SEM (search engine marketing) advertising on channels such as Google AdWords and Facebook, they are dominating the industry with smart and successful advertising.
Programmatic advertising starts with the action marketers must take to buy advertising on search engines, like finalising the maximum budget or bid for CPC (cost per click). Google (or Facebook, or similar) programmatically choose which adverts will be displayed for various searches.
Remarketing is included in this, whereby use of cookies, the user is shown ads from sites or web pages that have been previously browsed. All of these methods are used to heighten conversion rates.
Marketing Automation
Segmenting customers into groups based on real data is crucial when it comes to effective marketing. If your content is great, but your conversion rates aren’t, it may be the delivery that’s the problem.
To deliver a campaign accurately, you must know your customer, which is where segmentation comes in. Whether it’s based on what gender they are, where they live, or where they entered the sales funnel, you can personalise content and deliver it at a targeted group of people to maximise the opportunity for conversion.
Marketing automation based on a segmented database also allows you to personalise the experience you give your customers or prospects – something consumers crave – but on a large scale which saves time and money.
This data-driven method of marketing is becoming increasingly crucial to get your content heard over the throng of competing crowds.
To understand more about Marketing Automation, read our recently written blog here.
Personal assistants
Smartphones have been using personal assistants for a few years now, where Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa have been assisting on the go, but now many homes feature voice-controlled smart speakers like Google Home or Amazon Echo.
Smart Speakers use personal assistants to perform a myriad of tasks, from connecting existing media setups to play music and TV with a touch of a button, to ordering a pizza – you can even ask Alexa to take notes, set a timer, ask for a weather update, and more.
Still in relatively early stages, they’re increasing in intelligence year on year through advanced machine learning software.
Prediction
Prediction programs are continually tailoring our content based on analysed data. Many websites feature ‘you may like’ modules which can be based on our behaviour on the site, but the real prediction gems come from those with the most money to put into innovation – brands like Amazon, Netflix, and Spotify.
These all predict what their users want based on behavioural algorithms which provide the user with similar content to retain customer satisfaction and continual use.
Will AI revolutionise the future?
Of course! It’s already revolutionising the present, and with continual learning through advanced technology and increasing their databases of consumer behaviour, we’re set to be even more ingrained in AI technology. Whether that provides us with huge successes or a dystopian future is yet to be determined – there are plenty of debates for both sides!
