Technology has significantly altered the way marketers work in recent years. But as big as those changes have been, they are only the beginning of what looks to be a much larger shift—the adoption of AI in marketing. CMOs and their teams have already been able to enhance their results by leveraging big data, social networking and other tech tools. But AI offers even more potential, both in for the creative side of marketing and for efficiency and implementation. While it is not clear exactly how things will change, there is no denying that AI is going to make a big splash in the near future in marketing.
Shifts in the Marketing Landscape—How AI is Bringing Change
The following is a look at a few areas where AI is being incorporated into marketing work and the expectations that many in the industry have for the future.
AI is Helping Businesses Learn More About Their Customers
The amount of data out there now about customers is vast. Of course, gathering all that data and gleaning insights from it is no simple task. AI provides an amazing tool for learning more about customers because it can handle the mountains of data customers produce and find meaning in all of it. Instead of having a human or humans spend all their work hours processing customer data, AI can do the job. It can gather data, make calculations and identify important information and patterns that could be of use to businesses.
The more a business knows about its customers, the better it is able to understand their needs and foster connections that will last.
AI is Improving the Customer Experience
Building on understanding customers, AI can utilize that understanding to create a better customer experience. One of the most obvious examples of this is the customized recommendations offered by online retailers and streaming businesses. With each customer interaction, AI gathers data to form a fuller picture of the preferences of the customer so that it can provide more targeted recommendations.
Customers like the feeling of being seen, recognized and appreciated. It makes the interaction more personal. Every marketer knows the importance of delivering a personalized experience whenever possible, and AI makes doing so much easier and less time-consuming.
AI is Increasingly Being Tasked with Making Low-Level Decisions
Every human marketer has a finite amount of cognitive capacity for making decisions. Spending energy on a decision depletes the overall amount of energy you have for making other decisions, which is why upper-level management is typically focused on only the most important decisions. But what if many of the lowest level decisions did not require human input? AI offers the potential to free up a vast amount of human energy for making important decisions by taking over the decision-making process for more basic decisions.
The use of AI to offer suggestions to customers is one example of this decision-making in action, but there is potential for much more. It could give everyone on the marketing team more time and energy to make decisions that really matter. While it is not yet clear exactly how far AI can go in this area, the concept is exciting. Human decision-makers will still be a major factor in how marketing teams work, but it is interesting to consider how much more could be accomplished if they did not have to burn up valuable energy making decisions that a computer could easily make.
AI Will Likely Change the Way CMOs Hire Employees
The ability of AI to handle various tasks, like data analysis and low-level decision-making, will lead to a change in hiring practices by marketing executives. Those seeking entry-level positions will need to have an ability to think more strategically and to delegate effectively since they will most likely be managing AI in their roles. It is possible that what was once an entry-level position will look more like a mid-level position today. It is difficult to predict exactly what employees will need to be capable of since the role of AI is still not clearly defined, but you can be sure that there will be alterations in what is expected of new employees.
AI Can Offer Variations on Creative Content
One interesting area where AI is just being utilized is the art world. Some artists are using AI to make instant variations of their work, such as changing a line drawing into a painting. For marketing purposes, AI could take the work of the marketing team and provide numerous variations for testing—saving considerable time and expense on the creative side.
Utilizing AI Right Now
Your marketing team can take advantage of many AI tools right now if they are not doing so already to reach more customers and be more competitive in your industry. By engaging with AI tools today and leveraging it where you can to improve outcomes, your business can stay current in an area that is likely to offer huge benefits in the coming years.