The Artificial Intelligence Takeover: How technology is changing the marketing landscape

How Technology is Changing the Marketing Landscape

Imagine ten years ago, five years ago, even three years ago. Amazon Alexa and Google Home didn’t exist. Siri stood virtually alone in a world that had yet to realize the untapped potential within artificial intelligence.

 

Today, the future and growth in AI is increasing at an incredible rate. As a branch of computer science, AI diverges from the path through its design. This technology has been programmed to act intelligently and react in the same way a human would.

 

Since 2013, the share of jobs requiring AI has increased by 450 percent, according to Adobe. With such a powerful rise, it’s no wonder the current market is inundated with artificial intelligence, and it doesn’t look to be slowing down. With that being the case, let’s first consider why AI has seen such a drastic increase in growth.

 

What makes AI so popular?

 

It’s easy. AI speech recognition means that humans can now communicate with computers. The natural language generation branch of AI also helps makes this possible by programming machines to speak in a way that resembles the human narrative. It makes this technology seem friendlier and creates responses that consumers can appreciate more.

 

So, not only is voice communication now a possibility, but AI adapts and improves to better understand its user.

 

When people speak to Siri, Alexa or Google Home, they use casual voice patterns as if they are talking to a friend. It requires very little effort on the consumer’s part.

 

Not only does this have the benefit of being less time consuming than searching online, but it’s seamless. Someone can be cooking in their kitchen, remember they need a new spatula, and all they have to say is “Alexa, order a new spatula.” Alexa will catch what they’re saying and give them the top recommended product on Amazon.

 

See what they did there? An Amazon product finds another Amazon product to order and then ships it off to a likely Amazon Prime member. Amazon wins all around, but so does the consumer because the whole process takes less than five minutes. The new spatula will be ordered, shipped and received, all within two days.

 

AI is continuously learning and constantly updating to adjust to the conversational tone people use. The more people speak to this technology, the easier it is for it to understand and respond. Programmers are implementing new ways for this technology to discern context. Someone can say, “Hey Siri, what’s the weather looking like in San Diego today?” and their phone will tell them.

 

These products make jokes. They throw sass. It’s not uncommon for a witty one-liner to be given. AI technology is nowhere near one-dimensional. The companies that use AI aren’t only building technology, but also cultivating technological personalities.

 

They’re not there yet, though. AI learning to be funny is both odd and slightly endearing. It’s also an indication of what we can expect AI to become.

 

Humor is another way AI is becoming a part of our social world, and these struggles with comedy have the unintentional impact of AI joining in on the joke.

 

If you want a laugh, check out Keaton Patti’s Twitter account. The comedy writer forces a bot to watch over 1,000 hours of footage and then has it write its own script. Entries include failed attempts at an Olive Garden commercial and a Hallmark Channel movie.

 

Even when AI misses the mark, it’s hard not to appreciate how incredible the adaptability of this technology is.

 

Becoming Human’s Sudhanshu Jha writes, “Artificial intelligent machines have predictive analysis property. They learn from existing datasets, and even generate their own datasets, thus breaking the limitation of producing output based on predefined data.”

 

The sheer possibility of artificial intelligence is mind-blowing because its potential has no glass ceiling. As it tracks now, AI is limitless in what it could possibly become.

 

Everything we’ve just talked about are good things: the ease, the accessibility, the intelligence. People like to have the world at the tip of their fingers and AI offers just that.

 

AI is funny (both intentionally and unintentionally), helpful, and intelligent. All of this shows as its market influence grows at a furious pace. So, what’s the issue?

 

It has its fair share of hurdles along with the mass amount of market potential it offers.

 

For one, it’s still relatively new and people in general are wary of new things. There hasn’t been much of a trial period and there’s no way to predict what could happen in the future.

 

Another issue is that this is technology and we’re human. There’s a lack of trust. As technology becomes more and more integrated into everyday lives, the public becomes more and more aware of its sweeping presence. Many people wonder what ten years from now looks like as technological advancements gain in intelligence and functionality.

 

An example of this is the flip side to the Amazon Alexa technology mentioned earlier. Alexa will offer up the top recommended product on Amazon and move onto the second if the consumer doesn’t like the first. The issue with this is that people have a tendency to order what they have first-hand experience in—they won’t easily trust what Alexa tells them is the best.

 

That’s the largest obstacle artificial intelligence faces. It’s not a recommendation from a trusted friend, even if that’s the eventual feeling AI hopes to engender with consumers. Currently, if it’s something they haven’t tried before, consumers would rather go onto the computer, read reviews, and figure out for themselves what’s the best.

 

Companies also find themselves often having to assure people that their technology isn’t listening to personal conversations. Simply put, people don’t want to be watched and there’s only so much anonymity possible in today’s world. AI makes that even less so.

 

AI is winning out, even as people struggle with the decision between possibly being listened to or having easy access to everything they want.

 

This technology’s assimilation into the market makes it almost impossible to avoid.

 

By considering both the advantages and disadvantages of AI, companies are prepared for what jumping on the artificial intelligence train means and they’ve come to the conclusion that the benefits far outweigh any concerns.

 

Statista has found that 84 percent of enterprises believe greater competitive advantages will be found through AI. 75 percent also believe that AI will create new business possibilities while also opening up new ways to access competitive markets.

 

Companies have to grow and change to stay current. Past marketing techniques have grown ineffective in today’s digital world. To avoid stagnation, places need to continue to evolve and improve upon what’s currently successful. In this increasingly technological age, many places are turning to AI.

 

Content marketing and personalization are two of the ways companies are doing this. As AI continues to alter the marketing landscape, here are some of the changes we can expect to see with this growing trend.

 

Marketers are using machine learning, a subfield of artificial intelligence that learns from the data it receives, to better understand their target audience. It gathers the business’s big data—sifting through mass amounts of data sets—to create a more personalized approach for consumer searching and shopping.

 

AI gives companies the ability to discover what patterns and trends can be found in their consumer’s habits in a much more efficient way. Armed with this knowledge, they can then market themselves to the consumer with more individualized and accurate tactics.

 

Personalization plays a critical role in a company’s marketing success. Consumers don’t want to be shown something they don’t care about, but they do want to see material that acknowledges their individual interests.

 

By 2020, Salesforce has found that 51 percent of consumers expect companies to anticipate their needs and make relevant suggestions before first contact. Along with that, Evergage reports 88 percent of U.S. marketers attribute measurable improvements to personalization.

 

Marketers can use machine learning and the data trends it finds to create content that individualizes how, when and what a consumer sees. In turn, this creates a stronger relationship between the two.

 

Content marketing will continue to advance its technology as more and more businesses begin to rely on machines to gather information. The result being that marketing tactics will gain in accuracy because of the insights provided by AI.

 

Using natural language generation has the added effect of making it easier for companies to read the data they’re given as well. It has the power to “automatically turn numbers in a spreadsheet into data-driven narratives,” according to Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute.

 

This is the way to gain an edge over the competition. Forrester predicts that by 2020, businesses that use computer-generated insights to create marketing tailored to the consumer will bring in $1.2 trillion a year.

 

AI technology will allow companies to understand what’s working and what’s not, the reach of their content, and the engagement it achieves. All of this will be possible through AI and subfields like speech recognition, natural language generation and machine learning.

 

Focus on understanding customers and the results will follow.

 

By using AI to provide insights on large amounts of gathered data, businesses will see drastic improvements in their marketing results.