Artificial intelligence is the ‘science of making machines smart’, according to Demis Hassabis, CEO of DeepMind, an AI start-up acquired by Google. AI is fast redefining how business is done by reducing routine tasks, thereby enhancing human performance.
But is the buzzword something that we are really unfamiliar with? I wouldn’t say so. At least a couple of examples come to mind where we have already dealt with AI in our daily lives.
The first is the auto-correct spell-check feature in a cell phone. The machine has learnt most of the popular spellings and corrects a word as soon as it encounters a mistake. Second, imagine you are visiting a website and have some queries. A chat box pops up, usually at the bottom righthand side and engages with you, trying to answer your questions. Both of these are examples of AI.
However, the instances given above barely scratch the surface of how disruptive Artificial Intelligence is going to be. Let us look at some ways in which it will affect marketing:
More effective communication
AI will throw up a great deal of significant customer data, that too at a rapid speed. From these data will evolve communication strategies based on strong insights, which will allow marketers to know exactly which triggers to press to persuade consumers to behave a certain way. The communication will, henceforth, be sharper and more effective.
Better targeted selling strategies
This is another outcome of having rich data. Marketing personnel will be able to segment markets more homogeneously, enabling selling strategies to work better. Whether it is promotional discounts or redemption coupons, the right kind of consumers will be affected into making the purchase.
According to eMarketer, Google controls 40.7 per cent of the US digital ad market, followed by Facebook with 19.7 per cent. With the help of AI, marketers can better targets the right prospects and leads based on search history and preferences. For example, push notifications can be for selective users, delivering the right message at the right time.
Higher customer retention
It is said that more than 80 per cent of customers who download an app delete it within three months. This is largely because they are not the right users that the app is trying to target. AI can address this.
By profiling the purchase history and predicting future customer behaviour, it can differentiate between potential loyalists and other buyers. Loyalty reward programmes can be designed with more accuracy, thus ensuring lower customer attrition rates. This reduces wasteful expenditure for the marketing department and increases profitability.
Deliver integrated marketing experiences
Customer experience in today’s world is in compartments — the various media of interactions, such as mobile, in-store, e-commerce and digital do not talk to each other to learn more about the customer.
AI will bridge this gap. By integrating different experiences the customer is having, it will understand their preferences much better and provide intelligent inputs to all functions of the organisations. AI then helps brands get a more complete, shared view and understanding of customer behaviours and expectations.
It basically learns using existing data without cognitive bias and throws up optimised recommendations.
AI is here to stay and in a digital world, power does not belong to those companies that have the maximum financial resources. It belongs to those that have the maximum intelligence — in this case, artificial.