In a marketing context, artificial intelligence (AI) is important, even essential to manage chatbot conversations, hence, the need to invent powerful technologies applicable to marketing. Many business leaders are in favor of the use of AI in digital advertising. Other more common examples are optimizing email objects which are used for tailored marketing campaigns. How is artificial intelligence defined in marketing? What are the applications invented to reinvigorate the customer relationship?

What is artificial intelligence in marketing?

According to the marketing concepts description, it is the process of involving a machine, a software or a set of algorithms to perform a task that a man cannot, without the aid of a computer. Most often these tasks are carried out for problems such as cost analysis, quality control or data aggregation, and the results are expected to be produced almost instantly. These processes can only be carried out by a computer.

This technology has also emerged in the finance industry as banks can now have more accurate data on each client’s account, allowing them to provide the best investment advice.

The debate is open as to its definition, between a “simple basic application” or “the use of automated algorithm”. This is because the term AI is frequently used to justify any marketing action by savy solution providers.

The professional world simply admits that artificial intelligence differs from marketing and machine learning, because, they are subsets of AI. Machine learning is a process which can be incorporated in many AI processes.

AI in all areas of today

As you can see, AI intertwines in marketing and the e-commerce sector:

• Guide chats chatbots
• Set the ranking of sites in the SERPs using Google’s algorithm
• Regulate business links with campaign optimization solutions
•  Control e-commerce sites by recommendation engines produced
• Detect possible fraud
• Moderate content
• Perform image recognition, voice and many more
• RTB display purchases and COD procedures
• Automatically detect the anomaly in the web or mobile analytics data 
• Dynamic pricing processes

In the field of marketing, it is used most often when the basic data or the variables are too important or numerous (we speak of big data) to be treated by hand. Sometimes also, companies want to replace a person with a chatbot for reasons of cost or speed of treatment. But the most common reason is that AI ​​has proven to offer a gain in reliability, precision and quality of treatment compared to a human being.

With this in mind, developers have multiplied applications to revive the customer relationship. Therefore, AI is now commonplace in the area of consumer experience. It uses both data and human memory to increase the customer relationship. Like data, the human is undeniably essential for technological innovations.

Seeing the new technologies that are spreading in this digital world, companies are focused on three fundamental elements, (the man at the heart of progress, the data (the engine) and the algorithms or software). This is how AI experts succeed in personalizing the customer relationship.

Can artificial intelligence be broken into chatbot? What is certain, according to the latest information, is that the chatbot is being humanized to possess all the faculties of man. So by 2020, humans will talk more with humanized robots than with their counterparts.

Stitch Fix is ​​one of the US brands that already uses marketing applications to improve customer relationships. Specialized in the online sale of clothing, it offers Internet users a series of questions about their morphology and their tastes.

Depending on the answers, a team of scientists sends the customer his ideal order consisting of 5 products from which he can make his choice. The choice of these clothes takes place after the team has analyzed the data collected, thanks to the answers. This way of doing things allows this American brand to create an ultra-personalized relationship with its customers and to have a large amount of data. 

These results are effective and will certainly encourage the adaptation of virtual reality in the marketing strategy of many companies in 3 to 4 years.

With artificial intelligence technologies , as professionals, you have the tools you need to understand the past, reveal the future and even predict the behaviors of your customers. This information will provide a better customer relationship.

All this has been possible thanks to many factors such as the digitalization of customers, the abundance of data, the great computing capacity of machines, the connected employees and the development of robotics.

Vinci Energies is another company that uses these kinds of applications to perform maintenance ahead of time. It acts by collecting data concerning the occupancy of meeting rooms or rooms to be modified, and this occurs before the customer calls to request the hardware failures to be repaired.

AI in the world of work

Did you know that artificial intelligence is able to adapt a product to the tastes of consumers? Intelligent X Brewing.co, the first brewery utilizing  artificial intelligence has proven itself. It is a quality beer made from a machine learning application. Thanks to the comments of consumers, it improves based on the true wants of their consumers. They have the opportunity to test it in four different flavors sold in London and to provide their feedback or feedback via the Intelligent X Brewing.co website.

In all cases, all professionals are unanimous, this revolution is at the service of marketing as its results are promising in the business world. Indeed, it has a real ability to adapt and change behavior in the context of significant customer relationship. Although AI really is the future of marketing, it must be recognized that it is the subject of many questions and fantasies.T

Sectors of marketing with applications in AI

Today everyone recognizes that marketing opportunities depend on the evolution of artificial intelligence. This will quickly progress in the years to come. Here are some key marketing prowess areas:

Personalization and refined recommendation: At this level, an intelligent machine is able to collect and analyze a mass of data larger than a human being ever could. This is the case of a program that can study in detail the habit of a user (clicks, advertisements, emails, videos viewed, various tasks, sessions, interactions …). This analysis allows the companie to make ultra-personalized recommendations.

This feature is already on the market thanks to Amazon, Netflix, or Spotify’s algorithm coupled with predictive applications that are used in the suggestion of, purchases, movies or artists. For example, the company Under Armor uses IBM’s Watson software, to maintain their customer base. Many companies today use these computer technologies to offer unparalleled personalized experiences to their customers.

Customer service and support: Since it is really not clear when, how and why a customer will need support, AI technology is used to facilitate these exchanges. It takes a predictive approach in communicating with the consumer, in doing so it helps the company save time and money. This algorithm is based on the study of many elements designed to predict the individual behaviors of customers. It is currently being developed by a technology initiated by Saffron Technology, the American company of North Carolina which was bought by Intel.

Ad targeting: This is a software that optimizes ad spend and marketing strategy. The technology is used to deliver excellent quality advertising at the optimal time and to the best targeted audience while reducing costs and increasing revenue. The maximization of the strategy will be automatic thanks to intelligent programs which have the possibility to fully study the collected data.

Speech recognition and natural language processing: This software has already been proposed by WayBlazer for travelers, it is based on IBM Watson technology. The technology specializes in speech recognition, which is analyzing various forms of conversations to better understand human voice responses, and ultimately will become an invaluable assistant in our everyday lives. In addition to the recognition of speech, another preoccupation stands before AI, it is about the meaning of language. This will help companies to use the information collected from customers effectively.       

Automatic creation of content: According to the statistics, as of 2019, machines will be able to write at least 90% of the content needed for e-commerce and professional sites. There are some solutions in this area, such as Narrative Science and the Quill system, which can produce content using natural language, after analyzing the collected data.

In practice, artificial intelligence needs quality data. On the other hand, the development of its various forms requires the platforms to adopt a mass of good quality information. 

Machine learning applications for digital marketing

The application of machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence, it is today the foundation of the profound change in digital marketing. Can we then say that machine learning is the new basis of digital technology?

Compared to Big Data (mass data), machine learning is a fairly powerful application, it allows us to automate many digital marketing processes. What exactly is it?

Sub-discipline of artificial intelligence, machine learning allows the sorting of mass data in order to penetrate the mystery of the customer (to get into their heads) and better satisfy their needs.

In reality, it appears as if the machine learning algorithm is a ghost that anticipates the desires of customers to surprise them with offers of their tastes. The platform acts much like e-commerce sites and social networks that only suggest advertisements or services based on your data that they have collected at some point. This is exactly what the Netflix algorithm does, showing a series of movies or shows (ie, Breaking Bad) that interest users. It starts from the idea that other TV content may also please (for example, Dexter rather than Little House on the Prairie).

This application is also used by shopping sites, a digital music provider, a ticket price comparator. Google is among the users of machine learning software for its semi-automatic predictive research. 

Machine learning, will help you better understand the path of the customer journey. You will understand their needs, thanks to the algorithm and be able to predict and anticipate their desires. It’s a bit like the waiter in a restaurant serving his customers meals that they thought they were ordering but have not yet expressed. With automatic data learning in bulk, the robot just needs to know who you are and how you think in order to anticipate what you want.

The era of digital marketing spans the entire spectrum of independent consumers online, which results in the pure coincidence between supply and demand. In fact, with deep learning, which is a robust application that works through data collection, machine learning offers many possibilities to web marketers.

Thanks to the data collected by forms, cookies, loyalty cards, geolocation, mobile applications, connected objects or social networks, this software offers businesses information by transforming them into better quality offers. These offers are always accompanied by other attractive advantages to guarantee customer satisfaction. 

In conclusion, machine learning and digital marketing form a winning duo. Indeed, since the history of Big Data to the new habits of consumers, through the multiplication of data IoT, machine learning is more than ever unavoidable today. And yet the world only used the first machine learning algorithm in the 1970s.

Let’s offer a personalized experience rooted in machine learning for your customers, that will create brand loyalty for LIFE!