Artificial intelligence is often depicted in the movies as robots with synthetic consciousness. This picture is pervasive and may pop into your mind when someone mentions artificial intelligence (AI). This picture is also how major screenplays portray the concept, though AI is the engine behind many applications other than robotics. In the marketing world, AI is a technology used to boost the return on investment. These objectives are achieved through big data analytics, machine learning, and other processes. The primary purpose is an increased understanding of the target audience. Read on to find out how marketers are using artificial intelligence to drive their businesses.

Artificial Intelligence and the Digital Market Place

There is no doubt that the internet has been a game-changer for most marketers. Gone are the days when consumers window shopped. Thus, gaining access to potential customers is harder as more people embrace the digital world. Buyers are increasingly engaged with their mobile devices and tend to ignore the physical signage around them. Marketers are never sure whether people will look at their advertisements.

As a result, marketers are adapting through the use of artificial intelligence to navigate the digital space. Artificial intelligence helps marketers streamline and optimize their marketing operations, particularly the collection of consumer data.

Research estimates that 72% of smartphone users will use their phones solely for gaining access to the internet by 2025. This heavy reliance on internet use is good news for marketers relying on AI to gain an edge. They will have a large sample of potential customers to analyze and understand. In the meantime, these are some of the ways marketers use AI to engage their consumer base.

Chatbots

Currently, most companies rely on the human labor force in their customer relations departments. These are the people who are responsible for answering our calls and offering solutions to our queries. As a company’s customer base increases, the ability to respond to customer questions decreases.

Chatbots offer a reprieve in such a scenario. On many websites today, chatbot technology enables quick responses to customers’ frequently asked questions. This “self-help” model allows customers to save time. However, these chatbots are not mature enough to completely replace the human face in the customer care departments. A well-designed chatbot will provide an easy link for the customer to speak to a human agent when the interaction with the chatbot falls short.

Predictive Analysis

The average internet user gets bombarded daily with advertisements. As a result, people often skip over the ads because they are irrelevant to the user. Marketing companies are increasingly relying on data scientists to change this situation. Why? You might ask.

Consider the internet as a large behavioral science laboratory. In this laboratory, there is so much data available that humans alone can never analyze them. That is where artificial intelligence finds its place. Marketers use AI together with machine learning and big data analysis tools to study the available data. These studies reveal consumer preferences, enabling personalized advertisements.

This personalization enables marketers to target their audience, increasing the likelihood of the consumers engaging with the ad, leading to an increase in their investment value. Aside from helping marketers personalize their advertisements, AI algorithms are also used to predict future consumer trends. The earlier a marketer can identify a trend, the easier it is to prepare for the trend.

Content Curation and Generation

Traditional forms of marketing are losing their place in the contemporary world. A good example of current marketing strategies is content marketing. Content marketing is the concept in which a product or service is referred to in another context, such as a blog or TV show. While this form of marketing can be very effective, success is dependent on presenting the content to the right people. The use of AI enables marketers to curate their content for a specific audience.

AI can ease the content generation process by providing suggestions for viable topics based on a targeted audience. In some experimental cases, the AI has gone a step farther to develop drafts of these suggestions for the marketers. As a result, marketers enjoy cost and time savings.

Embrace AI Marketing Strategies

Using AI to analyze and filter information from potential customers can lead to a better understanding of consumer needs. This understanding can inform product and service design decisions, as well as support marketing initiatives. If you are curious about applying AI to your marketing efforts, don’t hesitate to reach out.