In the latest Meta earnings call, the word AI was mentioned a record 47 times! Meta, over the past two years, has shifted their investor messaging to focus on ways AI in marketing can bolster engagement and monetization, helping the company make more money. Frankly, the AI hype cycle is at its peak. Every big player worth its salt is single-mindedly focused on getting this right.
As I was working on this article, the White House has just announced the first government-wide policy to mitigate risks of artificial intelligence (AI) and harness its benefits. To coordinate these efforts, every federal agency must appoint a chief AI officer with “significant expertise in AI.” The fact is that AI and its use has become a topmost priority for business and policy makers both. This also logically leads us to the value of being right with AI and the price of being wrong, ethically, professionally, and financially.
Before I delve deeper about AI in marketing, I want to throw light on startling but well-known facts:
- The top 1% of social networks account for 95% of social web traffic and 86% of social mobile app use.
- The top 1%t of search engines account for 97% of search traffic.
- The top 1% of ecommerce sites account for 57% of ecommerce traffic.
- Apple and Google account for more than 95% of mobile app store market, except in China, of course.
These are the same companies that are investing heavily in AI because they believe that AI will help them keep their market dominance while further driving earnings and profitability.
AI in Marketing: A Game Changer or Just Hype?
Some of the applications of AI in marketing include:
- Chatbots for lead management
- Customer care automation
- Cross-selling and upselling recommendations
- Lead scoring to prioritize prospects
- Next best offer suggestions based on customer behavior
- Campaign automation for efficient marketing workflows
- Programmatic buying for targeted ad placements
- Call analytics to measure and improve call performance
- ORM (Online Reputation Management) to monitor brand perception
The use cases are evolving, and sharp marketing practitioners are beginning to measure its impact. However, I believe for AI to have a long-term impact on business goals, marketers need to follow a simple strategy driven framework to deliver measurable outcomes:
While I have expressed my reservations about how big tech is leveraging AI in marketing, good and giant strides are also being taken in content generation. Just last week, OpenAI showcased Sora AI video generator, a new generative AI model that can create detailed videos from simple written prompts. They released new Sora videos generated by a few visual artists and directors. At one level, it feels like a threat to creative people; at another, it is a huge opportunity to leverage this technology to push creative boundaries.
How AI in Marketing Can Augment, Not Replace, Human Intelligence?
AI in marketing holds enormous promise, but at the same time I suggest that marketers be very realistic about its current capabilities. In my experience, AI can currently accomplish only narrow tasks. Some marketers plunge into AI initiatives without fully understanding its capabilities and limitations. They build unrealistic expectations internally and pursue projects AI cannot deliver. I have faced multiple such instances which lead to cynicism towards such projects from the leadership.
AI and its integration with marketing paints a picture full of possibilities and pitfalls. I have always maintained that the synergy between AI and human insights will be the key to marketing success. Artificial intelligence in marketing is not about replacing the Human intelligence but about augmenting it. In the end it will all boil down to the fact that were marketers able to understand
