While Madison Avenue executives battled it out in the 1960s, I was one of many who felt the butterflies when Don Draper and Roger Sterling struck a deal and wooed clients with unconventional, mind-blowing, yet simple workable ideas that swept them off their feet. From the 1960s to the 1980s, and now in 2024, the experience is the same when QuillBot, ChatGPT, Sora, Runway, and Adobe firefly do the work for me without forcing my brain to think for hours.
AI has the potential to create massive change in company operations, including marketing and drive enormous results. It is improbable that you are a marketer who does not use any type of artificial intelligence! And if you are not, you will miss out on the benefits of what could be the most transformative technology. There are numerous AI technologies available to us, many of which we utilize without realizing it. With the introduction of intelligent marketing tools and generative AI such as ChatGPT, AI marketing is playing an increasingly important role, providing marketing teams with several options to do more of what they do best. AI-driven marketing is expected to significantly boost the global economy in the coming years, with data-driven product upgrades, personalized services, and the ability to influence consumer demand.
AI-powered social listening tools like Hootsuite help brands instantly identify the trends, topics, and influencers that matter most to customers, then use those insights to drive better business decisions. Automation on the other hand has reduced the marketers’ efforts by scheduling, posting at optimal times and categorising incoming messages. Content generation, audience segmentation, data analysis, Customer behaviour prediction analysis, Online reputation management, Customer relationship management are some of the marketing functions that have a positive impact on our life as marketers.
Even though most businesses are adopting various marketing AI solutions and have improved their operations, there are still some challenges preventing marketing professionals from completely embracing AI. Because AI technologies are constantly maturing, marketers are concerned about erroneous outcomes and inaccurate information, and some marketing professionals are worried about becoming overly reliant on AI and automation tools. Adoption of any new technology can take time, especially if it is complex.
Another problem is the lack of an AI-friendly, data-first culture, as well as the development of competencies and upskilling to fulfil skill demand. As a firm continues to establish a data- and AI-literate culture, it is critical that it allows people who are already specialists in their sector to upskill and grasp the relevance of the technology. While organizations with a large amount of data and a need for substantial personalization and intelligent automation of their operations have likely been using AI for the last decade, they have done it in the operations of their business rather than marketing and sales. There is a great desire for personalization, better client experiences, and improved outcome predictability, which are all reasons to adopt AI.
Whether AI reaches its full potential pivots on businesses realizing the importance of a coordinated and planned approach to marketing and AI deployment. The true value is unlocked when we begin to use them together, with the goal of answering our most pressing issues, affecting our most significant metrics, and attaining crucial business objectives.