In 2013, we wrote an article about cloud computing for the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Metro Orlando’s (HCCMO) Vision Magazine, titled, “Your Small Business and The Cloud Could Mean Heaven.” We wrote about how cloud computing reduced cost, increased productivity, and sales for small businesses. We also mentioned that cloud computing was more than just a trend and it was to stay– we were right! We went as far as suggesting a couple of cloud-based systems that small businesses could use. Today, we heavily rely on cloud-based products. Another trend that will be part of our everyday lives permanently is artificial intelligence (AI). Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon are betting their future on AI and we need to pay close attention.
What’s Artificial Intelligence?
The typical definition of AI which makes most people nervous is a system that demonstrates behaviors associated with human intelligence such as planning, learning, reasoning, problem-solving, knowledge representation, perception, manipulation and in certain instances social intelligence and creativity.
What are the uses of AI?
Today, we use AI frequently whether we realize it or not; think about how many times you “talk” to Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, Amazon’s Alexa or even Google. Recently, Google showcased an AI assistant that called a local business to make an appointment that could pass as a human on the phone (view the video above).
Other uses of AI include the following; spotting spam, fake social media accounts, chatbots, bots, flagging inappropriate content online, and/or even detecting credit card fraud.
Augmented reality, another aspect of AI can be leveraged to provide consumers an option to see the product before an actual purchase. Ikea, Wayfair, and Amazon all have AR capabilities for customers stimulating a faster purchase.
Additionally, artificial intelligence will ultimately be an important aspect of optimized decision making in digital marketing.
What’s fueling Artificial Intelligence?
What’s fueling AI? The answer is simple, ‘Big Data!’ According to an IBM Marketing Cloud study, people, businesses, and devices have all become data factories that are pumping out incredible amounts of information to the web each day. Every day, we feed social media with an incredible amount of information. Consider the following data according to Social Skinny & Social Pilot:
- Every 60 seconds, 136,000 photos are uploaded to Facebook, 510,000 comments are posted, and 293,000 status updates are posted.
- Each day 95 million photos are uploaded on Instagram
- There are more than 50 billion Pinterest Pins
- On an average, 3 billion snaps are sent every day
- Every second, on average, around 8,000 tweets are tweeted on Twitter (visualize them here).
- There are 9 billion content impressions in LinkedIn feeds every week.
- 400 hours worth of video content is uploaded every minute, and 73,820 YouTube videos are viewed every second!
Many data analysts are suggesting the digital universe will be 40 times bigger by 2020! This means that within the next couple of years, digital marketers need to be prepared to navigate a big sea of data!
According to Gartner, ‘Big Data’ is comprised of the following 3V’s:
Big Data & Artificial Intelligence
- Velocity – refers to the speed at which vast amounts of data are being generated, collected and analyzed.
- Volume – It is estimated that about 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are being generated every day!
- Variety – Most of the data is unstructured in nature.
In addition, Veracity accounts for the accuracy and trustworthiness of the data and it has been added as a 4th ‘V’ in recent years.
As digital marketers, how do you navigate through these diverse data sets generated every day?
What impact will AI have on the digital marketing landscape?
If you are a digital marketer, you’ve dealt with the stress of dealing with mounds of data; data that range from users’ age, gender, marital status, geographic location, income levels, educational achievement, and statistical data such as impressions per post, interactions on mobile versus desktop, responses (e.g shares, retweets), click-through rates, etc. This type of information allows us to measure the effectiveness of any marketing strategy. Additionally, such analysis reveals how content or ads are doing among different customer segments. This is very beneficial since marketers can react in near real time to adjust their strategy.
The emergence of artificial intelligence is helping digital marketers make better use of digital media data. In the coming months of 2018, AI will take more steps toward solving highly complex big data challenges that transcend digital marketing.
Big Data & AI Yield Meaningful Results According to MIT Sloan Management Review:
- Executives report notable successes in initiatives to improve decision-making through advanced analytics-69% success rate
- Businesses are also using big data and AI investments to accelerate time-to-market for new products and services-54.1% success rate
- Improve customer service-53.4% success rate
Marketers of the future and AI
It’s certain that marketers of the future will need the support of a machine to help process big data. Because of this, marketers will need to work hand-in-hand with machines to analyze data and to make important decisions. Throughout history, we have seen that no matter how much technology evolves, there will always be the need for a human to oversee it. There’s no need to be fearful that AI will replace analysts. Neither the human or the software could do it alone. Soon both humans and machines will work closer together to almost eradicate human error and make more accurate decisions.
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