The realm of marketing is going through a sensational change currently, as the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) is taking on an enhanced role with the introduction of intelligent marketing tools. AI creates enormous opportunities for marketing teams to perform better and more conveniently. AI technologies with customer and brand experience data provide accurate and specific information to the marketing teams.
At its core, Artificial Intelligence is the development of intelligent machines that can assist tasks performed through human intelligence. In simple terms, artificial intelligence is a way for computers to mimic human thinking. AI, with its remarkable capabilities, has become an essential element of daily lives throughout the world. It supports popular equipment such as smartphones, empowers home devices, enables autonomous vehicles, and even guides strategic financial choices.
Today, artificial intelligence, evolving at an astonishing pace, has become a transformative force in nearly every industry, and marketing is no exception. In recent years, AI has revolutionised the way businesses approach marketing strategies, customer engagement, and data analysis. This technology has the potential to not only enhance marketing effectiveness but also to reshape the entire landscape of marketing practices.
Research reveals that by 2030, 45% of the global economy will use AI-driven marketing. Although most large-scale Sri Lankan marketers are already in motion on AI-based drives, small and medium scale entrepreneurs do not seem to understand or give due importance to this extreme necessity yet.
Hence, it is time for them to take a close look and gear themselves to go with the tide. Hence, it is important to study the application of artificial intelligence in marketing.
Segmentation
AI can be used in customer segmentation, the process of dividing and identifying customers in groups based on their needs, buying patterns, and general characteristics. The use of AI can be of enormous assistance in creating these segments.
Based on their interactions with business, classification techniques may be used to anticipate client traits such as age, gender, income, or personality. The information can be used to recommend products, services, or offers. Using AI for customer segmentation and targeting may provide various advantages for a marketer, including improved customer satisfaction, increased marketing efficiency, greater competitive advantage, and innovation. AI can provide segments that are more accurate, relevant, and dynamic.
AI enables marketers to deliver personalised content, recommendations, and product suggestions in real-time. This personalisation enhances customer engagement and boosts conversion rates. The AI-driven personalisation can collect and analyse data of potential customers faster from their browsing and purchasing history that can be used to identify their distinctive needs and preferences of each customer.
Predictive analytics of artificial intelligence can assist marketers effectively. Businesses apply data to find and understand the present and future of their products and services. This typically forecasts what will happen in the future to sales or how customers will respond to products and price changes.
Predictive analytics is good at identifying customer trends based on large amounts of data or particularly complex data sets. It is revealed that many large-scale businesses often use predictive analytics to make data-driven decisions and optimise outcomes.
Artificial Intelligence has invaded advertising campaign modelling and seemingly revolutionised the way brands engage with their audiences, leading to more personalised and impactful experiences. Data-driven targeting and search engine optimisation to chatbots and voice assistants, AI tools have restructured the advertising landscape.
Reduction of marketing budgets
These AI-driven campaigns not only augment the results of such campaigns but also help reduce marketing budgets substantially. AI in advertising is utilised to communicate with them more effectively and personalise the sellers’ messages as well. Often, AI also works to automate these processes to save businesses time and money.
AI-driven marketing has many other advantages. Efficiency enhancement is one of the key benefits among them. AI automates repetitive tasks, allowing marketers to focus on strategic activities, leading to greater efficiency and productivity. For example, by automating constantly arriving new leads, the AI can prioritise the converting ratio, indicating the sales team which lead to reach out first.
Similarly, by automatically qualifying, sorting, and delegating leads among the sales team, AI can improve lead routing process using machine learning to analyse performance data. These analytics make the sales manager to accurately predict which leads are qualified and which sales team member can most likely nurture a relationship with a lead and close a deal.
Also, in the context of efficiency, AI chatbots can assist in answering inquiries from customers who seek information on website or manage complaints by integrating customer relationship management software.
Trends and patterns
AI can analyse enormously large amounts of customer data faster and more precisely. It can also draw insights and prepare charts and graphs to make it easy to spot trends and patterns to assist marketing campaigns. Similarly, as discussed previously, AI helps accurate customer segmentation, personalising communication, and all advertising efforts.
Just as any other useful technological advancement, AI also is not without some serious disadvantages. Risks in data privacy is one of the main disadvantages in artificial intelligence. AI draws large amounts of information from customers and from campaigns. This can be a concern for data privacy and security of an organisation.
To foster customer trust, marketers must not only take adequate measures to protect and safeguard data but also disclose it to the customers, before they share data.
Secondly, it is important to understand that the output of the AI is dependent on the input it is provided with. If data is disproportionately represented, AI may produce inaccurate or biased information and predictions that can lead to unfair outcomes for the customers.
Another big disadvantage of AI is the absence of creativity or intuition. It cannot produce results by thinking independently or thinking outside the box. AI is only capable of learning with pre-fed data and past experiences but cannot be creative in its approach. In a marketing campaign, human information can be used with clues based on their interactions and common sense where AI can provide only information based on input of data.
Deepfake software
Risks such as automation-prompted job losses, inaccurate data distribution, socioeconomic inequality, privacy violations, can emerge by using Artificial Intelligence. For example, deepfake software can alter a video file where an actor can sit in front of a camera and read from a prepared script to produce a believable story with the intention of harming a prominent person or institution.
Artificial intelligence offers numerous advantages for marketing efficiency. However, it also comes with significant risks and challenges, including job displacement, bias, privacy concerns, and ethical dilemmas.
AI has already become an integral part of marketing strategies across industries. Its ability to analyse data, automate tasks, and deliver personalised experiences is reshaping the marketing landscape. The future of marketing will undoubtedly be managed by data-driven insights and hyper-personalisation, fundamentally changing how businesses interact with their customers. Marketers who embrace AI will be well-positioned for success in the ever-evolving digital marketplace.
