artificial intelligence in marketing

“This Regulation lays down rules relating to the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and rules relating to the free movement of personal data.” It’s no “We hold these truths to be self-evident…” but when the European Union (EU) drafted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that goes into effect on May 25, 2018, they definitely had individual freedoms in mind. In this case, it’s freedom of individuals to control their personal data. The GDPR is a broad regulation that outlines how companies may legally collect and use individual personal data—and what rights EU citizens have concerning their data. It’s a major regulation with major effects. Companies that collect data from EU citizens must follow a number of regulations around collecting that data in order to legally use it. They must also respond to citizen requests to alter that data in certain circumstances.

There’s an episode of Seinfeld where Jerry fakes knowing his girlfriend’s name for the entirety of the show, only to be caught in the end and called out as a bad boyfriend. According to Fast Company, something similar is happening with artificial intelligence. AI is on the rise and people realize that they should understand it, but instead, they cling to a few buzzwords and fake a deeper understanding. The University of Helsinki in Finland wants to change that with their free course, “Elements of Artificial Intelligence.” The course is available for free to anyone with an internet connection and takes about 30 hours to complete. Users will learn to understand, think critically about, explain and discuss the inner working of artificial intelligence.

It’s no secret that one of the cornerstones of business success is customer service. Listening to a customer, hearing their needs, and giving them the exact item they want—at the moment they need it—has always been a formula for success. Artificially intelligent chatbots are starting to take us in that direction. For several years, chatbots have been part of the landscape in ecosystems such as WeChat. They have a lot of users, which makes WeChat an ideal space to deploy AI chatbots and help them learn. In fact, they even had their own virtual assistant, WeSecretary, who could help you manage your online transactions for a 10% fee. It’s currently dormant, but demonstrated a use case that’s very real. Apple recently announced Business Chat for iMessenger, and while its initial use is to encourage human-to-human customer service and support, it’s fully capable of supporting an AI-powered chatbot in the future. In fact, it’s a multi-step process to get there, with one of those steps being to eliminate voice interactions and get consumers engaging via chat. We’ve seen chatbots in Facebook Messenger, and even watched —in fascination, amusement, and horror—as Microsoft’s Tay went off the rails in spectacular fashion several years ago.

Change is the only constant in digital marketing. Not only has the consumer decision journey grown to become more and more predominantly digital and complex, the amount of intellect needed to understand that customer journey has growth, too. This means that it’s becoming increasingly difficult for brands to connect with their customers in an authentic way. The new customer experience battlefield is where brands compete for attention with a personalized digital experience. By 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key differentiator between brands. With more data at our disposal than ever, AI technologies are now allowing marketers to make sense of it all. In fact, AI provides a scalable, highly-efficient way to deliver on big data promises. Recently BrightEdge surveyed over 500 search, content, and digital marketers on how they view AI and machine learning. They were asked eight key questions related to the future of marketing and topics centered around the challenges, solutions, and adoption of artificial intelligence.

First Undergraduate Major in AI Carnegie Mellon University announced that it will offer an undergraduate degree in artificial intelligence this coming fall semester, according to The Next Web. With this offering, the Pittsburgh-based university’s School of Computer Science will become the first in the U.S. to offer an undergraduate degree in this discipline. The university hopes this program will not only help fill the talent gap for individuals with AI-related skills, but also encourage other universities to start similar programs. The four-year course load will focus heavily on machine learning, neural networks, robotics, and cognitive science. Additionally, only 30-35 students will be admitted to the program each year. Therefore, if you’re interested, you should apply sooner rather than later. The director of the new AI program, Reid Simmons, elaborates, “Students will learn the fundamental theory behind these subjects, along with how to use and develop AI techniques. Many opportunities will be available for undergraduates to do research, which will further help prepare them for graduate work.”

Most businesses run into the same problem when they begin implementing AI: Where do you get all the data? The answer depends entirely on the business and its available resources. It's why we do tailored consulting with brands on the best AI approach for them. And it's why we found this story about how Facebook gets data to train its own AI particularly insightful. (Stick with us: Even if your company doesn’t have the size and clout of Facebook, this has lessons for you.) Turns out, Facebook used Instagram photos to train AI to recognize objects. Facebook analyzed 3.5 billion Instagram photos and their hashtags. The hashtags taught AI algorithms how to categorize photos. After enough learning, the AI could then categorize photos itself. One big benefit: Instagram users had labeled the data for free, thanks to the hashtags they used on each post. Says WIRED, “It provided a way to sidestep having to pay humans to label photos for such projects." This whole scenario provides lessons for brands of any size that want to use AI.