If an AI system for marketers had written this article instead of a mere human, the content would be so targeted it might include hyper-personal details like the type of car you drive, your favourite sandwich and your neighbourhood.
But because we’re going on a hunch, we’ll guess a Hyundai i30, banh mi and Flemington.
Way off? Damn. Further evidence that AI trumps human intuition every time.
Joking aside, artificial intelligence (AI) for marketing is real. Seemingly overnight, artificial intelligence has leapfrogged the conceptual phase and become the centrepiece technology for software companies on main stages, home pages and TV spots around the world.
And for good reason. Today, AI is transforming nearly every industry by crunching vast amounts of data in real time to improve decision making, automate jobs and cut costs. But for all its use cases, one place where AI is really showcasing its transformational prowess is in differentiating the customer experience.
AI for CX
We live in a world where delivering a personalised, dynamic, frictionless and fast customer experience has a very positive impact on brand perception and equity. Conversely, think of how fast you swear off companies with bad UX or spammy emails.
AI’s supporting technologies – machine learning, computer vision and natural language processing – enable savvy marketers to automate hundreds of campaigns and deliver exceptional experiences that build loyalty and evangelism.
To deliver on this potential, marketers must be able to analyse an endless stream of structured and unstructured customer data – such as transactions, tweets and phone calls – to understand customer attributes and reach individuals with personalised offers at the opportune time.
This is where AI comes in. Just as an algorithm can teach itself how to play chess, AI can use your organisation’s customer data to understand what the next best action for a customer should be, what products to recommend and which marketing activity is most likely to yield a positive response.
And because AI systems are self-learning, they get smarter over time as new data inputs teach the system what works and what doesn’t.
Read the AI for CX ebook
‘The art of differentiating on customer experience: an introduction to AI for marketers’ is a cheat sheet for marketers and CX professionals looking to understand the true power of AI and learn how organisations are successfully using the technology today.
The guide shares the latest perspectives on AI for marketing, explains the different types of AI and explores how each can be deployed to transform CX.
The four real-world examples featured in the ebook share:
- How UK energy giant EDF Energy uses machine learning and predictive analytics to reduce customer churn and drive profits
- how Dutch soccer analytics firm SciSports deploys computer vision to model player movements in real-time for a better fan experience
- how Nationwide Building Society will save nearly AU$12 million over three years by using natural language processing to streamline customer service calls, and
- how ecommerce retailer Shop Direct uses deep learning to deliver a personalised web experience for every customer.
The transformational benefits of AI are real. These case studies bring the technology to life.
Are you ready for AI?
AI is not the silver bullet for every CX project. Your business case and desired business impact will determine whether AI is the right solution.
Because data is the lifeblood of AI, you’ll need strong data management capabilities to benefit from AI technology. The more data you can feed into the AI system, the more accurate your algorithms and hence your business outcomes will be.
You’ll also need the ability to put AI into production and scale it. This requires the right tools, people and organisational culture. Will you achieve that with in-house skills or by partnering with external experts?
Despite the relative complexity of AI, visionary marketers are working on some very practical, valuable and creative ways to power CX using a full range of AI capabilities. In today’s CX-driven world, it’s nearly impossible to know your customers as well as they expect you to, without fully exploiting your data and the transformative power of analytically-driven AI.
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This article first appeared in www.marketingmag.com.au
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