by Jeff Andrews, VP Client Services

HAL 9000, your Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer, is here.

Well, actually, it’s Alexa, Siri, and if you still watch SNL, Echo Silver. Love the ‘Uh huh’ feature.

So how is artificial intelligence driving marketing? Let’s ask BOOMMER, our smart, in-house Type I, AI partner. BTW, the staff wanted an agency dog, management said ‘no’.

‘BOOMMER, can you give us some examples of AI in the marketing world?’

‘Sure, Boss.’

‘See, I told you he was smart.’

‘AI is being used to create highly personalized website visits which leads to better CRO (conversion rate optimization). Netflix, LinkedIn, Amazon and Spotify all customize your user experience based on your viewing habits, business contacts, past purchases and music preferences.’

‘BOOMMER, that’s really interesting. Are there places where we wouldn’t guess where machines are creating content?’

Is your new coworker a robot?

‘Many places actually. Profit & loss summaries, quarterly business reports, hotel descriptions, stock insights and sports recaps are some of the items being authored by machines today. It’s predicted that 20% of all business content will be authored by machines in the very near future.’

 ‘Oh, and I’m guessing that we’ve had direct contact with some of the machines.’

‘Of course. You shouldn’t be surprised that your online customer service rep stands a very good chance of being a chatbot. Bots are available 24/7 to resolve customer requests and, with advances in AI, they do it cheaply, efficiently and consistently. Personal digital assistants like my friends Alexa and Siri use Natural Language Processing and AI to better understand your questions and provide spoken responses.’

‘Boommer, I went online to check out the HAL 9500, now I get personalized emails from the developer. What’s up with that?’

‘AI is being used to create real-time, behavior-based emails that improve customer engagement, open rates, CTRs and conversions. Hyper-personalized, triggered emails based on behavior get three times the response rate of one-size fits all emails. May I ask why you’re checking into the HAL 9500?’

‘Never mind about that. This all sounds like big time number crunching. Is AI being used for anything a little more fun?’

‘AI isn’t just about numbers and letters. Ferrero recently used an AI algorithm to design 7 million unique Nutella labels to drive sales for their product in Italy.’

 ‘Sounds like the next Picasso just might be a machine.’

 ‘Boss, I’d be happy to explain to the nice people the difference between AI and machine learning.’

‘No, BOOMMER, I think that’s enough for today—but please record the tonight’s episode of X Files and turn down the heat a little, it’s getting toasty in here.’