Digital Marketing and Advertising in this AI dominated era

Authored by Aman Swetta, Co-founder & MD, id8 Media Solutions

In recent times, we have observed most leading companies invest in Artificial Intelligence because it is rapidly changing the future of Digital Marketing. We are already living in the era of Big Data. As we get better at collecting more data, machine learning algorithms are becoming better at processing the data. Soon, advanced data processing could be the personalization of marketing messages. We are already seeing a shift towards AI-driven data collection that runs in the background on websites, social media and other platforms. 

Today, there are AI-driven tools which provide writers with effective content ideas without having the need to spend their resources on research, surveys, and tests to understand which kind of content would work best for their target audience. We, at iD8 Media Solutions, currently use such tools for personalizing emails, optimizing social media posts, and creating effective website content or blogs. Through the use of Artificial Intelligence, we are able to drive engagement and create content that matches popular searches by our intended audience. 

We all are experiencing the growth and emergence of Voice Search with Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant. Today more and more people are conducting voice search instead of typing. By the end of this year, 50% of all searches on the internet are expected to be voice searches. Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri understand speech with an accuracy consistent with a real human being. Most leading brands and businesses have started aligning their Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and content strategies with Voice Search as it tracks data on customer needs and popular demands.  

The emergence and growing trend in Artificial Intelligence has also resulted in the development of Chatbots. This feature has become a staple on many websites and social media platforms. Chatbots are helpful in most industries for basic customer service, driving sales, and collecting data. The users today are getting used to interacting with chatbots which allows businesses to cater to all the inquiries from their customer across different time zones. The Chatbot allows for a very comprehensive form of support because it is active 24/7 and can cater to maybe even multiple languages. In the coming future, user will expect Chatbots as a standard feature on brand websites or on the hotline contact number with Voice-Conversion technology. The scary part is that chatbots could become as or more efficient than a real human in the near future. Some people are skeptical of this technology because they feel the chatbots could develop their own language. Even though, businesses who do not invest in Artificial Intelligence will probably be left behind by their competition. 

With AI and the large-scale collection of data, comes the issue of data piracy. As this issue has been projected into the spotlight, pressure has been placed onto major governments around the world to take action and restrict the unfiltered sharing of their data. Recently, governments have struggled to limit major companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook because this is an unprecedented issue that is not addressed by the current laws. Although, government have not been able to make changes, customers have put pressure on big companies by demonstrating their discontent. The effects of this can be seen with Apple’s latest software update which allows users to choose whether they want their data to be shared. This new feature is putting companies such as Facebook’s billion-dollar business at risk. 

Regardless, the only constant in marketing is change - innovation in technology is bringing new challenges and also new opportunities. The most successful people will be those who can adapt to the new environment while still delivering a relevant message to the right person at the right time.