media update’s Aisling McCarthy takes a look at where the future of marketing is headed, powered by AI technology.

The focus of AI in marketing has largely centred on improving the customer experience in order to drive more sales. Using AI-powered technology allows marketers to communicate with each customer in a personal and meaningful way. However, this is not all that AI has to offer marketers.


Here are three reasons why AI is a marketer’s best friend:

1. AI lets marketers really understand what consumers want

At the 2017 APEX Awards, ex-Googler turned banker Brett St Clair explained that the exponential growth in technology has changed the way in which people interact with the world around them, and that personalisation is key to winning consumers over.

“Listening to your customers is vital – hyper-personalisation is a huge deal for consumers.”

With every activity and habit of user logged in online, marketers have a way to see the interests and preferences of every single consumer. However, processing that data is not possible without the use of AI.

AI-powered technology is able to process consumer data quickly, analysing it and identifying trends. This technology also makes it possible to personalise adverts to consumers based on what they have purchased before, or what products are frequently purchased together.

2. Marketers can be more efficient with AI

A huge part of working as a marketer involves resource-intensive processes to complete before serving the right ad to their audience. AI-powered technology can automate many of the time-consuming steps, such as data analysis.

In an article for Digiday, Mindshare CEO Norm Johnston says that this leaves marketers with more time to communicate with their clients, improving the customer experience.

“The rapid evolution of AI in media will enable our people to focus on innovation and intelligence rather than repetition and reports,”

Ilyse Liffreing says that there is no reason to fear this development.

“The journey really is no different from what we have seen in past decades. Jobs and activities that need low level of skills and intellect, and those that are replicable, get automated.”

3. AI can help marketers pre-empt customer service needs

Companies already gather tons of data from customers – logging purchases, customer-service enquiries, and various other online and in-person requests. Using AI technology, marketers can utilise this information to pre-empt consumer service needs.

Not only can AI capture the data (saving marketers valuable time and effort), but it can mine the data as well, quickly finding trends and outliers. This will allow customer concerns to be dealt with timely, on an individual level, as well as anticipating issues before customers even log a service request.

“Look for [areas] where you can apply customer service data to solve trouble spots in your toughest customer journey,” says marketer, Jeff Foley in CMS Wire.

“Then, identify when and how you can improve your existing systems and processes to tap into customer data. Finally, make sure that pre-emptive service using customer data is a centrepiece of your company’s digital transformation plans over the next three to five years.”


AI technology isn’t going anywhere, it’s here to stay. To stay one step ahead of competitors, marketers need to embrace this technology and use it to its full potential.

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Still new to the world of artificial intelligence? We compiled a list of AI-related terms every marketer should be familiar with. Read more in our article, 10 AI terms every marketer should know.
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