Don Draper should be worried. As AI becomes more sophisticated, companies are letting computers try their hands at advertising. Lexus, for example, turned to AI to create a script for a commercial. How’d it do? Judge for yourself.
Sure, it was a stunt, but it did reveal that artificial intelligence is a viable technology for advertisers. Marketing and advertising have changed a lot in the past decade or so. The main shift has been in the sheer volume of data that advertisers now have at their fingertips.
We’re now entering a phase where advertisers have better, faster ways to process that data, and put it to work.
Here’s a little more about where we’re at in 2019 — and some thoughts about where we might be in the near term.
Data analysis and algorithmic action
In most cases, data comes from several sources and is kept in silos. Marketers benefit from accessing all data from one location. This allows them to connect the dots and understand the customer experience from all possible angles.
Many companies are now using a form of AI called Natural Language Processing (NLP) to read and understand human language. The most common example is digital assistants like Siri and Alexa — who deliver intelligent responses to human questions.
From an advertising point of view, NLP may be applied to identify customer sentiment on social media or identify which parts of an email campaign were most likely to generate a response. This allows marketers to quickly ID what works and what doesn’t — without having to tag specific actions or feedback manually.
Algorithms are the core of our favorite apps — they help Netflix recommend movies, give Amazon clues to items we might like, and determine the quality of news that shows up in our Facebook feeds.
But advertisers don’t always openly share information about the algorithms they use to target customers. When customers don’t know why algorithms make a decision, there’s a lack of transparency at play because they don’t know what data that algorithm collects or how the platform works.
How AI is changing Google Ads
Last April, Google announced that they would start offering ad suggestions on their ads recommendation page.
The announcement received little attention, but the update actually is a big deal. Google now uses AI to create text-based ads for advertisers , and these ads will automatically go live after 14 days of inactivity.
You can choose to opt out of this feature. Google frames this auto-drafting feature as a way to make advertising easier. Still, this means advertisers lose control over campaigns unless they make sure to take the extra step and opt out.
On the flip side, AI may be able to make smarter decisions about word choice, helping advertisers generate more leads and rack up revenue. It’ll be interesting to see the statistics (man vs. machine) after this practice has been in the mainstream for a while.
Should we teach robots to analyze body language?
Whether we admit it or not, personalized recommendations are manipulating us . The consulting firm McKinsey & Company estimates that algorithms determine 35% of Amazon purchases and 75% of Netflix choices. Research has shown that algorithms can negatively affect us . They may promote complacency, perpetuate bias, and offer differential pricing based on a variety of unknown factors.
More marketers will experiment with AI
This year and beyond, marketers are likely to start experimenting more with AI and automation. The influx in data means more opportunities to tailor advertisements to individual customers.
Adding AI to advertisers’ toolkits means that they’ll be able to create new revenue opportunities by allowing consumers to choose how they interact with a brand.
The main benefit for this group is that they’re entering this new era of data application. The past several years, marketers have had to be smart about which metrics they analyze. Failure to do so meant sifting through a massive dataset from all of these disparate locations, manually, which includes pulling Google Analytics reports, reviewing social media statistics, and setting up alerts to stay on top of brand mentions.
AI promises to free marketers from this information overload and help them identify big-picture action items that allow them to improve customer relations.
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Consumers should be aware of the changing landscape, too
Consumers need to learn more about the techniques used to market to them — and they should have the ability to decide whether they want to participate in those campaigns.
Initiatives like Europe’s GDPR are a step in the right direction, requiring companies to explain, in simple terms, why they need to share their data and how that data will be used and stored.
The EU weighs law to stop another Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal
Customers should have a clear understanding of what they give up when they share their data and what they stand to receive in return. Advertisers have long benefitted from gaining an understanding of human behavior. But the fact that they have access to location-based data, transactional data, and search habits along with powerful algorithms arguably puts marketers at a considerable advantage.
With that in mind, we’ll need to think more carefully about the ethical implications. Consumers may be used to all this tracking and targeting, but that doesn’t make it okay.
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