The future is now, thanks to these 10 uses of AI in marketing
Artificial intelligence is the big tech topic of the year. The rise of ChatGPT is a case in point. What's more, according to Les Makers, the global AI market is estimated to be worth $136 billion by 2023, with growth forecast at 1,400% over the next 7 years.
This technological upheaval is having an impact on many areas of society, particularly in the workplace.
So let's take a look at AI's contribution to marketing. How can artificial intelligence help companies to attract, convince and retain potential customers effectively?
Discover 10 use cases to inspire you, and take full advantage of AI's potential 👉.
What is AI in marketing?
The term " artificial intelligence " refers to technology capable of imitating certain human cognitive functions, such as learning or problem solving.
23% of marketing professionals and 21% of sales professionals now use artificial intelligence in their work.
Ringover
Marketers have found many uses for this technology, with the aim of optimising their processes and campaigns. While it serves as a daily assistant for teams, it proves particularly powerful when it comes to carrying out tasks that are far too complex and/or time-consuming for a human.
👉 We're thinking in particular of anything that involves processing a large mass of data, requiring tedious calculations... and above all a lot of time!
Artificial intelligence in marketing: 10 concrete examples
# 1 Automation
One of the first uses of artificial intelligence is marketing automation.
Thanks to AI, teams save precious time on time-consuming and repetitive tasks (data entry, segmentation, A/B testing, etc.), thereby reducing the risk of errors.
A third (33%) of marketers said that the main benefit of using AI and machine learning is the time it saves.
Ringover
What's more, if artificial intelligence automates, it automates intelligently! Its greater computing power, coupled with its predictive capabilities, increases productivity, but also, and above all, the proactivity of marketers.
#2 Predictive analysis
Analysis is an integral part of the marketing department's mission. They need to rely on reliable data to study the performance of their campaigns and reassess their strategy if necessary.
But with the development of online commerce, the mass of information is increasing and the channels to be considered are multiplying:
- social networks
- online advertising,
- websites
- e-mailing
- mobile applications, etc.
It's impossible for a human brain to sift through all this data and cross-reference it without spending days doing so. Fortunately, we can once again rely on artificial intelligence.
But where this technology comes into its own is that it is also capable of " predicting the future " 🔮. And this is thanks to Machine Learning, a branch of AI that enables computers to learn from data and then make predictions without being explicitly programmed.
In other words, it uses current and historical information to predict future buying behaviour and trends. It's a handy way of staying one step ahead of your competitors!
#3 Personalised communications
Every good marketer knows that to stand out from other brands and create a memorable customer experience, it's important to personalise your communications as much as possible. But how do you go about it when you have to send an email or text message to several thousand contacts?
First of all, personalisation means segmentation. And thanks to AI, this works by itself, even if you have to deal with a huge volume of data. To do this, artificial intelligence draws on :
- your historical data, such as purchasing behaviour and customer navigation data,
- demographic information, such as age, sex or gender, nationality, family situation, etc.
Next, AI is able to personalise your marketing messages, based on predefined segmentation criteria, to give consumers the illusion that you've taken care to write unique content just for them.
👉 If we take the example of emailing, artificial intelligence can do more than just mention the recipient's name, it can suggest products that are suited to their preferences.
#4 Creating written content
It's impossible to talk about AI in digital marketing without mentioning content creation. It has to be said that the arrival of ChatGPT on the market has considerably shaken things up. While this programme is not yet capable of completely replacing a human, it is nonetheless a real assistant for writing blog articles, describing products, etc.
What's more, in addition to writing, artificial intelligence provides invaluable assistance with content strategy. Some tools, for example, support marketers in analysing search intent or SEO optimisation.
💡 The power of AI-powered content creation now extends to social networks, offering an innovative solution thanks to advanced management platforms such as Iconosquare.
This solution is based on cutting-edge data-centric software, incorporating OpenAI's artificial intelligence (Chat GPT-4) to automatically generate post ideas.
Using this functionality, users have the ability to generate fully personalised post ideas aligned to their activity and calendar context.
AI leverages data from your social profile, including previous posts, and takes current events into consideration to eideas and generate a brief, enabling you to create more relevant and engaging content for all your social media activities.
#5 Visual creation
Along with ChatGPT, AI marketing tools for creating visuals, such as MidJourney, are the manifestations of artificial intelligence that have attracted the most attention on the web in 2023. In fact, examples of illustrations created using this technology abound on the internet.
And with good reason, this type of device is proving to be impressive, since it can create unique, personalised images simply from text elements.
Here too, the results are not always on a par with human know-how, but AI is nonetheless an invaluable support on which to build day-to-day productivity.
Illustration by MidJourney:
#6 Content curation
Content curation is the process of selecting, organising and sharing content in a targeted way. It's all about sending the right message to the right person at the right time.
Now, just imagine carrying out this operation manually, to all the contacts in your database... and on all your channels!
Once again, artificial intelligence comes into play: it automates the whole process in a relevant way, while analysing performance in order to refine the strategy.
👉 We're faced with the process of content curation driven by artificial intelligence every day. Examples include the personalised adverts that appear on our social network news feeds.
#7 Up-selling
Cross-selling, up-selling... if you do business online, you will no doubt be familiar with these additional sales concepts, designed to boost your sales. But here too, how can you propose offers that are really tailored to each visitor browsing your website?
In the same way that artificial intelligence puts forward personalised content, it also knows how to present the right products to a given customer, drawing on its powerful analytical capacity.
👉 This is why we generally see listings of items, such as "customers have also liked", appear when we validate our basket.
Example of an additional sale on the Sephora site:
# 8 Conversation
Who hasn't tried to have a chat with ChatGPT 📢?
Today, artificial intelligence can converse quite fluidly, thanks to advances in natural language processing (NLP). AI models have already demonstrated great skill in understanding human language, but also in generating responses that are both coherent and contextual.
It's hardly surprising that companies are exploiting this potential to improve their customer relations. Chatbots spring to mind.
These now use machine-learning algorithms, based on your settings, to respond effectively to your customers' questions and suggest the right products all by themselves.
The result: support teams save time, without compromising the customer experience.
#9 Voice search
According to an adn.ai study, 28% of French people use voice search every day. This is reflected in the growing success of Google's Alexa and Apple's Siri assistants.
Marketers therefore have every interest in thinking about how to use this voice search to develop truly differentiating exchanges with consumers.
👉 Why not deploy web or mobile interfaces capable of interacting with customers by voice? It's a great way of answering their questions, guiding them through the site... and therefore engaging them more!
# 10 Facial recognition
Here's an aspect of AI that companies are still taking little advantage of. And yet it holds great promise for marketing.
Artificial intelligence can identify different facial expressions, age and gender. Facial recognition technologies are therefore mainly used in advertising, with the aim of understanding the emotions felt by consumers when faced with a given piece of content. Once again, the aim is to improve targeting and personalisation.
The issues surrounding artificial intelligence in marketing
More humanity...
Artificial intelligence has revolutionised the way marketing teams work. And this metamorphosis has no end in sight.
However, AI is now facing a major challenge: finding the right balance between automating tasks and preserving genuine human interaction.
Who hasn't complained about a bot that doesn't understand what it's being told, or about content that uses overly robotic language?
Artificial intelligence models, in their current version, exist primarily to assist teams, particularly in the context of low added-value missions. Strategic projects, on the other hand, still require that indispensable layer of humanity.
... and more ethics
At the same time, AI poses ethical problems, particularly when it collects information without the knowledge of consumers. Algorithms often go beyond the basic rules of privacy.
Companies therefore need to be transparent about their use of artificial intelligence.
Because, moral issues aside, let's not forget that people today are more observant of the actions of the brands they consume!
What does the future hold for AI marketing?
In conclusion, while AI marketing is changing the lives of businesses, there is still room for improvement. Revolutions will continue to disrupt daily processes, like the ChatGPT tidal wave in 2023.
However, in a world where the volume of data in circulation is constantly increasing, and where the very nature of this data is becoming more complex, artificial intelligence will have to be capable of embracing the following paradox: using more technology to provide more humanisation and personalisation. In short, putting an end to generic robotic messages once and for all.
However, while the future looks bright on the business side, consumers have every right to be concerned about certain uses of AI, such as voice or visual recognition, which are sometimes used for unethical purposes.
The future of artificial intelligence in marketing must therefore be shaped with certain issues in mind, so that the technology can flourish without losing control.
Article translated from French