Artificial Intelligence in Digital Marketing – Rise of the Robot Era: Artificial intelligence has been around for a while now, and its use in digital marketing is becoming more prevalent. But what is artificial intelligence, exactly? And how is it changing the way businesses operate online? In this blog post, we will explore the history of artificial intelligence and discuss how it is being used to change digital marketing as we know it. We will also look at some specific applications of AI in digital marketing that can help your business reach new heights.
Thanks largely to sci-fi movies, the layman is more or less aware of the term Artificial Intelligence or popularly, AI. In the last couple of years, there has been a tremendous leap in developing and utilizing AI for various purposes, including digital marketing. The huge amount of data collected and sorted by brands from their customers are underutilized mainly due to the large scale of the assimilated data.
Artificial Intelligence can make sense of the vast data collected from various sources. Brands today are not satisfied with simply the customer interaction form filled up by the purchaser. Brands are gleaning data from social media profiles, previous purchases, buying patterns, web browsing history, and many other avenues. All this data can be utilized to create a customized, targeted digital marketing message for individual customers.
However, human digital marketers will not be able to handle and collate all this information. AI can do that for human marketers. With the help of AI, you can fine-tune your marketing message and send out tailor-made messages for each buyer, even the potential ones. You can customize discounts, freebies and other accesses that will take your brand closer to the customer. AI can achieve that in order to make the customer think that they are the only customers on the brand’s buyer list!
It does not mean that Artificial Intelligence will completely take over the digital marketing medium, cutting out human jobs. It is now proven beyond doubt that AI can help humans, not replace them. Not as yet, definitely! Marketing teams need the human experience, planning and strategy. AI needs a capable driver to plow through all the information and categorize them into sensible, effective units of information. A human digital marketer needs to function as that driver.
It is very much like the PDA or Personal Digital Assistants that you use today on your phone, like Alexa, Siri and Cortana. They make life simpler for you to make optimum use of your time. AIs serve the same function for digital marketers, albeit on a much bigger scale.
What is artificial intelligence?
AI is a field of computer science that focuses on the creation of intelligent agents, which are systems that can reason, learn, and act autonomously. In other words, AI allows machines to do things that normally require human intelligence, such as understanding natural language and recognizing objects in images.
The history of artificial intelligence
The history of artificial intelligence can be traced back to the 1950s, when a group of scientists at Dartmouth College set out to create a machine that could beat humans in a game of checkers. This was the first artificial intelligence program, and it laid the foundation for many of the AI applications we have today.
How is artificial intelligence changing digital marketing?
AI is changing the face of digital marketing in a number of ways. Perhaps the most significant way is that AI is being used to create more personalized experiences for users. By analyzing large data sets, AI can identify patterns and trends that allow businesses to better understand their customers and deliver content that is tailored to their needs.
In addition, AI is being used to automate many of the tasks that are traditionally done by humans. This includes things like content creation, lead generation, and customer service. By automating these tasks, businesses can save time and money while still delivering high-quality results.
Finally, AI is also being used to improve marketing analytics. By analyzing data from sources like social media, website traffic, and email marketing campaigns, businesses can gain insights into what is working and what isn’t. This allows them to make data-driven decisions that can improve their overall marketing efforts.
Applications of artificial intelligence in digital marketing
Now that we’ve discussed how AI is changing digital marketing, let’s take a look at some specific applications of AI that you can use to improve your business.
Content creation
AI can be used to create content that is both relevant and engaging for users. By analyzing data about what users are interested in, AI can generate content that is likely to appeal to them. Additionally, AI can also be used to create videos, podcasts, and other types of content.
Related reading: Best AI powered content writing tools & Content automation tools
Lead generation
AI can also be used to generate leads for your business. By analyzing data about your target audience, AI can identify potential customers and deliver them to your sales team. This can help you close more deals and grow your business.
Customer service
AI can also be used to improve customer service. By using chatbots, businesses can provide 24/seven customer support. Additionally, AI can be used to resolve customer issues and route them to the appropriate department.
Marketing analytics
As we mentioned before, AI can be used to improve marketing analytics. By analyzing data from multiple sources, businesses can gain insights into what is working and what isn’t. This allows them to make data-driven decisions that can improve their overall marketing efforts.
Digital Marketing in Era of AI, AR and VR
Enthusiasts of digital marketing and professionals who are actively working in this field are always in the loop about developments in this industry. They are well aware of the potential of the big three tech revolutions that are starting to pick up a storm and might turn into a cyclone in the next few years. They are AI or Artificial Intelligence, AR or Augmented Reality and VR or Virtual Reality.
Many in the digital marketing world are worried if there will be jobs for them in the near future if companies and brands start relying more on these tech tools rather than on human beings!
While there is little scope of these big three tech phenomenon taking over human jobs in the online marketing sector in the coming decade, they are surely going to affect and make an impact on how work is done in this field. AI, for example, is being used by giants in the tech world like Google and IBM to drive their handling of customers. Google is increasingly using AI to handle search queries and offer precise content to searchers. Digital marketers have to understand the mechanics of this process so that they can cope with the changes happening in the digital world due to the introduction and use of AI.
The same goes for AR and VR, especially AR. With AR, customers can simply aim their smartphone scanners on products they find in a shopping mall to download additional information about the product, along with details about discounts, offers and best prices. As of now, AR is being tested in the National Football League and in departmental stores run by BMW. If their baby steps turn out to be satisfactory, or more than that, AR will find greater use in how customers buy products and how digital marketers need to target them.
Related reading: How AR/VR can help transform Travel & Tourism Industry
Even in the case of VR, which is being used by brands like IKEA, the primary focus is to entice customers into buying. The furniture behemoth IKEA is encouraging its customers and store visitors to put on 3D glasses so that they can visualize for themselves how their living space or bedroom is going to look with the furniture available on sale at the store. When they see the virtual reality through the glasses, they are better positioned to make a decision on what to buy and what to avoid.
As is evident, the discussion is not if AI, AR and VR will displace or substitute digital marketing. The point of discussion is how digital marketing will use these weapons to sharpen its own initiative to drive greater sales and growth.
Artificial intelligence marketing bridges the gap between data science and execution
Artificial intelligence marketing bridges the gap between data science and execution. It is often said as a method of leveraging customer data and AI concepts like machine learning in order to anticipate the customer’s next move and improve the customer journey.
Digital marketers are using this AI technique to boost their campaign and increase visibility of the products among potential customers. In the previous days, many people were disturbed by the useless ads that keeps appearing on the screen.
AI or Machine Learning effectively combated this issue by analysing the customers’ browsing history and urging them to take the initiative to make the next move. It is more of a filtered approach targeting some specific products to a potential customer.
AI marketing solutions understand the world in the same way as a human would. The AI platforms can identify insightful concepts and themes across huge data sets, incredibly fast.
Moreover, AI solutions interpret emotion and communicative signals like a human and these give the added advantage to perform the human actions devoid of error.
Conclusion
In this blog post, we have explored the history of artificial intelligence and discussed how it is being used to change digital marketing as we know it. We have also looked at some specific applications of AI in digital marketing that you can use to improve your business.
What do you think about the impact of artificial intelligence in digital marketing? Let us know in the comments below!
Debajyoti Banerjee is the Founder, Director & CEO of 
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