Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning are two buzzwords that have been flying around the marketing industry in the last few years. Digital media owners, sell and demand side platforms, and other businesses, have adopted the technology to improve the way online media is bought and sold for many years. It’s gained so much traction now, however, that Gartner has listed it as one of the top ten strategic technology trends for 2017. Over the next 2-5 years, AI & machine learning will break into mainstream adoption.
One tangible example of AI that Code recently tackled at a retail hackathon were chat bots deployed for use in customer service functions. Chat bots are predicted to be the number one application of AI in the next five years. These chat bots have become commonplace within Facebook messenger, WhatsApp, Slack, Skype and Kik.
Examples of where they are being used well include Taco Bell’s TacoBot that allows customers to order on Slack chat and British Airway’s Emojibot that quizzes the customer about their holidays, receiving emoji responses and returns links to suggested destinations currently on sale.
Now is the time to start talking to clients about creating test and learn programmes on how to apply marketing automation coupled with smart technologies to power their business goals beyond current offerings and get ahead of the curve.
Lauren Oldham, Client Solutions Director, Code Worldwide