Artificial Intelligence Will Change The Digital Marketing Landscape — Here’s Why You Should Prepare For It

We are all aware of the impact that artificial intelligence is bound to have on many aspects of our daily lives. It will also be something in which businesses will invest heavily, so it is sure to bring about a profound change in almost every industry. The digital marketing realm is no exception to this. With this in mind, it’s important to know the arena that you’re going to compete in if you’re going to have a chance to stand out from the competition. This is even considering the fact that modern-day industries have never been more competitive than they are today.

So, what are the changes that you need to keep track of in order to be able to utilize them to achieve maximum effectivity for your digital marketing campaigns?

 

Chatbots For Customer Service

When a business experiences a spike in customer traffic, it can become wildly unmanageable for your customer service department. It’s at this point when chatbots become a vital tool in maintaining your operations. They are great ways to automate your replies and to spread information, but they are limited in the sense that it’s easy to distinguish an actual person from a chatbot through conversations. Artificial intelligence is going to significantly enhance how chatbots interact with customers and may even eventually replace their human counterparts completely.

 

Voice Search Will Become The Norm

It would seem that consumers didn’t know they wanted to be able to give hands-free commands until the advent of smart speakers. Smart assistants have become very popular and this trend doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. Artificial intelligence will allow search engines to consider the context through which a particular search query is made and to return results that are significantly more relevant to the user.

 

Predictive Analysis

Because artificial intelligence will be able to process huge amounts of data and to interpret them accordingly, their application in predictive analytics cannot be understated. This will provide marketers with insight as to what strategies would be most effective for their campaign. After all, there’s not going to be much of a point in knowing the most effective marketing tactics if you don’t have an accurate idea of how they’re going to affect your overall campaign. This will also help business owners make better decisions that lead to faster growth as well as quicker return of investment. It can even be used to target a very specific market niche while minimizing risk.

 

Improved User Experience

Some of the hallmarks of a great user experience include personalized interactions and messages, as well as seamless website performance. Self-optimizing websites may even become commonplace once artificial intelligence is integrated into web design. When a user is greeted with a seamless experience, they are more likely to spend more time on your website. The longer they spend on your website, the more likely they’re going to convert. Not only this, but consider the fact that ads, too, will be personalized, which means that an individual is more than likely going to get an ad that they already have an interest in, which means that they are more likely to view the ad and even make a purchase.

But, that isn’t the true extent of how much personalization is going to be able to alter the digital marketing space. Think of how the very concept of cookie-cutter solutions is going to be made obsolete by the ability of artificial intelligence to tailor a user’s experience according to the things that the user finds relevant.

But even as there are a plethora of advantages that artificial intelligence can bring to the table, there are also potential limitations that we, as digital marketers, should prepare for. This is a crucial detail because artificial intelligence is just like any other tool that we’ve been able to create. It is merely a means to help us become more productive and more accurate and it is not intended to replace us. So, with that in mind, these are a few limitations of artificial intelligence that you need to account for:

 

Job Displacement

There has always been a looming fear of artificial intelligence and robots taking over our jobs. After all, it’s a well-known fact that artificial intelligence is leagues more capable at processing data than even the most brilliant people. You need only to look at how artificial intelligence can easily beat the very best people in chess consistently to see how, in terms of raw data processing and logic, we are painfully outmatched.

However, the fears are over-exaggerated. While it’s true that some workers are indeed going to be displaced from their jobs in favor of the more efficient and more accurate machines, this is going to allow them to focus on more complex and more dynamic problems. Humans are still needed for decision making tasks.

 

Cost

Another obvious limitation of artificial intelligence that could potentially dissuade companies from making use of it is that because it’s a new technology, it’s going to be very costly to integrate into your current model. You also have to consider that the demand for this technology will also cause those who are proficient in machine learning and artificial intelligence to be able to charge higher for their skills, especially when you consider that the demand for their skills is also going to be much higher. With technology constantly changing, AI needs to keep up which also means upgrade expenses.

 

Over-Dependence On Data

Even when the differences between humans and artificial intelligence in terms of computing power, accuracy, and speed are incomparable in favor of the latter, there are some tasks that still require human input in order to initiate. A good example of this is while you can indeed automate a lot of tasks that are repetitive, there are times when unique problems arise.

Because artificial intelligence is so heavily dependent on the data that it is able to gather, it cannot make a decision when the data is incomplete. This in itself is a problem because of the fact that when it does become mainstream, there will be a lot of things it still needs to learn in order for it to become a potent tool. Human programmers will still be needed to lay down the foundations for the data that machines are going to base their decisions on, there will be no room for intuition and innovation and thus, artificial intelligence cannot extrapolate a conclusion from missing data.

 

Lack Of Human Touch

While there are a handful of scenarios where the lack of a human touch might even be considered a big advantage, as is the case in productivity where emotions are best left behind, in digital marketing, you are in the business of creating connections with an audience and so,the human touch is a very important component of your interactions. This is especially true with customer service, where empathy and the ability to adjust your responses according to the tone of the person you’re speaking with is crucial.

 

Inability To Be Creative

Another limitation that you need to account for the inability of artificial intelligence to be creative. With that said, you cannot rely on artificial intelligence to create any form of art that will appeal to your audience. This is also due in large part to the fact that machines lack the human touch. One of the most defining traits that we, humans, have, is that we are not only able to express our thoughts and emotions, but we are also able to inspire emotions in other people. Empathy is our greatest tool as digital marketers, as it enables us to rally people to the cause that we are putting forth. It allows for a collective effort, whether it’s in putting out an article that explains why people need a certain product you’re offering, or when it’s about how your organization is trying to bring about awareness and change to a certain aspect of society. Understanding what the audience wants is something that machines cannot do.

Machines cannot be programmed (yet) to display or even mimic emotions and that is their biggest limitation as well as our bigger advantage over machines. It is also the biggest reason why you shouldn’t be too worried about machines stealing our jobs, especially when there are so many things that humans can do that machines cannot.

While it’s true that these are merely things to expect, there are a few companies such as AI Data Innovations that are working to find ways to integrate artificial intelligence in numerous scenarios. This particular company specializes in the data gathering and data processing aspects of artificial intelligence. This information is vital because it’s going to allow you to get an upper hand on your competition if you’re able to make use of the technology before they do. After all, being able to utilize the latest technology properly is one of the hallmarks of a true marketer and judging by how the advent of artificial intelligence is inevitable, we might as well make adjustments for it.