By Arun Pattabhiraman
Harnessing the power of AI can help brands succeed in their quest to decode the consumer psyche and personalise at scale. With the advancements in AI and the availability of amounts of data, we are on the cusp of an AI-driven transformation. Modern consumers are engaging with brands on many new digital channels, with social media increasingly becoming the central pillar of these interactions. Customers are directly talking to brands, telling them about their needs and preferences. Consumers also expect brands to learn from these interactions, as over 61% expect brands to provide personalised experiences. To deliver a great consumer experience effectively, we need to capture this data with privacy guardrails and unleash AI to generate real-time insights and leverage those insights to create personalised experiences at scale.
Embracing AI for Creativity
Traditionally, creativity in marketing has been an expensive endeavour. To do a simple video campaign, you had to hire an agency to develop a script and hire a director, actors, musicians, etc. And each iteration was equally expensive.
Gen AI has changed the game. Now, marketers can create experiments in real-time. Using a suite of over 20 GenAI tools, design teams are now able to launch new creative projects in days instead of months. We can create stunning visuals with the right prompts leveraging GenAI tools like Midjourney, Dall-E, etc. with fast and inexpensive results. Similarly, content teams can run content experiments on their own. They can use AI tools like Synthesia or Elevenlabs to produce beautiful videos quickly. With AI, we are only constrained by the limits of our imagination.
AI, an indispensable tool for real-time personalisation
As real-time personalisation takes centre stage in consumer engagement, AI has solidified its position as an indispensable tool for modern marketers. Today, an overwhelming 80% of industry experts are integrating some form of AI technology into their online marketing activities.
AI is helping us optimise each touch-point. First, AI is helping us identify user demographics – for instance, at a B2B company, the messaging for C-suite members is different from that directed at a practitioner. Or if you are a B2C company, you would want to use different messaging for Gen Z audiences vs middle-aged adults. Based on user behaviour, AI helps us personalise and optimise campaigns in real time based on user interactions. As customers engage with companies on more channels, e.g., WhatsApp, Discord, Reddit, or Instagram – customers expect companies to provide a great experience on the channel of their choice. AI can help deliver a consistent experience on all channels.
Research shows that nearly 9 in 10 (89%) marketers witness a positive ROI on personalised campaigns. For reference, in 2020-21, a leading global hotel chain was able to improve their customer engagement speed by 35% while ensuring a high level of individual personalisation based on customer history, by adopting AI-based customer management and social listening – resulting in tangible business returns on an international scale.
Analysing consumer sentiment, forecasting trends, and crafting data-led strategies
Armed with a comprehensive, unified view of their customers, which is facilitated by AI-based tools rapidly analysing data from diverse online channels, industry leaders are actively adjusting campaigns in response to the latest consumer interactions. This ensures optimal allocation of resources to the most effective channels and messages at all times. For instance, AI in social listening provides marketers with comprehensive analyses of brand mentions, customer interactions, social media, and market trends; these insights enable prompt and data-driven decision-making. This potential has led companies from sectors as broad as banking, food & beverages, and consumer technology to adopt AI trend monitoring on a proactive basis, enabling them to stay aware of consumer trends and capitalise on emerging opportunities in real-time. With significant improvements in the Predictive Analysis capabilities of AI, there is more scope for marketers to leverage forecasted trends, competitor activities, and consumer behaviours in identifying new opportunities, assessing the viability of entering new markets, and future-proofing their businesses against changing market dynamics and potential crises.
We are at the intersection of AI-powered transformation of marketing and customer experience. Eventually, AI will transform each dimension of brand and customer engagement. The market for AI in marketing, which was estimated at $15.84 billion in 2021, is projected to increase nearly seven times to reach an estimated $107.5 billion by 2028. Despite this promising outlook, nearly two in three marketers remain fearful that AI may replace their jobs in the next five years.
The author is the CMO of Sprinklr