Artificial Intelligence Insights Benefit 21st-century Businesses

Artificial intelligence is often envisioned as a particularly elaborate or revolutionary technology. More practically, companies and creators implement AI through a multitude of tools and applications. These automated processes quietly assist in business affairs by performing tedious jobs and forecasting future trends. Artificial intelligence, referred to as AI, records data over time without input from humans to perform tasks more efficiently in the future. While humans have traditionally relied on machines to aid in jobs that require no thinking, these instruments have evolved to the point where they can now answer questions and make predictions if operating based on reliable data. The wisdom that these automated machines present humans with is known as “insight.”

AI has been a boon for social media marketing and content generation. Algorithms provide services such as headline generation and report feedback on their efficacy, making changes as necessary. AI has advanced to where it is capable of generating personalized media, such as copy accompanied with images, that is both relevant and interesting to consumers. Artificial Intelligence has proven to be effective in influencing consumer buying patterns. One perk of AI-led marketing campaigns is that they can diagnose what stage a particular customer is at in their buying process. This influences the particular advertisements the buyer interacts with, which can range from promotions that differentiate the product to limited-time discounts that close the sale.

Advertisers can use AI to detect influencers that are the most significant to a potential customer. This usage of Artificial Intelligence ensures that their target client is delivered content that is the most noteworthy to them. Companies have saved money through this strategy, as it’s more cost-effective to pay “micro-influencers” that cater to a niche audience rather than shelling out the exorbitant fees that celebrities charge. AI can bolster customer retention through personalized incentives and prompt responses to customer inquiries through chatbots that utilize natural language processing. This technology has allowed businesses to increase customer satisfaction and distribute their resources towards the most lucrative sales avenues. In turn, marketers can spend more of their time improving the brand’s creative strategy rather than predicting which shoppers are most likely to convert to buyers.

In the wake of the digital era, product life cycles have never moved so quickly. As a result, retailers have struggled to mitigate risk in consumer demand fluctuations. Global events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, can only exacerbate this discrepancy. However, AI has shown to be hugely influential in shaping the future of retail marketing. Many retail companies incorporate technology from firms like Antuit.ai and Retalon to optimize their supply chains. Through supply chain management shaped by AI, retail businesses can meet higher demand and shift their marketing strategies to account for the most accurate forecasts. Since companies are now aware of demand changes before they come to fruition, they can be proactive in negating risk and maximizing profits.

Artificial Intelligence removes conjecture when companies need to anticipate customer demand; this allows companies to formulate marketing strategies based on analytics. By having access to the most precise market trends, inventory figures, and pricing models, businesses have become more sustainable and eliminated waste. Mailchimp is an automated email marketing service that companies employ to manage their mailing list and craft campaigns. In early October, they released their Content Optimizer, which pulls data from successful marketing campaigns and uses machine learning to improve emailing strategies. The Content Optimizer also includes feedback on content, layout, and graphics, which can be very helpful in assessing which email templates gather the most engagement

John Wolf, the leader behind the development of the Content Optimizer, was searching for strategies to curtail the number of opinions and amount of labor necessary in the creative process behind curating a marketing strategy. The service aims to use machine learning to understand the story that the promotional effort tells and supplement it with data. Wolf was able to perfect his predictive models, sales strategy, and marketing techniques throughout Mailchimp’s partnership and eventual acquisition of his first automated marketing platform, Inspector 6. Mailchimp’s sheer number of clients is an asset for predictive engines, which gain context through data acquisition over time.

Wolf’s most impactful contribution to Mailchimp’s content marketing takes shape in the Content Optimizer, which scores the quality of emails based on properties like “skimmability” or layout. Machine learning progresses through different aspects of the email and predicts its success. Emails are evaluated on factors that span from writing tone to imagery. However, Wolf and the team who created the Content Optimizer have not forsaken tried-and-true business rules that yield valuable results that differ from machine learning insights. Rather, Mailchimp combines the two metrics to form the most complete recommendation. Wolf still subscribes to the notion that manual vetting, albeit inefficient, is still important in the recommendation engine’s success. Along with expanding on the Content Optimizer, Wolf also has an eye towards developing copywriting computer-generative models in the future.

Jarvis AI is one of these programs that use machine learning technology to generate copy (the main text used in the advertisement). The AI tool employs Elon Musk’s GPT-3 model, which includes marketing framework templates, including the popular AIDA and PAS models. The only information users need to provide is the company and product name, description (the tool can also generate these), and tone of voice. Jarvis is capable of automating content marketing given commands. The “Recipes” of Jarvis are pre-made workflows that contain multiple commands. These recipes assist in writing blog posts and outreach emails.

Surfer assists businesses in search engine optimization (SEO) analysis. Surfer gathers data on which words or phrases Google determines are important for exposure. Surfer’s topic clusters inform users on which keywords should be targeted, along with the volume of searches. Additionally, Surfer displays keywords that users rank for but are not currently using in their work. Crayon is an AI tool that tracks what direction competitive businesses are moving in. It displays changes to products and prices along with information on employees and marketing campaigns.

Several other programs assist in improving email marketing. Rasa.io reduces the need for targeted email campaigns by accounting for the previous individual behaviors of subscribers. Phrases personalizes subject lines to deliver the most charming titles to a consumer’s inbox and boost the chance of them opening it. Seventh Sense delivers analytics on when an individual in a company’s marketing platform is most engaged with their email.

By: Jack Davis ‘23