’18 and Beyond: The Rise of AI Fuels the Rise of the “Other AI”

“I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.” 

― Albert Einstein

It’s that time of the year where many marketers look out from their crow’s nests at the landscape below and enumerate a list of trends that are going to impact business in the coming year. I think that’s a bit short-sighted, since unlike a fad, which comes and goes quickly, a trend doesn’t just last a year but has a powerful impact over a longer period. The trends of today were actually set in motion years ago. There are two that are now coming to fruition will impact the business-to-business world in 2018. They are:

·            Artificial Intelligence (AI)

·            Authentic Interactions (the other AI :-))

#1: Artificial Intelligence

AI is a topic that everybody from Elon Musk to Ellen DeGeneres have opined on, and it’s sure to be on many prediction lists. There is no debate that we are now in the era of “smart applications.” AI is becoming part of the fabric of major business software platforms, identifying patterns in vast reams of data and offering up insights and recommendations. Soon, saying an application has AI in it will be like saying “color TV.” We don't say that, because all TVs are now color TVs. It's the same concept — AI will be inherent in all applications.

We are already seeing the emergence of Micro-AI in business software, in the form of machine learning based heuristics that prescribe the right set of actions in defined use-cases such as expense report fraud detection, ideal customer profile development, automated ad buying, personalized customer engagement, and many more.

The power of this prescriptive intelligence is dependent on the data that is being fed into the machine--the better the quality and quantity of data, the better the models. The quality and quantity of data that fuels AI will continue to grow in 2018, and we’ll see corresponding leaps in the quality and quantity of outputs.

One source of data that will become increasingly important: Community Intelligence. Software as a Service providers are now collectively sitting on pettabytes of user and transactional data. AI powered by a set of an entire community’s data is a game changer for SaaS/Cloud providers and their customers.

Think about traffic application Waze as an analogy here. Waze’s ability to prescribe the best route to take while you are driving comes from the collective wisdom of everyone using the application. The more people in the Waze community on the road using the app at a given time, the better the intelligence.

Now imagine a marketing SaaS provider being able to use data on all the campaigns ever run through its platform to benchmark and prescribe the best campaigns to drive a particular result; the channels providing the best Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI), and the types of marketing content that is most effective at different stages of the funnel. This is Community Intelligence, B2B style.

At Coupa, this is a very exciting part of our future. As our CEO Rob Bernshteyn notes, “With more than a trillion dollars of spend data analyzed, and over three million suppliers in our community, we can see now start to see which suppliers are doing the best job, which are not, and who the alternative suppliers are for each category. We also know what buyers want, based on their industry, company size, and their buying history in terms of quality, price, volume, and a host of other factors. And, we can bring the power of community intelligence to bear so that we can make individualized recommendations for our customers to consider.”

It is clear that AI is not only here, but that augmenting AI with Community Intelligence will have a big impact on business in 2018.

#2: Authentic Interactions

In a business world that is more automated and powered by AI, the other AI – Authentic Interactions—are more important than ever.

Businesses have to make sure not to swing the pendulum too far in the direction of robotic interaction. They have to strike a balance between using the technology to offer efficient, automated transactions and using it to support authentic, human interactions. For example, a chatbot may be able to answer quick questions about your insurance policy. But, if you want to make a claim, that’s a more emotional interaction that requires a human touch. The need for authentic interactions is more important that ever before, given these major patterns in B2B buying:

• Today’s buyers want to primarily engage with brands they can connect with emotionally. In a recent study, 86 percent of consumers said that authenticity was an important factor in deciding to engage with a brand. Another recent Wunderman study cited that 79 percent of buyers only consider brands that show “they understand and care about me.”
• Also, buyers are most influenced by other customers while making decisions. Trust Radius’ 2017 study highlights the B2B buying disconnect: On one hand, 60 percent of buyers considered their vendor influential in the buying process, but almost the same percentage said that they did not believe in their claims. 

Given these two trends, we’re no longer in an inbound world or outbound world, we’re in a peer-bound world where authenticity is key.

As marketers, how do we show our authentic selves in our demand generation cycles? We need to think of interactions in layers and how these come together to build trust with our buyers. Here are some ideas:

1.        Let Others Do the Talking, Wherever They Want To:

If somebody goes to your website and sees a slick video saying your product is great, that is expected because it’s your website. No mother is going to call her own baby ugly! It makes a bigger impact when a customer shares their experience with your product, even more so if it is on a third-party channel such as a review site. Marketers must invest in third-party, voice-of-customer initiatives to capture these opinions in independent channels.

2.        Let It All Hang Out:

If somebody sees only positive reviews, they know that’s most likely been influenced by the vendor. Being authentic requires us to be open and honest about the customer experience, and to show its entire essence--the good . . . and the not so good. A recent study illustrates that lack of negative reviews actually lengthens the buying journey, as would be buyers press on in their search for a balanced view of the product. Some customers even say they would never buy a product that didn’t have any negative reviews.

Simply put, all customer feedback, unedited, should be presented on your owned channels – community forums, website, etc. – in addition to the third-party voice-of-customer channels. That doesn’t mean you have to sit on your hands and let negative comments pile up. Capitalize on the opportunity to interact with your constituents by acknowledging and responding diplomatically to both negative and positive comments.

3.        Live the Brand Promise. In Every Interaction.

Every company needs a brand promise--the single, most important thing that can be said about the company, what you want to own in the hearts and minds of your customer. Then, you must live the brand promise with every interaction.

In the consumer world, there is no company better than Disney at living up to its core brand promise – “The Happiest Place on Earth.” Every person from Princess Jasmine to the pizza counter clerk makes sure that it is so. It is so ingrained into the DNA of every Disney employee that every touch is genuine, authentic, and human.

In the B2B world, having a brand promise, and living it with every interaction is just as crucial. Consumer brands tend to be much better at this, but I expect to see businesses of all kinds working harder to establish a brand promise, to create a sense of community, to build corporate social responsibility programs that align with their brand and show that they care, and to work harder to drive authentic and credible conversations. In other words, to show that though there may be artificial intelligence behind the scenes, there are real people front and center.

These are the two AIs that will impact businesses everywhere over the next few years. Do you agree?

#digitalmarketing #AI #artificial intelligence #2018predictions #authenticmarketing