AR and AI: Two Tech Trends Marketers Need to Know.

Augmented Reality (AR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI)…what are they exactly, and how will they benefit my marketing and business? AR and AI are two tech terms blazing the business transformation space right now. Consumers are investing more money in new and exciting technologies, mainly smartphones, watches, and glasses that bring AR and AI into their regular daily lives. It's only a matter of time before many businesses won't have a choice: learn how to market with AR and AI apps or be forced out of this area by others that stayed ahead of the curve.

Not a lot out there has been written about AR and AI because the technologies are still in their early stages, in a true sense, so there's a considerable cloud surrounding how we market with these technologies in terms of offering an ideal user experience.

Learning new things can be quite scary, so let's first establish what these terms mean.

• AR: Augmented Reality
• VR: Virtual Reality
• AI: Artificial Intelligence

Let me say this now; it's never a case of AR vs. VR or AR vs. AI; they're each standalone technology in their own right with different use-cases (although AR can be seen as a subset of VR).

Augmented Reality (AR)

I could explain augmented reality in technical terms, but that wouldn't help anybody (and truthfully, I'm not sure that I could explain it clearly anyway), so I'll start with an excellent example that many already know. Pokémon Go is probably the biggest AR-driven app that's been made to date.

If the game's reality aspect is that you're walking around in real-world surroundings, then the virtual element is that the in-game map represents the real-world, but with computer graphics laid over the top. When you catch a Pokémon, you're actually looking at it through the device camera, as if it's really there. Also, real-world landmarks are depicted on these maps as stops.

Virtual reality takes this concept into a whole other dimension but augmented reality is simply a combination of virtual reality and actual reality.

Snapchat would be another example, as it uses facial recognition software to…well…do things to your face using the device camera (I'm not going to lie here, I've never really gotten into Snapchat myself, but I can see how it would be fun!).

I have used an app many times; Google Translate lets you use the device camera to translate signs and other foreign language things (like menus) into other languages!

And if you've traveled the globe as I have, you may have used this app just a few times to order lunch and dinner.

Let me provide some things to consider on this. Firstly, you shouldn't create an AR app because it's trendy. AR will never improve an app in any way if AR simply doesn't work for the users you're designing for.

Pokémon Go, for example, works well as an AR app because:

• People are already "out and about," so it stirs up feelings of adventure in a world that might otherwise feel relatively mundane.
• Pokémon as a brand has always been about exploring or "traveling across the land."

Augmented reality works best when the user doesn't have to learn any new tricks, so take advantage of the technology the user already knows how to use (i.e., the device camera, maps, etc.). Lastly, I would recommend that you download and use AR apps like Google Translate—the more you familiarize yourself with AR as a user, the easier it'll be to empathize and market for them.

Virtual Reality (VR)

Virtual reality is about being immersed in a computerized, three-dimensional environment where fake sounds and visuals trick you into believing the virtual world is actually real. It's designed to boost the user experience and other situations where the user wants to experience something as if it were real. I mean, imagine experiencing something without really experiencing it.

Augmented reality is a type of virtual reality, in the sense that it combines what the user experiences in their real surroundings with the digitized layers added into the mix. In the case of AR, there's still a traditional finger-UI to interact with, however with straight-up VR, you only have what the VR "world" gives you.

Will we begin to interact with apps/websites via VR headsets? Probably, someday. Will VR headsets replace mobile devices? Not likely anytime soon. For now, I think marketers can keep VR in the back of their minds and simply stay up to date on new tech developments.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

For those that don't know, I am a BIG fan. Artificial intelligence is a whole other entity. While AR and VR are about interacting with the real world somehow, AI is about systems learning to solve issues that users are having…all by themselves. It's about machine learning. Consider selecting your favorite artists on Spotify vs. Spotify using its intelligence to learn what you enjoy listening to, which will be faster when you're looking for new music to discover? Definitely the latter.

From gaming to music to content apps, we can use AI to create:

• Faster experiences
• Personalized experiences
• More intuitive experiences

Just a few Artificial Intelligence Examples

Smartphones - if you are using a smartphone, you are interacting with AI, whether you know it or not. From the obvious AI features such as the built-in smart assistants like (Google Assistant, Alexa, Siri, or Bixby) to not so obvious ones such as the portrait mode in the camera, AI is impacting our lives every day.

Have you ever thought about how the mobile phone can capture such great portrait shots? The answer is artificial intelligence. Trust me; we are not all that great of a photographer.

More and more mobile phone manufacturers include AI in their smartphones with big chip manufacturers, including Qualcomm and Huawei producing chips with built-in AI capabilities.

AI is going to play an even significant role in the coming years. We already see the massive emphasis on AI with the latest Android and iOS updates. Features like app actions, splices, and adaptive battery in Android Pie and Siri shortcuts and Siri suggestions in iOS 12 are made possible with AI. So, next time if you think AI is not affecting you, just take out your smartphone.

Smart Cars and Drones - Talking about AI, there is no better and more prominent display of this technology than the smart car and drone manufacturers are doing with it. Just a few years back, using a fully automatic car was a dream; however, now companies like Tesla have made so much progress that we already have a fleet of semi-automatic cars on the road.

Tesla cars are a prime example of how AI is impacting our daily life. Did you know that all the Tesla cars are connected and that what your car learns is shared across all the cars? That means, if you had to take an unanticipated hard left on a crossroad, all the Tesla cars will know how to maneuver that turn after they are updated. 

Companies like Amazon and Walmart are heavily investing in drone delivery programs, and it will become a reality far sooner than what you expect. If you think that's far-fetched, do note that militaries worldwide are already using successful drone programs, and drones are being used to capture possible hazardous leaks at chemical and refineries around the world.  

Social Media Feeds - Even if you are living in a cave, there's a high probability that you are tweeting from it. If Twitter's not your choice of poison, maybe it's Facebook or Instagram, Snapchat, or any of the myriad of social media apps out there. If you are using social media, most of your decisions are being impacted by artificial intelligence. And yes, LinkedIn uses artificial intelligence; you think you stubbled across my article by chance, today unlikely.

AI takes all your past behavior, web searches, interactions, connections, and everything else you do when you are on these websites and tailor the experience just for you. The sole purpose of AI here is to make the apps so addictive that you come back to them again and again, and I am ready to place a wager that AI is winning this war against you.

Online Ads Network - One of the most significant users of artificial intelligence is the online ad industry, which uses AI to track user statistics and serve us ads based on those statistics. Without AI, the online ad industry will just fail as it would show random ads to users with no connection to their preferences whatsoever. AI has become so successful in determining our interests and serving us ads that the global digital ad industry has crossed 250 billion US dollars, with the industry projected to cross the 300 billion mark by the end of this year. Next time, when you are going online and seeing ads or product recommendations, know that AI is impacting your life.

Artificial intelligence can be creepy, so marketers beware. Anybody who has ever asked a website, in their head of course, "Hey, how did you know that about me?" will understand this. In hindsight, it makes sense. Websites track what we look at, what we listen to, and what things we've shown interest in, and they remember. It's pretty sweet of them to do that, but we need to come across as sweet and not creepy.

We can do this by using a humanlike, conversational tone-of-voice in our communications with users. Personalization is fine, but your intentions need to be precise; otherwise, it comes across creepy. Always let the user know how you're using their data, whether that's data you've collected or data they've handed over.

Algorithm testing is also critical. Listening to one say Elvis song doesn't necessarily mean that I enjoy every song from Elvis and rock genres (okay, I do, but that's not the point). Finding the right algorithm is a trial-and-error process to marketing.

My closing thoughts.

Marketers absolutely need to know about these technologies if they want to stay in the game. It's not to say that we've mastered traditional UX, but these concepts certainly aren't new, and we should start to feel quite familiar with what users need now. Augmented reality, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence are new to the big bosses and upper management, so marketers need to learn how to explain the importance of using the technology in everyday business.