Cede Control, Speed-up with Marketing AI

I am very comfortable taking a coast-to-coast flight across 4000 miles on an ‘Auto-pilot’. Pretzels, cramped seats, snoring neighbor - all valid flying concerns, but things that don’t stop me from taking the next flight. I am now habituated that the super duper AI machine that operates the flight will get me there, in the fastest and safest possible way. Am I completely in control of my travel? Well...

Now let’s say I start looking at the alternative, I drive the 4000 miles in 5 days. I am asked to drive back again for 4000 miles. With 10 days of driving, the hands are still at the steering wheel, but, am I completely in control of my travel? Well...

Now let’s say I let another driver take me across the 4000 miles. I ask him to drive back again for 4000 miles. With 10 days of driving, the driver's hands are still at the steering wheel, but, am I completely in control of my travel? Well...

AI is an obvious choice in many facets of our personal and professional lives, but surprisingly, Marketing at organizations is still stuck in the archaic era of doing things by rote. The most ‘agile’ of these organizations make bid and budget changes weekly, keyword/Ad copies change once a month, and, bet $10, the campaign structure hasn’t been changed for months! In this era when CMOs are trying to reach their customers with a very personalized experience, such strategies are proving to be marketing harakiri.

The biggest concern for any marketing manager is the apparent lack of control when working with an AI platform. The key here is that if the boundaries are clearly defined, AI platforms can become the most trusted ally in the marketing pit battle with your competitors. As a decision maker, you need to have control on the overall goals, budgets and the marketing funnel metrics across the macro and microeconomics for your brand. However, in choosing to control every keyword, every Ad copy and every product bid, you choose to drive the car, when the autopilot flight option is available. AI tools have come a long way in moving away from the ‘I throw the data at you, and you do the work’ syndrome to a friendlier ‘Data driven analytics and actionables’ approach. There are sophisticated machine learning algorithms that are well equipped to analyze petabytes of data within microseconds, to deliver an integrated experience for the end customers.

The most successful marketing AI platforms will:

• Consistently deliver value against suggested marketing goals - ROI, Transactions, LTV
• Reduce the operational effort in launching, managing and optimizing the campaigns
• Are forward-thinking, making intelligent decisions on selecting products, consumer demographics and the relevant communication
• Are transparent, and are easy to setup and use
• Manage the fine line between machine intelligence-driven automation and manual checkpoints.

A small jump, or a full flight, the rush of flying is incomparable. If you have not taken the plunge with an AI platform already, do so. The journey will be highly rewarding.