??Quiero Mas, Taco Bell... Can’t Just Claim AI Leadership, We Need Details??

I saw the headline for this article from early November (https://www.marketingdive.com/news/taco-bell-kfc-yum-brands-Q3-2024-earnings-AI-powered-marketing/732122/) telling us that “?????? ???????????? ???????? ????-?????????????? ?????????????????? ???? ?????????????? ?????????? ????????????????????????” and was excited to learn what exactly they have accomplished with AI. Unfortunately, there are no specifics. In these still early days of developing applications with AI, that’s not good enough, we need more detail if you’re going to publicly claim leadership in this space.

“?????? ????????????, ?????? ?????????? ???? ??????, ???????? ???????? ?????? ?????????? ??????, ???? ???????????? ?????????????????? ?????????????????? ?????????????????????? ???????????? ???? ?????? ???????? ???? ???????????????????? ???????????????????????? (????), ???????????????????? ???????? ???????? ???????????????????? ?????? ??????????????’?? ??3 ???????????????? ?????????????? ???????? ????????????????. “

That intro sounded promising, and made me want to read on, because it is still rare to hear about how a consumer company delivered “…increased marketing performance thanks to new bets on artificial intelligence”.

“’???????? ??????????????, ???? ???????????????????????? ???????????????? ???????????????????????? ????-???????????? ?????????????????? ?????????????????? ????????, ???????????????? ???? ?????????????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????????? ??????????????????, ?????????????????? ?????????????????????? ?????????????????? ???? ???????????????? ????????????????????, ?????????????? ???? ?????????????????? ?????????????????? ?????? ?? ?????????????????? ???? ???????????????? ??????????,’ ???????? ?????? ?????? ?????????? ????????????”.

There is a lot to unpack there. The CFO uses one of those phrases, “AI-driven”, that requires some explanation, and that many consider to be different from “AI-powered” that the article’s author used (see here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/what-does-ai-driven-ai-powered-etc-really-mean-john-c-keenan-asgle/). And personalized campaigns that led to “increased purchases and a reduction in consumer churn” is also opaque. The complexity of their own marketing initiatives, combined with competitive activities, would make it difficult to truly isolate the impact of the personalization in such a short timeframe. How did they do it - increased purchases and reduction in consumer churn, for which there is no industry-standard definition, over what period and against what benchmarks? I understand that in the interests of not sharing trade secrets, they offer no specifics, but they’ve got to be able to share a little more detail.

So what exactly did they do? You could speculate widely - it could be as simple as personalizing subject lines and measuring email opens as proxies for consumer engagement, or they may have taken a much more sophisticated approach. Reading further, we find:

“?????? ??????????????, ???????? ???????? ?????? ???????????? ???????? ???????? ???????????? ???? ???????? ?????? ?????????????? ???????? ???????????? ???? ????????????, ???? ???????? ???? ???????????????? ?????? ??????????’?? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????? ??????. ?????????????? ?????????? ?????????????? ???? ?????????? ???????????????? ?????? ?????????????????? ???????? ???????? ???? ???????????? ?????? ???????? ???????????????????????? ???????????????????? ?????? ?? ?????????????? ?????????????? ???? ?????? ???????????????? ?????? ?????????? ?????????????????? ????????????????. ”

This is less cutting-edge than it may seem at first glance - the essence of data-driven marketing has long had us “Linking … sources of intel together” to drive personalization, which companies were working on even before widespread introduction of AI into the consciousness, and it is unclear what it even means to be “enhancing (sources) with AI” or for what other marketing purposes.

I’m sure there is some really interesting work going on behind the scenes. This article left me wanting to know more about it, especially in the interests of learning from what others are doing.