Salesforce's acquisition of Krux shows how rapidly Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming marketing, maybe faster than you think.

Machine learning’s near-term effect on marketing is greatly underappreciated, in terms of both opportunity and threat. Marketers today mostly think of machine learning in relation to recommendation engines and marketing-mix modeling—if they think of it at all.

This last week Salesforce Inc completed the acquisition of Krux to add real DMP power to their Einstein platform. See the details of this deal Krux Digital acquired by Salesforce (big congratulations to all the Brandscreen alums in Krux!). The Krux acquisition should allow Salesforce to provide its customers with uniquely tailored solutions for its Salesforce Marketing Cloud platform. Marketers use data-management platforms, more commonly known as DMPs, to make sense of first-party data from customer email addresses to sales figures. They hope that better combining, analyzing and linking that data with third-party information can help them design and target their sales pitches).

Machine learning can help provide a holistic view of the true efficacy of your marketing efforts, and improve results in specific endeavors like predictive lead scoring—look at Salesforce’s Einstein as an example. Salesforce strategy shows it believes and intends to shape how artificial intelligence-powered services will automate repetitive, time-consuming processes in marketing, making predictions and prioritizing tasks.

But AI's impact is much more than that. It can parse your customer base in ways you haven’t considered. It may be the secret to restarting stalled big-data projects that haven’t shown value. It will begin to automate tasks now considered at least somewhat “creative,” such as writing press releases. It will ultimately turn chatbots from today’s FAQ parrots into the actual ambassadors, often the first line of contact between customers and your brand.

Researcher Tom Mitchell of Carnegie Mellon University describes machine learning as the capability of systems “that improve automatically with experience.” The system gets better at its assigned task without requiring any new programming. It learns from the data itself.

No marketing activity will remain untouched by this transformation. Take a look at Hellogbye to see how Natural Language Processing will change the way that we book travel.

Media & advertising sector expected to hold the AI largest market share.

According to AI Market Research report the artificial intelligence market is estimated to reach USD 5.05 Billion by 2020, growing at a CAGR of 53.65% between 2015 and 2020.

The increasing use of machine learning technology in the advertising & media and finance sectors, and the growing demand for AI across diversified application areas are driving the growth of the artificial intelligence market.

The artificial intelligence market is segmented on the basis of technology into machine learning, natural language processing, image recognition, and speech processing. The market for AI was dominated by the machine learning technology as it provides the computers with the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed. This involves the development of computer programs that are capable of updating themselves when exposed to new data.

The artificial intelligence market for the media & advertising sector is expected to account for the largest share of the overall artificial intelligence market during the forecast period due to the rising adoption of AI technologies in the media & advertising sector to determine the consumer behavior to influence their buying pattern. The artificial intelligence market for the healthcare sector is expected to grow at the highest rate from 2015 to 2020 as AI minimizes the costs related to false diagnosis and enhances the efficiency of treatments. The market for the retail, law, and oil & gas sectors is also expected to grow during the forecast period.

Market in North America expected to have the largest share; market in APAC likely to grow at the fastest rate

The AI market in North America is expected to have the largest share of the global artificial intelligence market during the forecast period. This is because of the increasing adoption of the artificial intelligence technology across multiple application areas in this region. APAC also offers potential growth opportunities for the AI market as there is rise in the adoption of the machine learning and natural language processing technologies in the media & advertising and finance sectors. These sectors deploy AI to extract valuable insights to complex financial problems and also to make better marketing decisions.

For some deeper thinking in this take a look at ReadyState a digital agency in San Francisco.