What is AI?, Companies claiming they have AI products for eCommerce. How to identify if it is really AI.
Artificial Intelligence, the "pretend" brain that governs how everything works in Customer Engagement & Automation Marketing, But how exactly does it work and what exactly is Artificial intelligence? (Just for the layman explanation to better understand it.)
What is an AI?
In order to understand how it works you must understand what is actually is. now by the name you may think is like a brain made inside a computer, a virtual mind, a decision engine running in a virtual space.
"????? But if that is not how it works, then how?" Well definition of Intelligence is the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills and while it is possible for AI to do that, It is not something it does by default. In fact "AI" is often just an statement or more appropriately several of them and being run by a computer they don't actually have to consider anything and just have to run it. It understands the condition quickly and doesn't actually react but rather performs the action that was scripted/coded into it base on the condition. So the results seems like intelligence but in actual fact it is just a code /script that was put in by the programmer/coder to perform its duties.
What do i mean by "Conditions"? Example; Mary went to Lazada(Disclaimer: Not saying they have purchase or have such program or not) and is surfing a particular item such as a women's bag, now all the "AI" does is based on the scripting/coding will start to recommend Mary on similar items and even send out an email(if she has subscribed) on things that she surfed on.
But there are some companies that do have AI and helps eCommerce on their marketing strategy and such. so you say....
Well, when does an AI seems more intelligence and when does it seems like good intelligence?. Generally it is when somebody creates alot of "IF THIS, THEN THAT" or if they get more creative and wild they create "IF THIS AND THIS.. BUT NOT THIS, THEN THAT" the more complex the condition the more intelligent the program seems. The more different types of condition it can react to. And because a computer runs what we consider a reaction thanks to the "AI" in programs, it can appear to be Intelligence.
for example: (Currently on most companies that sells these "AI") Mary goes in Lazada and clicked random items like a kitchen knife, a bag, a shoe, a dress and a gardening pot. Now the items are considered a random pick so how will the "recommendation" tab work? it will start to stack up items that Mary has clicked periodically. Also And as for Marketing Automation, Companies have a script/code in the automated emails that they sent to you and they can track when and where you open it. And in some cases especially now with social media and location GPS(Geo Location tracking), they can even start to see a pattern and recognized where is your location of "home" so they can include a "nearest store/pick up location/service/etc" depending on what the company specializes in. When Mary goes in Lazada the next day it already has Mary's cookies so automatically will show the recommendation tab of the last previous similar items Mary clicked/bought. Again these are not yet an actual Artificial Intelligence as this are basically still just scripting,... very in-depth and complex scripting/coding.
An Artificial intelligence in actual fact is actually a "program" that learns and goes out of it's programming once it has sufficient data to learn and understand it's subject and react to it. So it should be more interactive towards not only Mary but also the company itself. So when Mary is surfing an item it should automatically recognize what Mary wants, when she does her shopping, why and such. which will actually be very elaborate to explain, but you get the picture. Also instead of the Marketing department looking at the analytics and then deciding what to promote and also to sent to Mary, the AI will actually determine the course of action with no human interference. Meaning it is "running" the company for you as if it is integrated with your purchasing & inventory system to better understand what you have to buy and sell as such. Not saying that your marketing and purchasing department would be obsolete as there are no way yet for the AI to manually take a photo of the product and also design artistically for the product "launch". and that sums it up.
if i need to elaborate more on how an AI works it will take a very very long page to understand it. At least you now should know if your program is a complex set of scripts or an actual AI.
Does AI exist?, Of course yes it does, but only for certain fields for now and is not yet open to the rest as it is not ready nor is it price worthy for an eCommerce company to purchase one.