Since science fiction has entered the mainstream consciousness, two things have captivated our visions of the future. Robots & Artificial Intelligence.
We’re usually focused on the negative side of these technologies. From Terminator to Transcendence, when we think of our future, we’re generally scared and on the run from the horrors of technological advancement.
However, to date, the slow rollout of these technologies has been more helpful than harmful. Maybe it’s because we’re still in the early days? But I don’t think the Roomba presents nearly as menacing a figure as the Terminator.
The same goes for AI. We’re not being held prisoner, like in 2001 A Space Odyssey by a sentient AI. For now, AI is more of a friendly helper assisting in menial tasks like research and chatting. In fact, it’s often a feature used to lure us into buying some new piece of technology. Think Siri and Apple or Alexa and Amazon.
But AI is even more ubiquitous than that.
What Is AI Exactly?
Yes, AI stands for artificial intelligence, but the image you have of a sentient computer bent on world domination is the stuff of science fiction. Often AI exists quietly in the background, making things more efficient. It’s what’s recommending our next purchase, providing the article to read, and autocorrecting our text.
When people talk about AI currently, they’re usually referring to the process of making our machines smarter. That’s because AI, as it’s been up till now, is a bit rudimentary. It still needs to be “trained” by programmers to learn how to respond in a way that makes sense to humans.
Take something as simple as differentiating a pen from a spoon. Most past the age of two could tell the two apart. AI has to be trained on what a spoon is, what a pen is, why there’s a difference, and many other little things to make that judgment call.
However, AI is off to the races once it has that knowledge. Once AI has been taught, it can scrub millions of references of pens and spoons in seconds.
Why Digital Marketers Need to Embrace AI
History has taught us that once a technology has been introduced, it will continue to gain in usage. We’ve also learned repeatedly that those who fail to embrace new technologies tend to get left behind. Sometimes that’s just missing out on a few extra users, but that can often mean losing your job altogether.
Digital marketing professionals who don’t embrace AI advancements in digital marketing will be left behind.
But the good news is that it’s still early enough to jump on board the bandwagon. Also, AI is already proving to be hugely beneficial.
Some of the Benefits of AI in Digital Marketing:
- Increase your revenue growth
- Discover hidden values in your existing marketing technologies
- Speed up your sales cycles
- Decrease or even eliminate altogether the time you spend on repetitive, mindless tasks
- Lower your operating costs
- Provide customers with a personalized experience
- Help you squeeze extra ROI from your campaigns
- Find more actionable insights from the data you collect
- Predict customer behaviors and buying trends
- Gain real-time insights into your customers across all the channels you use
- Identify micro-influencers you can leverage to grow your business
And we’re still in the infancy of AI!
The Future is Ours to Embrace
The future of digital marketing is likely to be an exciting one. At least for those who embrace change as an opportunity to grow and learn new things.
Change is inevitable in life. AI will disrupt some of what we do. Some of that might be scary at times. But that’s why it’s so crucial to learn and adopt the technologies as early as possible.
And don’t worry about the other fear inherent in science fiction – that technology is coming for our jobs. Current predictions state that AI will possibly even create MORE jobs than it will displace.
Those who hold too firm to the old ways of marketing (which is itself odd, digital marketing itself is a pretty new phenomenon) might break in the winds of change. But those who are agile enough to change will surely reap the benefits and rewards of their efforts.
And for small businesses that lack the time, money, or energy to adapt? That’s where we come in to support as well. You can always turn to trusted digital marketing experts like ourselves who stay on top of these trends for you. We can advise, manage, and run things until you’re ready to scale and take things on for yourself. If you’d like assistance setting up any AI-supported digital marketing technologies in your small or local business, want help with digital marketing strategy, or anything else, please reach out to us today.
