Can marketers tame the dragon of deep learning and AI  to stay relevant and hold on to their jobs in the future?

As a digital marketer with a few years of experience, I have just about come to grips with the changing landscape of content marketing and social media marketing. When it would appear that it’s time to rest on my past laurels, suddenly my world is likely to be turned topsy-turvy by the new wave of change. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the new demon that will soon have to be tamed by marketers like me.

The buzzword of AI is “omnipresent”. It has invaded newsrooms to boardrooms. Experts predict that through deep learning, AI will be transformative for the media and marketing industries, as it will be able to do precision targeting and extreme customisation.

Already, we are seeing parts of traditional writing jobs being replaced by machines. You may have heard of ‘Journalist Robots’ that are a series of coded programmes that are used by several websites around the world to churn out articles.

Also read: China vs US: Who is winning the big artificial intelligence battle?

Most of us would have read these articles, which are in fact generated by algorithms and smart machines rather than real journalists. Large companies like Associated Press (AP) have been using such robots for the past one year or so to generate sports content. AP’s journalist robots are now writing about Minor League Baseball games.

So what does it all mean for Marketers? Here are my predictions of what challenges await digital marketers:

1. Extreme personalisation

As marketers, we believe in customer segmentation. However, we are not used to personalisation, which is the next big disruptive wave of fragmented content. According to the Gartner blog, too few marketers are thinking about the reality in terms of the explosion of content types and the infinite permutations of custom content that are needed to power this type of personalisation.

2. Death of mass broadcast content

The obvious corollary to extreme personalisation is the imminent death of segmented or mass broadcast content. Since the explosion of Social Media Marketing, industry professionals have been creating several campaigns on social media to target different customer segments.

It is not uncommon for a single brand to have four or five parallel social media adverts running around a single product. However, extreme personalisation will mean that a multitude of different conversations will have to be created to reach out to customers. The challenge lies in creating enough deeply relevant content that can speak to customers in an intelligent, yet personalised way.

3. Internet of Things (IoT) will diffuse the media further

While the popular imagery of IoT that has been commonly peddled is the romanticised visions of self-ordering fridges, self-driving smart cars and smart toilets, the reality may be quite complex. These technologies are surely making their way into our lives. But, as they slowly become a reality, we will have more diffused media consumption.

For instance, in a self-driven car we would be engaged in watching more content or reaching out to our family and friends. With multiple touch points, Marketers will be challenged to allocate budgets to best reach their target customers. The questions they may have to deal with will revolve around deciding the best ‘connected device’ to reach their target customers.

Also read: How can AI help improve learning? Some trends in edtech and education

These disruptions may sound quite unsettling. So, what should we do to prepare ourselves for the onslaught of changes? Read my next blog to find out about four differentiators that Marketers will need to succeed in the age of AI.

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Tina Chopra is the Founder of Script Consultants. She is also an investor in four tech startups and is currently channelising her energies to creating a Media Product.

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