When Amazon started using ‘collaborative filtering’ to recommend books to their customers 24 years ago, artificial intelligence (AI) for mainstream usage was still in its infancy. 

Since then, AI’s capabilities have continued to advance at lightning speed and the smart tech is now involved in many everyday tasks and activities. From music apps recommending new songs, or being targeted on social media with a new pair of jeans you’ve been looking at, AI is all around. 

When it comes to AI’s impact on the marketing industry it’s hard to remember life without it. Typically used for both task management and optimisation of decision-making, AI has helped to shift the level and speed of service for marketers and, in turn, their customers. For SMEs in particular, a recent study has found that AI enables small businesses to “meet new types of demand, move at speed to pivot business operations, boost efficiency and thus, reduce their business risks.” 

With AI continuing to advance in the marketing field, it’s expected to play a critical role in the future of the industry – here’s why.

Reducing task management

As social media continues to boom, one of the biggest pain points marketers are facing is scheduling and campaign management. This includes managing the back-end of a campaign, but also analyzing data in large quantities. 

The benefit of AI is that it can quickly look for patterns in the data and provide insightful recommendations at the click of a button, leaving businesses with more time for creative work and product development. AI can also automate content curation and reduce time spent uploading assets online, meaning fewer hours spent on menial tasks. 

For example, there’s a lot of hype in the news at the moment around DALL·E, an AI art generating platform that turns words into pictures. Rather than being a threat to the creative industries, these execution tools allow the average person to stretch their capabilities without being a highly skilled artist. In the same way, Metigy allows businesses to tackle more strategic decisions and optimize content, freeing up time for marketing teams to take a more creative approach to growing their online presence.   

So, rather than being a threat to human creativity, AI has the power to minimize the chance of human error when it comes to manually handling datasets. The result? Hyper-targeted marketing opportunities made possible by accurate data. 

Increasing touchpoints and driving deeper personalisation

One of the most important parts of marketing is communication. Communicating with customers in both a timely and relevant manner can help to drive customer engagement and happiness. But for SMEs with small marketing teams and often stretched resources, being available for customers 24/7 simply isn’t possible, and making sure content is highly personalized can be difficult without hours of manual data sorting. 

One of the biggest solutions made possible by AI is chatbots. Automated messaging and chatbots,not only reduce customer support costs, but offer an accessible resource for customers looking for an additional touchpoint to connect with a business. 

But AI also goes a step deeper. Machine learning and big data analysis, can analyze customers based on their behavior and support with developing and driving hyper-targeted, personalized communication that feels intrinsically human. By providing businesses with access to this knowledge campaigns can become more robust, recognising what it is that excites both new and existing customers, as well as making informed recommendations that make customers feel both seen and heard. 

While AI is now part of everyday life (and is embedded in the marketing tools used by businesses daily), it’s still misunderstood by many. 

For SMEs and businesses just getting started, AI’s revolutionized the game and provided a resource for connecting with customers in a whole new way – from hyper-personalized communications, chatbots and targeted marketing material –  while also reducing the time spent on task management so businesses can focus on growth. The future, with the help of AI, is one of greater creativity, more purposeful spend and better relationships with customers. 

So the question is, when will you start using it?