AI seen as the future of marketing

Dubai - Still, there are a lot of challenges that needed to be overcome with companies looking for more personalisation

Artificial Intelligence will soon be the future of marketing, as brands shift away from short-term marketing tactics to more personalised long-term tactics, experts at the 38th Gitex Technology Week said.
Speaking in a panel session, Jonathan Lacoste, co-founder and president of Jebbit, pointed out that voice activation is an area which witnessed a tremendous amount of growth in recent years.
"Today, Siri and Alexa won't give you the top 10 results if you ask them for something; they will give you just one which is most relevant to you; so this is the type of challenge that brands have to contend with in the market currently. We are excited about the potential of AI and its impact, but there is definitely a lot of work still to be done," he said.
"A growing trend that we are seeing in the market right now is a shift away from short-term conversion metrics towards more of a lifetime value metric," he revealed. "When we talk about personalisation, there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. We have seen brands succeed and fail in this area. Context is key - in a world where you are bombarded with lots of information about products and experiences, context is what brands are increasingly looking at to form a strong relationship with customers."
Steve Lok, global head of martech at The Economist, added that there were still a lot of challenges that needed to be overcome with companies looking for more personalisation.
"When it comes to personalisation, the basics that we are working with right now are great," he said. "The challenge arises when it comes to more complex predictions. It is a challenge to match the content with the customer's profile and what they are feeling at any given moment. As human beings, we are logistical creatures, and we are emotional creatures. Our preferences and wants change; sometimes very rapidly."
Lok also pointed out that innovation and the pace of it moves very quickly, so the challenge for many companies is to stay updated on the potential that technology offers and to adopt it to their model.
"Perhaps surprisingly, we have found that customers disengage from retailers right after they make a purchase," noted Welington Fonseca, SVP of Global Customer Marketing at Shiseido Group. "For a customer, the journey ends once they finish they purchase. But, we see this as an opportunity; let's talk more about the product that they purchased and reach out to them based on that data. This is where you have the power of data at your disposal."
- rohma@khaleejtimes.com