When people hear the buzzwords “Artificial Intelligence” and “bots”, one can’t help but think (and some may even fear) of robots taking over the world in Ultron or Skynet style, or maybe machines replacing every type of human labor there is, even the menial ones.
While such scenarios will not happen, yet, the age of AI and Bots is indeed upon us. That last chat you had with an online store’s sales representative is, you guess it, a bot. Just looking at how unique and personalized your Facebook newsfeed should make you think that AI is behind that – Facebook’s Artificial Intelligence Research lab to be precise.
Last year, chatbots were regularly used by up to 5% of companies in the world, with 20% trying them out in a test or pilot stage. That’s according to Forrester who also reported that this number will jump to 32% in 2017. This is backed by the 2017 Real-Time Personaliztion Survey that reported the use of AI for delivering personalized web experience by 33% of digital marketers.
The use of AI and bots is indeed a whole new wave of innovations that is disrupting several sectors including Digital Marketing. Check the following out to find out more:
Definitions
In its simplest definition, ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE is the technology that makes machines intelligent, enabling them to respond and interact with their environment. A BOT is basically a computer program that is designed to automate a set of specific tasks and an advanced bot that can automate some of the most complex tasks are powered by Artificial Intelligence.
The Need for AI and Bots
Marketers attest to the fact that success in digital marketing rely on how well you plan your marketing strategy, and executing this strategy from the most tedious down to the most menial of tasks. And this involves a lot of work, several manhours consumed, with gallons of coffee at the side.
Imagine having all those tasks automated and well executed like clockwork, just like how you wanted it done. This is possible with the use of AI and Bots. From analysing data that can help you understand the minds of your target clients, to communicating and engaging with these targets proactively with greater insights, such are some of the benefits digital marketers can get with AI and Bots.
So, what are you waiting for? Just look at the following showcase of AI and Bots that you can actually use and implement as part of your digital marketing strategy today.
AI and Bots in Digital Marketing Today
1) AI and Bots for PPC advertising
Pay-Per-Click advertising is still a very powerful and results-driven digital marketing strategy many businesses employ today. While many manage their own PPC ad campaigns or have a third-party agency handle the work for them, AI and bots can help digital marketers explore new advertising channels that can bring them even bigger and better results.
Examples:
- Albert – an AI marketing platform for analyzing, managing and optimizing PPC campaigns
- Frank – an AI-enhanced PPC tool for discovering new and best paid channels for targeted delivery
2) AI and Bots for Messaging
One of the most popular applications you may be familiar with in the use of AI and bots is with messaging. AI-powered chatbots are used by many industries now for personalized conversational commerce, anything from booking your flights or ordering your new make-up kit online.
Examples:
- Boomtrain Messenger – in-app chat and messenger for personalized products and content recommendation
- Drift Bot – directs customer queries to the right person or teams
- National Geographic’s Albert Einstein – promoting their new original series “Genius” by letting Facebook users chat with good old’ Albert
- The AI-powered Digital Assistants – Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant and Microsoft’s Cortana
AI and Bots for Content Generation
3) AI and Bots for Content Generation
Content is a very important aspect in digital marketing and having the tools to help you automatically create great content can help you save a lot of time and resources. This is possible now with AI and Gartner in fact even predicts that by 2018, machines will be the authors of at least 20% of business content. The technology behind this is called Natural Language Generation and is being used by several of the largest online publications in the market.
Examples:
- Quakebot – LA Times bot for writing news on earthquakes
- Arria – Simple financial report generating tool
- Automated Insights – Automated Press’s wordsmith for creating financial reports
- Narrative Science – Forbe’s bot for writing earning reports
- Rocco – Suggest’s fresh social media content
4) AI and Bots for Website Design and Optimization
Website design and optimization has gone beyond typical strategies and has transitioned into delivering a more personalized web experience to site visitors. This can be achieved with the use of AI, and webmasters who have done so experienced 63% increase in conversion rates and a notable 61% improvement in customer experiences.
But AI can go even further than that, as platforms like Grid and Wix are now coming up and offering self-designing websites. Although the tech is not yet that advanced to replace website designers, the idea of websites designing themselves through artificial intelligence is truly quite amazing.
Examples:
- Grid – the first to offer a self-designing website
- Wix – website designed through AI
5) AI and Bots for Learning Computers
One of the most powerful uses of AI is to help computers “learn”, such as in the analysis of data points as executed by bots. One of the technologies behind this is Natural Language Processing (NLP), enabling the computer to process human language in order to get insights and create appropriate responses. One such application of NLP you might be familiar with is Semantic Analysis as it is used in online searches, social media analysis, spell checks, sentiment analytics, etc.
Examples:
- Stanford’s Core NLP Suite – In English, Chinese and Spanish
- Bitext – Text Analytics
- Datumbox – Open source machine-learning platform
- Lexalytics – Categorization, Named Entity Extraction and Sentiment Analytics
- Netbase – Enterprise and global real-time social media and sentiment analytics
- Pandora – Uses machine learning algorithms to suggest relevant songs based on listeners preference
6) AI and Bots for Search
There’s no need to look far to see examples of AI in action as you have Google practicaly in your fingertips. Google makes use of a powerful AI engine to enable search and filtering processes at superfast speeds. Now, Google’s search engine corrects your wrong spelling, grammar and even your spoken words – as if it knows already what you want to search before you do.
Examples:
- Rankbrain – The artificial intelligence and machine learning technology behind’s Google’s search engine
- Klevu – NLP-powered machine learning AI targeted for eCommerce stores
7) AI and Bots for Personalized Recommendations
One of the useful features people enjoy in many powerful sites is their Recommendations feature. Be it Amazon, Facebook, Netflix or your favorite eCommerce stores, recommendation uses AI algorithms and machine learning technologies to give “recommended for you” suggestions based on your user behavior.
Examples:
- Boomtrain – personalized recommendations for eCommerce stores and publishers
- Boomtrain – personalized recommendations for eCommerce stores and publishers
8) AI and Bots for Business and Customer Insights
Artificial intelligence and bots can help your business expand by giving you a more in-depth knowledge and insights about your customers, allowing you to deliver even better products and services in a more responsive, pro-active, and personalized way. AI-powered Business Insights (BI) technologies can give you information about customers segmentations, product-client matching, and control of limited stocks.
Examples:
- Qlik – BI technologies for online businesses
- Tableau – data and customer analytics
- Metric Insights – proactive analysis of data to trigger action
- Dynamic Yield – builds actionable customer segmentation data
This list does not end here as there still are a myriad other uses for digital marketing that Ai and bots can provide. Among these are Automated Image Recognition that makes use of facial recognition technologies to match users with products. Another application is for the sales process itself, from segmentation, sales follow-ups and even post-sales services.
The list can go on and on. What’s important here is to give you a rundown of the many different possibilities AI and Bots can offer businesses, particularly in the area of digital marketing. From forming to execution of your marketing strategies, AI and bots will take your business to a new era of marketing where speed, automation and customer experience is the norm.
Jomer B. Gregorio is a well-rounded expert when it comes digital marketing. Jomer is also known as a semantic SEO evangelist and practitioner. Check out our Digital Marketing Services today and let us help you in achieving positive and profitable results for your business.