How Artificial Intelligence Will Influence Digital Marketing in 2019 and Beyond
Many recent breakthroughs have made quite an impact on how brands interact with consumers and the manner in which marketing strategies are implemented today. In the midst of such rapid developments, it can be difficult for many businesses to anticipate what the future has to offer. That said, some developments are well worth looking out for particularly in the field of artificial intelligence (AI).
As we start the year 2019, we go over some of the latest AI-related digital marketing trends
Chatbots will become increasingly more common
Improvements in artificial intelligence can be applied in a myriad of ways one of which is the mainstream use of chatbots. Many businesses have found the latter invaluable for handling general customer concerns and driving sales.
Chatbots are one of the ways digital marketing drives dependence on artificial intelligence without most people even realising it. Massive improvements in semantics and bot scripts have made chatbots nearly indistinguishable from that of a live person. Also, interaction with AI has become increasingly more common thanks to the adoption of smart virtual assistants like Alexa, Siri and the Google Assistant.
According to the one study by Gartner, about two-thirds of chatbot users cannot tell the difference between AI and a live person in a customer service interaction. The market research company predicts that by 2020, a fourth of all customer service operations will be handled by chatbots.
Today, Internet marketing services are investing time and resources developing their chatbots sparking further advances in 2019 and beyond. It won’t be long until we start seeing more of them being implemented in websites and mobile applications.
If you haven’t already, look into ways of implementing chatbots on your sites or risk getting left behind in the near future.
The rise of voice search
Another trend that seems to be taking off following drastic improvements in AI technology is the growing preference for voice searches instead of typing text on search engines and applications.
The world is leaning towards the prevalent use of mobile technology, so it makes sense that many are capitalising on hands-free means of inputting information on their mobile devices while on the move. More consumers favour the use of voice search in looking up information on products and services or local businesses.
The development in voice search is partly due to the advances that have been made in understanding human speech with machine learning algorithms. Anyone who has ever used Google voice search to get answers to random questions will understand.
Technology has now advanced to the point where Google’s algorithms can understand human speech with 95% accuracy. How awesome is that? Such trends will force SEO Experts in Sydney to rethink their digital marketing strategy so that it lines up perfectly with voice search.
More advanced ways to process large data
It is said that the world is entering the age of “big data”. What this means is that the sheer amount of information that organisations have to deal with is increasing at a rapid pace and it will only get bigger as more devices are connected to the Internet every day (Internet of Things).
While there have been significant leaps in the way we collect data, there are still limitations to what we could do with it. This is another area where artificial intelligence can prove to be very useful. The latter is now starting to cope with the volume of data that we produce and uncover ways in which businesses can better make use of them.
One good example is what we call the hyper-personalisation of marketing messages. Instead of relying on consumers to voluntarily share information about their needs, interest and preferences, artificial intelligence can be applied towards passively gathering background information on one’s target market. As a result, marketing messages can be personalised better suit the profile of consumers. Of course, there are legal and privacy concerns that need to be clarified before this technology comes to fruition.
Social networks will continue to be an essential source of information for marketers in 2019. Emerging AI-related innovation like face recognition and advance consumer targeting algorithms will continue to improve and become more viable as a marketing strategy.
AI applications in VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality) Technology
VR and AR technology is not anything new and has been around for a while although they remain to be a novelty concerning use. You have probably heard about recent applications in gaming such as Pokemon Go and virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. What these applications have in common is that they are just too expensive for most people and mostly limited to entertainment. That is expected to change maybe not entirely in 2019 but in the years ahead as businesses start exploring ways to leverage AR and VR technology as a marketing strategy.
That future is closer than you think and there are a few companies that have already found some measure of marketing success through AR and VR technology. One good example is Ikea’s “Place” app that enables users to see how a particular set of furnishings would look in their home before deciding to purchase. This is possible by providing a virtual glance of their product through a smartphone similar to the use of filters on a Facebook video call. This is an excellent example of how AR technology can be used for more than just entertainment and offer consumers something useful while aiding purchases.
We can expect more businesses to capitalise on AR and VR technology to boost consumer experience in 2019 and in the coming years.
Conclusion
What was mentioned above is just the tip of the iceberg on what is to come for digital marketing in 2019 and beyond. Marketers that love staying on the cutting edge can expect exciting times ahead.
Digital marketing is an extremely competitive industry, and businesses need to keep their finger on the trigger for the latest developments if they are to benefit from it. AI-driven digital marketing technology is but one such innovation.
