For brand marketers looking for ways to engage more deeply with customers, conversational marketing is near the top of the list of options to consider. There are a number of AI-based technologies that make natural language interactions at scale possible without adding bodies to the equation.

Everyone who cares about artificial intelligence and machine learning in marketing is no doubt aware of the big players' recent acquisitions. Seeing how Google and Facebook create magic via AI technologies, all the usual suspects are using M&A to catch up. Ultimately, marketers will find many companies competing to provide the magic.

If you have at least a half-million customers and good customer-interaction data, Matt Fleckenstein has an offer you probably shouldn't refuse. Fleckenstein is co-founder, chief product officer and CMO of machine learning start-up Amplero, a Seattle-based marketing AI company that promises to "leverage machine learning and adaptive experimentation to help marketers achieve what's not humanly possible."