In late March, when the so-called "scandal" broke about how Cambridge Analytica used Facebook data, there was a story in The Wall Street Journal about how crappy most companies' data is for actually understanding their customers. To me, these two stories represented two ends of the same data+AI spectrum, and together say something important about the potential impact of artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms on the competitive landscape of just about every business.

A story in The Wall Street Journal this week took my breath away. The implications of "Police Want to Send AI Into the Street"? Marketers will have the power to know and directly address every individual in the U.S. far sooner than they can imagine.