• by Maria Harutyunyan , Columnist, January 8, 2018

When in 1950 Isaac Asimov published a series of science fiction called “I, Robot,” no one could ever imagine that robots would one day turn into reality. Fast-forward to 2017, robotics is one of the fastest developing fields, which makes progress at an alarming rate. And its cousin, Artificial Intelligence is at its peak to say the least. 

The brilliant minds of programmers are able to create algorithms that complete the same tasks as humans. While these technological advances are fascinating, they are also threatening. AIs are sophisticated; they can translate, drive, and even discover new uses for drugs. Those are jobs that we consider suitable for only humans. Yet, AIs came to prove the opposite. So, the big question that remains on the table is, “Will we need humans in the future?”

The world seems to be headed toward digitization, which means at some point in the history AIs might take over people’s jobs. And by jobs I mean quite a lot of fields, but for this article let’s focus on marketing. 

The concept of AI marketing implies that you input existing data about clients and campaign ideas that have worked before and the AI will generate thousands of modifications. To put it differently, AIs replace hours and days of brainstorms. That is the dream but it’s too good to be true. 

It takes trials and errors to get to that one idea that works the best and gives positive results. AI can create varieties but filtering is still up to human marketers. 

Can AI Understand Customers As Well As Human Marketers?

Marketing is all about following the patterns of consumer behavior and adjusting the strategies and methods in accordance. If consumer behavior was limited only to virtual world, AIs would be able to keep an eye on online footprints of consumers and release data based on that. 

Nonetheless, consumer behavior is a wider term and a lot of factors such as fears, anxieties, dreams and desires fall under this umbrella. Are AIs able to determine these elements? A big no. 

The purpose of marketing is to show a product or service in the best light possible. We want our potential customers to get excited when they see the ad on Facebook or visit the website or even when they scroll on the Instagram page. Artificial Intelligence lacks the ingenuity that allows people to come up with a slogan like “Just Do It”or create a banner that immediately catches the attention of users. 

AI Is Good at Automatic Tasks But It Is Not Creative

Artificial Intelligence is here to save time and spare trouble. That’s why marketing agencies make use of AI like in SEO or for data-driven marketing. There is absolutely no point in using human resources and time on analyzing numbers and integrating tools if algorithms can tackle it in a flash.   

Excluding humans from marketing means agreeing to chaos. AI is a set of algorithms and no one can assure that it works flawlessly. Sooner or later, the algorithm will need an update. There you go, a need of human intervention. 

Besides, the creativity of human marketers is essential in avoiding redundancy and developing unique strategies tailored for each and every client. The point is that we have to understand and accept the line between trusting certain tasks to Artificial Intelligence and assigning everything to them. 

So … Where Do We Stand on AI?

The rule of thumb for artificial intelligence is use it but use it wisely. AI is your savior when it comes to ad optimization or monitoring but not for building sales funnels or writing emails. Whether the business is B2C or B2B, its marketing strategy needs human supervision and creativity.