• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, January 7, 2019

There’s a movement underfoot. Selina Eizik, who joined Conductor as COO in July 2018, wants to lead it after spending nearly 16 years at the search and digital agency Acronym, where she held the position of CEO for the past 5.5 years.

Eizik calls this movement "predictive and addictive." She said its lead by artificial intelligence. You see that today people, for the most part, search for content. But soon, as we have seen with voice-activated devices, these devices will deliver the content automatically based on a variety of data and actions taken by the device owner.

“It’s difficult for marketers to earn attention,” Eizik said. “As consumers shift from being captive to taking control, they kind of avoid all the marketing they don’t want to see.”

When you apply artificial intelligence and machine learning, the device -- for example, a refrigerator -- won’t only be able to tell the home owner they’re out of milk, but will also understand the dynamics of the family to suggest the quantity required for the next week. The device might also have the data to determine food allergies and suggest almond milk or coconut milk, rather than cow's milk, giving other brands an opportunity to provide content.

Content will give consumers the knowledge to make decisions. “However you look at it there will be a need for content,” she said, noting the brands that succeed will be the ones creating the content that leads to consumers having an easier time.

Consumers will provide the signals to the internet-connected device, which in turn will know the types of content to serve. Understanding behavior becomes the key to making recommendations. It’s not just textual searches, but visual searches that provide insights into online behavior.

Momentum for these types of products really didn’t build in 2018, but Eizik believes 2019 will be different for those taking the movement seriously.

Similar to past years, Eizik pointed to the fact marketers are working with smaller budgets, but expect to produce bigger outputs as one of the major challenges in 2019. Search data will help to drive these challenges, she said.

Conductor’s parent, WeWork, which focuses on creating workspaces in the physical world, acquired the search and content company in March 2018 to teach companies how to market their products and services.