• by Michael McLaren , Op-Ed Contributor, February 17, 2021

As we continue to study long- and short-term effects of our rapidly evolving digital society, the C-suite has sought to better understand what is a temporary shift in customer behavior versus a permanent change.  

One interesting trend has been the rapid emergence of artificial intelligence and robotics as a mainstream topic of interest. These digital technologies have had a landmark year while both brands and agencies reset and reframe how they use automated technology to improve their business.  

"Robotic process automation" (RPA) was up again last week, as measured by Bombora Company Surge.

For those unfamiliar with the term, RPA is "an emerging form of clerical process automation technology based on the notion of software robots or artificial intelligence workers." It may come as a surprise, though, that this topic has also been on an upward trajectory among brands since December as well-being and productivity (time, talent, and energy) in COVID times continues to be a hot discussion topic. While it remains to be seen when robots will step in to perform mundane, high-volume, repetitive, lower value-add tasks on our behalf, enterprise-level automation opportunities do exist if you know what to look for when determining possible RPA fits.

It’s been all eyes on Reddit since they drove the stock market into a frenzy last month after a subreddit initiated a buying spree of GameStop among other stocks. The event triggered a circuit breaker and went down in infamy as one of the greatest internet trolls of all time. It also served as a reminder of the sheer power and potential of today’s online communities. 

You see, the beauty of the internet is also it’s curse in that it gives agency to the user and allows interaction and self-expression. 

In the marketing world we often discuss how to get content to scale effectively in a drastically evolving environment. With more and more marketing decision-makers conducting their own desk research on who to do business with, it’s never been more important to stay clued into these niche internet communities. At a time when nearly everything happens online, make sure you are leveraging social media, online forums, and other naturally occurring instances where users are talking about your product or services to instill trust, which may directly or indirectly influence intention to buy.