
Almost all B2C brands are using AI,
particularly for marketing analysis and channel integration, but they face daunting ethical and privacy issues, judging by Audience of One Report: The Marketer and the Machine, a study by Movable
Ink.
Of the companies polled, 97% have embraced AI. The major uses are:
- Consumer behavior analysis — 59%
- Personalization — 56%
- Campaign optimization — 55%
- Data insights — 36%
- SEO — 34%
- Idea generation — 28%
- Short-form content creation — 26%
The respondents are also deploying AI across these marketing
channels:
- Advertising — 52%
- Social media — 50%
- Content marketing — 48%
- Email — 37%
advertisement
advertisement
But marketers must deal with big challenges to AI integration:
- Managing and leveraging customer
data — 40%
- Executing consistent omnichannel personalization — 37%
- Safeguarding data privacy — 38%
- Data privacy
and security — 35%
- Worries about brand reputation — 29%
- Lack of skills to deploy — 23%
Moreover, brands
worry about ethnical concerns, including privacy and bias:
- Privacy invasion — 47%
- IP issues — 44%
- The absence of human oversight — 42%
- Stereotypical recommendations — 39%
- Discriminatory targeting — 38%
- Biased content — 36%
The solutions? Marketers are:
- Monitoring AI for biases — 53%
- Ensuring AI content reflects brand values — 52%
- Mandating human reviews for AI-generated content — 51%
But the benefits are
worth it, among them:
- Improves customer buying journey — 99%
- Enhances the delivery of more personalized customer experiences —
98%
- Efficiently generates short-form copy —96%
- Automates manual tasks, enabling marketing teams to concentrate on strategy —
95%
In particular, AI alleviates the following pain points:
- Monitoring multiple campaigns at once — 50%
- Data analysis and ROI assessment — 47%
- Content creation — 46%
However, the uses differ with the marketing
vertical:
Retail & ecommerce
- Content personalization — 55%
- Sentiment analysis
— 44%
- Send-time. Personalization — 43%
- Content ideation and brainstorming — 43%
Media &
Entertainment
- Content ideation and brainstorming — 63%
- Send-time personalization — 50%
- Content
personalization and segmentation and targeting — 41%
Financial Services
- Content personalization — 55%
- Sentiment analysis — 44%
- Send-time personalization — 43%
- Content ideation and brainstorming — 43%
Technology
- Content ideation and brainstorming — 51%
- Segmentation and targeting — 43%
- Content personalization — 41%
Movable Ink surveyed 500 B2C marketers at the director level or above at firms with 500 or more employees and $500 million in
annual revenue in the U.S. and UK from September 6-18, 2023.