We started the Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute to connect the dots for marketers, executives and entrepreneurs who want to learn how AI will impact their companies, industries and careers.
Since our launch in late 2016, we’ve profiled dozens of marketing AI solutions providers and discussed how marketers can begin using AI to drive productivity, personalization and performance.
Over the course of this journey, we’ve learned there are four big things that marketers need to know as they get started with artificial intelligence. Understanding the ideas that follow is critical to applying artificial intelligence and related technologies to your business.
1. Remember that it is still very early for artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence is a suite of related technologies that include machine learning, deep learning, natural language generation (NLG) and more. These technologies are at varying levels of maturity.
Many of the rising AI tech companies have significant venture capital funding, but limited market success to prove the products work and that their business models are scalable. Marketers should start by determining which goals they are trying to achieve, then vet solutions providers based on specific use cases.
A good place to start is realizing what’s possible. Following are 11 common marketing tasks that can be more intelligently automated right now using AI technology.
- Discover content ideas.
- Write content.
- Automate content (at scale).
- Optimize content.
- Personalize content.
- Create ad copy.
- Manage digital campaigns.
- Test content.
- Draft and publish social media updates.
- Review analytics and write performance reports.
- Recommend strategies and allocate resources.
Learn more about how to automate each one with AI in this post.
2. You need solid data to get started.
Artificial intelligence requires data (structured and unstructured) and customized solutions, so large enterprises, which tend to have more data to work with, are likely to see greater short-term benefits from AI investments.
Start by assessing opportunities to get more of your data—discover insights, predict outcomes, devise intelligent strategies, personalize content across channels and tell automated stories at scale.
This post features eight questions you should ask about your data to identify opportunities for artificial intelligence in your business.
3. Talent is key.
There is a push to make AI technology more affordable and accessible. The challenge will be finding technical talent capable of building and executing AI solutions.
Some AI solutions work out of the box. Others require data and engineering experts, along with extended implementation/training periods. Your internal capabilities (or access to external talent) could determine whether or not certain AI solutions make sense for your brand.
4. The right resources will accelerate your learning and adoption.
Marketers have lacked access to the affordable, AI-focused education that helps them develop internal capabilities. That's why we launched AI Academy for Marketers, a platform that brings the power of artificial intelligence to you.
AI Academy for Marketers is designed for marketing professionals and students at all levels, and largely caters to non-technical audiences, meaning registrants do not need backgrounds in analytics, data science or programming to understand and apply what they learn.
Available now, the Academy features deep-dive Certification Courses (3 - 5 hours each), along with dozens of Short Courses (30 - 60 minutes each) taught by leading AI and marketing experts. Learn more here.
Paul Roetzer
Paul Roetzer is founder and CEO of Marketing AI Institute. He is the author of Marketing Artificial Intelligence (Matt Holt Books, 2022) The Marketing Performance Blueprint (Wiley, 2014) and The Marketing Agency Blueprint (Wiley, 2012); and creator of the Marketing AI Conference (MAICON).