How will artificial intelligence (AI) change the future of marketing and communications? Will it lead to the loss of jobs or will it improve performance and productivity, allowing humans to shake off all mundane tasks and be more creative?
Here we talk to Paul Conneally, EMEA marketing lead at the software company LiveTiles, about how intelligent automation can transform the way marketers do their work.
Robots can go deeper
Artificial intelligence has come a long way since the days it was merely the subject of sci-fi novels and dystopian, post-apocalyptic, movies. Machine learning, neural networks, big data processing have set to change the way we live and communicate. It is true that Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa remind us nothing of the blood-thirsty cyborgs in Hollywood’s popular representations, but how deep can AI infiltrate into our daily decisions and activities? And how will this affect industries like marketing and communications, for which deep customer insights are becoming more imperative than ever?
“The AI canvas is essentially built around prediction, judgement and action. This is aligned with how strategic communications and marketing are organised. The future of marketing lies at the granular level of identity-based engagement, and AI will be the great enabler that will drive this,” says Conneally.
“We conduct research or analyse data to predict or influence behaviours and deliver on specific goals; we make judgements based on this evidence-based information which we then shape into the action we will take to achieve these desired goals. Communications, PR and marketing are taken up with repetitive, rudimentary tasks that can be so easily automated, such as the updating of directories, pitching stories or localising content,” he explains.
“Professionals will concentrate on what matters most, like relationship building, strategy and design.”
Conneally says that with more and more tasks handed over to AI, as it increasingly learns and
