Modal title
One fine body…
September 06, 2017
Is Artificial Intelligence After Marketers' Jobs?
|
eMarketer: ThereÕs a lot of excitement around AI and its applications for marketing. WhatÕs the current state of AI in marketing? Chaitanya Chandrasekar: So far, artificial intelligence has played a big role in collecting data, but marketers are now noticing that they can leverage AI and machine learning to gather insights as well. The volume of data thatÕs being collected is huge, but the key now is to use AI to bring insights to the surface, and lean on those insights to strengthen marketing programs. eMarketer: Some marketers worry their jobs will be replaced by AI, but QuanticMind recently released a survey showing 97% of marketers believe the future will involve marketers working hand in hand with AI and other automation tools. WhatÕs your take on where the future is heading? Chandrasekar: A helpful analogy of where marketersÕ relationship with marketing technology is heading is the construction industry. Back in the 1950s, construction was super manual. Everything was being done by humans, and it was a booming industry that created a lot of jobs. Eventually, it became more automatedÑwe now have access to heavy machinery, tools and resources, but construction still creates so many jobs and people are still fundamental. Marketing might face a similar shift. Marketers might have to retrain to catch up on the latest technology, but if they understand the fundamentals of marketing, theyÕll still have jobs. In fact theyÕll thrive, because they wonÕt be wasting time on tedious processes that AI can streamline. eMarketer: How will marketers use the human touch to augment the insight that AI technology can provide? Chandrasekar: Humans understand context in ways that machines canÕt. AI technology has capabilities that are data-focused, but humans have a depth of context that you canÕt necessarily program. Sometimes there are reasons that a marketer just knows something will or wonÕt work, but machines donÕt have gut feelings. eMarketer: How might the marketing technology stack look in a few years, given the growth of AI? Chandrasekar: AI will shake up the data side of the marketing tech stack. ItÕll bring together data sources like traffic data, behavioral data and other pieces of information. ItÕll boost the intelligence of CRM [customer relationship management] systems and bring disparate pieces of insight into the data center. There will also be a decision engine that will sit on top the data stack, leverage machine learning to look for patterns and suggest actions based on insights. eMarketer: For marketers still worried about their jobs, what advice do you have? Chandrasekar: From a technology standpoint, keep enhancing your skills. Learn about new technology, maybe take some courses. But know this: Artificial intelligence will help you do your job, not replace you. Copyright 2017 eMarketer Inc. All rights reserved. From http://www.emarketer.com.
|
To view all articles, check out the Internet Travel Monitor Archive