INTELLIGENT THINKING

Advertising - How artificial is your advertising?

AI has found its way into our lives with incredible speed. The ability for artificial intelligence to simulate processes specific to human intelligence, such as understanding language, learning and problem solving etc. has led to this being applied to many everyday objects and processes that surround us. This blog looks at how AI has impacted the advertising industry and what can be expected in the future.

How is AI used in advertising?

By using available data, companies and brands can now use AI to perform tasks such as visuals, copy, audience targeting, analysing campaign performance, ad buying – the list goes on. By working closely with this data, AI can easily enhance marketing requirements such as customer interaction, content generation, personalisation and sales forecasts. It can also be used in the creative process to generate imagery or copy.

How will AI impact the advertising industry?

It is known that currently over 35% of businesses use AI in their work process. This number will continue to increase and will not be long before its nearing 100%. There is an obvious fear of job losses for employees in the Marketing and Advertising sector, but areas such as creativity and problem solving will still require human intervention, something that AI is not completely capable of. AI can therefore be considered as a tool that can help to leverage data and enhance the outcome, but one thing it can’t do is replace human expertise and strategic thinking.

What are the benefits if using AI in advertising?

AI uses algorithms. It can analyse data to identify audiences with similar traits and behaviours to current customers. This results in extremely targeted campaigns meaning the right ad to the right person at the right time. AI can automate almost 70% of this data processing work meaning marketers can easily manage large amounts of data for their advertising campaigns.

What are the cons for using AI in advertising?

The data that AI uses can include sensitive information such as health conditions, financial data etc. which leaves it prone to identity theft, fraud or account takeovers as it can be disclosed to third parties. Therefore, as this technology advances, companies are becoming increasingly aware of data protection and its impact on their targeted campaigns.

The future of AI in advertising

As AI technologies evolve, so will their use in Advertising and Marketing. Traditional advertising follows a reactive pattern meaning that users engage with the adverts prior to them being shown. AI takes a more proactive approach in that it uses analytics to serve adverts to consumers who wouldn’t ordinarily have searched for that particular brand or its products. For instance, if a potential customer’s online behaviour indicates that they have an interest in travel, they will be targeted with adverts for travel companies, country destinations etc. when they visit a random website.

Conclusion

AI is here to stay. It’s not here to take over our jobs, essentially it is a tool to help us work more efficiently, target more precisely and to help achieve better results in the areas of Marketing and Advertising.