5 Main Challenges in AI Marketing

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Staying on one’s toes and being quick to adapt to the latest technologies are essential for a business to stay competitive especially during this digital age. Artificial intelligence is one such opportunity that is currently playing an essential role in the field of digital marketing.
AI-powered tools, for instance, are opening more advanced methods for gaining more insight and accurate analytics on understanding sales cycles and consumer behavior.
It’s truly easy to feel excited about the possibilities that AI promises but that doesn’t mean that it’s not facing its own fair share of challenges. Don’t worry, though, as we’re also going to share with you possible solutions to overcome them.

Challenges of AI Marketing

Here are five of the most common hurdles and potential answers:

• High Investments. The currently limitless possibilities of artificial integration do promise an impressive ROI. However, in the end, it will still require a substantial investment一something that smaller businesses might struggle to put together. 

 
The Solution: Fortunately, the growth in demand is motivating to get more people in the industry and making the market more competitive. Hence, there are already a number of affordable AI vendors and service providers that you can look into to outsource your AI need instead of developing a costly system in-house.

• Ethical Issues. Unless you’ve been living under a rock these past few years, you are probably aware of the controversies surrounding AI already. Their flexibility and efficiency in helping out with tasks that were previously performed by human employees suggest the potential of AI causing massive job loss in the future. 

The key behind the accurate consumer data it provides, as mentioned above, also suggests that it can access and interpret these information more in-depth than ever before which calls out issues surrounding the invasion of privacy. 
Finally, there is a huge possibility of AI eventually surpassing human-level intelligence that can cause an apocalyptic or extinction event. It may sound like something out of a sci-fi novel, true, but still cannot be easily ignored.
The Solution: We believe that the only solution to tackle these issues is more transparency. It is natural for us to fear the unknown. More understanding of the nature of how artificial intelligence works will provide that much-needed peace of mind. 

• Lack of Usage Experience in the Market. In relation to the previous point, our current lack of knowledge and experience in utilizing this technology is definitely one of the major hurdles that keep us from using AI in marketing and other fields.

The Solution: The only answer to this is education. Fortunately, there are more and more universities offering more focused AI programs for those who are looking into paving a career in AI tech. We’re guessing that there’s only a matter of time before a degree in AI in digital marketing is formulated if that’s not being made already.

• Permanent Changing Trends. Another major hurdle is the permanently changing trends that we’re seeing in the field of AI. This is inevitable since the tech is still in development. 

The Solution: There’s no other way to resolve this than keeping yourself constantly updated.

• Insufficient IT Infrastructure. Finally, AI technology requires robust tech infrastructures in order for it to maximize its potential in processing the vast quantities of data that it feeds on. 

The Solution: This is where the challenges come into a full circle as this hurdle is also the reason why AI is expensive in the first place. Hence, the solution to this issue is the same as the first one. As the AI industry expands, larger companies will eventually step up to establish cloud-based data centers and offer such services to smaller businesses.

How to Use AI Tools Effectively

We will not be able to cover all the aspects of how AI can be utilized across multiple industries, so allow us to focus on marketing instead. There are three main ways:

• Accurate Consumer Data Analytics. You can leverage this aspect to learn more about how your target demographic behaves and responds to your marketing campaigns to improve and streamline future efforts.
• Boost Engagement. Chatbots are probably the most widely-used AI tech right now, and why not? An AI bot is always present (it eliminates the needs of the active hours of your chat support team) and is never irate or discourteous. Having said that, it can significantly boost your engagement with your target demographic and minimizes profit loss caused by a slow response rate.
• Improves Marketing Efforts. Lastly, AI integration can handle repetitive and menial tasks that would otherwise take more time and other valuable resources to do. This then frees up you and your employees to focus on more creative and worthwhile marketing efforts.

Benefits of AI and Augmented Reality Usage in Marketing

If there’s one technology that closely works with artificial intelligence, that would be augmented reality. In a nutshell, augmented reality is the method of using digital images to blend with our physical reality. The most common example of this is the popular mobile game, Pokemon Go.
Augmented reality marketing is definitely a thing of tomorrow. When properly used, it can provide your consumers with a more personalized experience of trying out new products and probably even eliminate the need of creating actual product prototypes altogether.
When combined with AI, the results are an impressive and immersive experience that your customers will seek out for themselves. You won’t even need to reach out so much anymore. 
Not sure where to start? Looking into the mobile applications of companies like Ikea and L’Oréal might provide you an idea of the infinite possibilities in store.

Creating an Artificial Reality

While we are still leagues away from creating an artificial reality on par with the movie Ready Player One, at least it’s not that as impossible as it was in the past anymore. We definitely suggest getting on their train as soon as possible not just to get ahead of your competitors but to make your company continue to become relevant amidst the fast-changing trends and ever-changing landscape of marketing.

Guest Contribution By:
Mike Austin is a digital marketing enthusiast at Adrack. His articles are informative and unique. Being passionate about new technologies, Mike shows his audience all the last trends in digital marketing, technology and AI.