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From customer support bots to social media bots that respond to comments and questions automatically, the age of artificial intelligence in marketing is already here. However, because of how ingrained AI has become in our everyday lives, marketers now have to think about things slightly differently. Instead of looking at customer journeys, the focus has shifted into how to teach AI about customers. AI came about as a means of developing a way to give consumers a streamlined experience in their dealing with a company. As the February 2021 CMO Survey notes, this goal has become one of the top priorities for the world’s largest marketing firms. Because of AI’s introduction into the mix, marketers now have to rethink and reinvent the industry from the ground up.
Tech and the customer life cycle
Most businesses started adopting AI in the form of chatbots. The intent was to deliver a personalized experience while limiting the number of human resources taken up in answering rote questions. Automation was the first step towards this goal, but users shied away from rote responses to answers. The next great leap forward came with the development of automated chatbots that would interact with humans and answer their questions much as another human would. In the past, CMOs would look at tech spend as an investment in hardware and software that they would eventually need to replace. However, when it comes to AI, there may not be a reason to replace them.
