AI Puts the Consumer Back in the Driver’s Seat of Personalization
Recent survey data has shown that 71% of consumers now expect personalization when interacting with brands. Simultaneously, the industry has cracked down on exploitation of consumer data privacy, from Apple’s ongoing war with device fingerprinting to Google’s new timeline for the deprecation of third-party cookies. Not to mention the recent economic uncertainty that has taken a toll on marketing budgets. In short, marketers are faced with increased consumer demand for personalization while also dealing with stricter (but necessary) data privacy regulations coupled with tightened budgets.
Enter, Generative AI.
Marketers that integrate AI into their tech stack can make greater use of existing data and resources to put the control back into consumers’ hands, allowing them to share direct feedback and preferences – resulting in better experiences.
Why Collect Someone Else’s Data When You Can Use Your Own?
When gazing out at the cookie-less future, marketers may not have a crystal ball, but do know they face a lot of work in determining how to learn more about their consumers. While it’s true that the effective use of any good martech tool requires a robust data set and information system, many organizations already have that in place. One of the critical benefits coming to light on the use of AI is being able to extract more intelligence out of the data and content that brands already own. Organizations that have hosted events, for example, have a wealth of attendee data ready to be put to work.
Organizations can better analyze organically collected event data by leveraging AI to identify key themes or moments at the event, create summaries of popular keynotes, analyze attendee feedback, and take on repetitive tasks. In turn, this drives efficiency for event teams, allowing them the time to focus on more high-value, creative, and strategic work based on those insights. Finding new ways to get to know the customer base takes creativity, but chances are you may already have what you need.
Harnessing Data to Give Back Customers the Keys
Determining what to do with an organization’s existing data and voluntary customer feedback is the next step in harnessing the power of AI. Sticking with our events example, data is constantly flowing in the form of attendee feedback and responses. Voluntary feedback is hidden in a number of places, not only at events but in satisfaction surveys, returns rates, email open rates, email unsubscribe rates, and more. While helpful all on its own, AI can identify connections between customer data and customer interactions so as to understand not only what they say they want, but what they actually want.
If you’ve interacted with Spotify’s AI DJ (DJ X), you’ve seen this in action.
You never said you wanted to listen to a certain artist, but DJ X knows it fits your description based on the intersection of explicit feedback and historical data. And simply pressing the skip button provides your AI sidekick with the feedback it needs to show you something else. Without unregulated tracking techniques, marketers now have a set of invaluable tools to understand the customer. In this way, personalized recommendations driven by the consumer will evolve rapidly, and in more meaningful ways than past personalization techniques.
Unleash Meaningful Experiences – But Proceed With Caution
The demand for personalized experiences has put pressure on marketers to develop new ways to deliver and create the most personalized experiences while maintaining data privacy, and AI has emerged as a viable solution. Marketers can utilize AI to repurpose their existing and organically collected data sets. Customers may already be giving organizations the feedback they need to drive purposefully personalized experiences, and AI can help them make sense of it all.
As with any emerging technology, however, marketers must think strategically about how AI integrates with their overarching goals.
Continued research and testing are still vital, as the current state of the technology and the lack of regulation still pose risks to data privacy and copyright ownership, and organizations should think twice before inputting proprietary data into these tools. Proceed with caution but also with excitement for future insights.
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