B2C marketers believe they have way too much data to process in order to gain actionable insights for their campaigns—but at the same time, they’re expected to deliver on numerous data-driven strategic initiatives. As a result, they are beginning to embrace the concept of artificial intelligence as a solution to bridge digital transformation gaps, according to new research from AI marketing tech firm Amplero, which recently announced a new study conducted by Forrester Consulting to evaluate the use of AI-driven marketing technology and its associated challenges and benefits.
The report, The Machine on Your Team: How Marketers Are Adapting in the Age of AI, reveals while the majority (86 percent) of respondents believe AI can provide value to their business, 78 percent believe human involvement is necessary to guide the machine and make the most impact on strategic initiatives.
“Marketers have reached a point where their ability to capture data has exceeded their ability to take data-driven action,” says the study. “[They] are confident in their readiness to incorporate AI into their marketing strategies… [and] the majority of respondents believe AI enhances human decisions and insights.”
“We believe that marketing has reached an inflection point where companies are increasingly looking to artificial intelligence marketing technology to orchestrate omnichannel customer experiences based on their entire customer data ecosystem,” said Olly Downs, PhD, CEO at Amplero, in a news release. “With the implementation of AI at the core of the marketing technology stack, enterprise marketers are finally able to move beyond rules-based systems and manual segmentation processes to deliver highly contextual, 1:1 customer experiences at scale that impact crucial business KPIs.”
Nearly all marketing tech decision makers (92 percent) are planning to increase overall martech spending in the next two years to support digital transformation initiatives, with 78 percent planning to expand or implement artificial intelligence marketing (AIM) as part of that campaign. Simultaneously, 87 percent of C-level execs who have already implemented AIM think that human intervention is necessary with AI to guide available experiences and set goals for the machine.
Many marketers believe that AIM can improve strategies and campaigns by delivering superior decisions and insights. According to the study, marketers who have implemented artificial intelligence marketing into their marketing stack have applied it to improvements in campaign efficiency, optimization of key performance indicators such as such as improving customer satisfaction and value, sales lift, and overall revenue growth for the business.
Forrester and Amplero will host a webinar on the results of the study on Thursday, October 26 at 12:00pm PT. Register here.
For this survey, Forrester Consulting polled 150 North American marketing technology decision makers in retail, financial services, travel and hospitality, computer gaming, telecommunications services, consumer software, and media and entertainment organizations with at least $200M in annual revenue. The study began in July 2017 and was completed in August 2017.