Is Artificial Intelligence a Threat to Your Marketing Agency?

When you think of Artificial Intelligence, do you think of sci-fi movies? Do you wonder or worry if AI can take over some of the data driven work your agency does for it's client? Don't let Artificial Intelligence scare you! AI can be your competitive advantage when you learn how it really works and what it can do for your agency growth.

In this episode, we'll cover:

• What exactly is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
• The two types of AI.
• How your agency can embrace AI and use it to grow.

Today I got to talk with Paul Roetzer, author, CEO and founder of the inbound marketing agency, PR20/20. He is also founder of the Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute. Paul got his start in PR, but started questioning the agency model, specifically billable hours. His goal was to figure out ways to achieve economics of scale and profitability, so he set up shop with PR20/20 and created standardized services with set prices. Paul's interest in AI first piqued when he watched the Jeopardy episode featuring IBM's Watson supercomputer which beat out the humans. He has been researching and writing about AI, ever since.

What Exactly is Artificial Intelligence?

It's easy to go to images of science fiction movies and Will Smith, when thinking of Artificial Intelligence (AI), but that's not accurate. AI is the science of teaching machines to be smart.

It's more like when Netflix suggests another show or movie for you to watch after learning what other shows/movies you like. The machine's abilities revolve around very narrow tasks that are data driven, such as what time to send an e-mail, what content to write about, A/B testing of landing pages and predicting conversions, to name a few. They excel at things that are hard or time consuming for humans to do.

When used within data driven areas, AI helps your agency make better decisions.

[clickToTweet tweet="'80% of what we do as an agency will be intelligently automated within five years.' Says @paulroetzer, found of Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute" quote="80% of what we do as an agency will be intelligently automated within five years. ~ Paul Roetzer, found of Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute"]

The Two Types Of AI

1. Machine Learning - This is the AI that we are talking about. This is where your agency uses machines to solve data driven problems with superhuman skill.
2. Deep Learning - This is the AI that falls in the sci-fi realm. This involves getting machines to think like a human brain works, by processing through neurons. Facebook has a hand in this type of AI with the facial recognition feature they're developing.

How Your Agency Can Embrace AI

Don't let it overwhelm you, AI is happening.

It's time that your agency starts learning and understanding he capabilities of AI. Then look for ways you can apply it to your business and use it to grow.

For example, Paul says you can utilize AI when automating e-mails. If your agency wants to send emails at a certain time, does it take into account different time zones or the receiver's opening habits? AI can make adjustments to automated sending habits, based on predicative information. As the data comes in from the email blasts, the AI tool gets smarter on it's own and will make the necessary adjustments, based on it's learning. If your receiver usually opens emails at local time of 9AM, there's no sense in sending the email at 3AM, right?

Another great application to use AI for your agency growth is with chatbots. You can let chatbot AI engage with your prospects until a human can take over.

AI is currently all around us, it is present in much of the technology we use every day.

So be aware. Don't define your agency on one little thing. Now that you can see this coming, it's time to pivot, use AI to support and build upon the systems your agency already has so you can grow easier and faster.

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