3 Ways to Better Integrate AI into Your Business Strategy

As a brand manager, incorporating AI into your business plans is important for brand recognition and growth. Using AI is essential for brand recognition growth and fast return on investments. As a graduate student at Northwestern University looking out for current developments in IMC, I have found two remarkable articles on how AI will affect future of marketing that you will find useful for your business decisions.  

Artificial intelligence (AI) And The Future Of Marketing: 6 Observations From Inbound 2016 by Gil Press is very fascinating and informative article that provides detailed overview of Inbound 2016 convention. It is one of most important conventions that brings together best sales and marketing professionals from around the globe. This convention reminds brand managers that AI will substitute all mechanical work in marketing, but will not bother creative and strategic processes. In 2017 the era of bots has begun, really soon AI will take over online customer support chats and bots will seamlessly communicate with consumers without them noticing that this is not a human being. Speakers reassured marketers concerns and confirmed the good part of the trend by saying “Marketers will not be replaced by AI and will be able to skip the boring stuff.”

Another article about AI written by Lisa Manthei - 5 ways AI marketing boosts campaign performance & ROI is describing 5 key ways how to boost marketing campaigns using AI. Lisa describes in detail how companies must understand the concepts of machine learning and big data. She talks about endless amount of data to analyze, and reminds marketers that AI is here and developing fast. Also she mentions that in today’s AI environment, brand managers need to react fast and start using the most powerful AI marketing tools now, as is the next big thing and competition is already taking action. This article is just confirming that marketers will not lose their jobs, just automation of mechanical processes will untie marketers hands to work on good strategies, content, and creative ideas.

Taking into consideration these two articles, my work experience and knowledge gained at Northwestern University, below three actions are required:

• First Movers = Most Profits - If you want to get into AI market, you need to be aggressive to your competition and take actions now
• AI is Here & Growing - You need to believe that this is the next big thing
• Think Big Data - Big data actually helps in developing AI and remodeling marketing solutions all over the world

Victor Yakovlev

Northwestern University, Medill Integrated Marketing Communications MS full-time student and customer-focused strategic marketer with 10 years of international experience. Worked as a branch manager for Unicore Overseas in Moscow from 2012  2015 and positioned European company on fast paced Russian market. 

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CMO: 3 Action Items to Prepare for AI and Machine Learning

As a CMO, you are likely feeling pressure to move your marketing efforts towards artificial intelligence and machine learning, two very complex topics. Underlying these topics are a solid understanding of analytics and data. As a graduate student at Northwestern University in the Medill IMC program with an interest in marketing analytics, I have found two articles that address the basics of building a strong analytical foundation in marketing.

The first article, Marketing Analytics Can Improve the Customer Experience, argues that marketing analytics is a crucial part of understanding the customer experience. Most companies have the data but are held back by silos within the company that prevent the company from integrating the data across channels. And it is the responsibility of the CMO to break down these silos and shift to a more customer-centric approach. The most successful companies are those that use measurement and analytics across all customer-facing functions to gain a complete customer view, therefore allowing them improve the customer experience.  The article was featured on the Harvard Business Review by Google Analytics 360 Suite.

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The other article, How An Analytic Mindset Changes Marketing Culture, discusses the benefits of combining analytics with marketing efforts to not only measure the effectiveness of past campaigns, but also to focus on actions in the future. This allows marketers to be more proactive than reactive. With the availability of data today, marketers should no longer be relying on their gut to make decisions. The key is to use the data to develop insights and tell a story, resulting in the ability to adjust in real-time and improve results. The article was written by Adele K. Sweetwood and published on the Harvard Business Review.

Based on my review of these two articles and relevant studies I have done in the Northwestern Medill IMC program, I have developed three action items for you to take as soon as possible:

• Establish analytical culture – be open to using analytics to improve your marketing efforts

• Break down silos – marketing and analytics should not be separate, and benefits cannot truly be maximized without the contribution of all customer-facing functions

• Find useful insights – companies have mass amounts of data available at their fingertips, but data is not valuable without the ability to develop useful, actionable insights

With the marketing industry moving rapidly towards artificial intelligence and machine learning, consider these three action items to make sure your marketing department is ready for what’s to come.

Ashley Tomzik is a graduate student at Northwestern University’s Medill IMC program, specializing in Marketing Analytics, who will be graduating in December. Prior to Northwestern, I have gained valuable experience, holding a range of analytical roles. You can contact me on Twitter (@ashley_tomzik) or LinkedIn.

Tech Managers: 3 Things to Keep in Mind About IoT

Tech Managers: 3 Things to Keep in Mind About IoT

One of the major industry buzzwords is the “Internet of Things.” While people have an abundance of applications for IoT, what needs to transpire to ensure these applications are possible? As a graduate student in the IMC program at Northwestern University with an interest in IoT and AI, I have found two articles which focus on the relationship between these two technologies.

The first article "The Internet of Things Will be the Worlds Biggest Robot"(http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceschneier/2016/02/02/the-internet-of-things-will-be-the-worlds-biggest-robot/#2896d3343162) by Bruce Schneier published in Forbes indicates that the “Internet of Things” is the computerization of everything in our lives. Schneier talks about how you can buy internet-enabled thermostats, light bulbs, refrigerators and car. Soon Schneier argues that “everything will be on the Internet: the things we own, the things we interact with in public, autonomous things that interact with each other.” The article states that the two things that make this possible are sensors that collect data about us and the environment and actuators that will affect our environment. Schneier states that “Increasingly, human intervention will be unnecessary. The sensors will collect data. The system’s smarts will interpret the data and figure out what to do. And the actuators will do things in our world.” This will create what Schneier calls the “world-sized robot.” This world-sized robot or “world-sized web” as he calls it will be on at all times collecting data.

The second article “IoT Won’t Work Without Artificial Intelligence” (http://www.wired.com/insights/2014/11/iot-wont-work-without-artificial-intelligence/) by Mark Jaffe (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaffemark) published on Wired.com talks about how interconnected the success of IoT and AI are. Jaffe states that “as the rapid expansion of devices and sensors connected to the Internet of Things continues, the sheer volume of data being created by them will increase to a mind-boggling level.” While all of this data can provide a ton of useful information, its true value will not be recognized by human analysis. This is because “it’s simply impossible for humans to review and understand all of this data.” Jaffe argues that in order to IoT to live up to its promise, we must improve the speed and accuracy of big data analysis. This is where the machine learning aspect will play a vital role. Jaffe hammers his point home by saying “ since current approaches don’t scale to IoT volumes, the future realization of IoT’s promise is dependent on machine learning finding patterns, correlations, and anomalies.”

As a graduate student at Northwestern University in the IMC program, these two articles lead me to these three action items.

• Pursue Standardization - The first company to create a standardized adaptable form of Artificial Intelligence will be in the best position to leverage the growth of the Internet of Things. 

• IoT Rules - IoT will only go as far as artificial intelligence will take it.

• Sense for Success - Improving sensors, actuators, and mobile capabilities will provide the richest and insightful data for marketing analysis.

As a CMO in the technology space, following these three actions items will help you better prepare for the changes taking place in this connected world.

Joseph Macdougall is an M.S. candidate in Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University - Medill School, Class 16. Prior to attending Northwestern, Macdougall received a bachelor of science degree in communications from the University of Miami. Upon graduation, Macdougall is interested in pursuing a marketing position in the technology industry. Macdougall can be contacted at Twitter @Joe_Mac15 and at LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-macdougall-04b628112. Please let me know what you think and feel free to comment.

Technology Enthusiasts: 3 Action Items to Bring a Spark to Your Company

Siri, Cortana, IBM Watson, Viv…Humans are building smarter machines to better serve the needs of…human beings. Artificial intelligence has become so hot a topic that every technology enthusiast should be curious about. As a grad student at the Northwestern Medill IMC program, I have found two articles that you, as a technology enthusiast, might find interesting.

An article by Will Knight from MIT Technology Review talks about deep learning and misunderstandings some people have on artificial intelligence. In an interview with the publication, Bengio, a professor of computer science at the University of Montreal, states that although deep learning helps make some progress in developing artificial intelligence, machines are still far from being intelligent or threatening human beings. Unsupervised learning and natural language understanding are two major unsolved problems with developing a revolutionary AI. AI is cool and could change the world, but people shouldn’t be over-excited or overwhelmed because it’s still at its baby stage.

A second article by Heather Kelly from CNN Money talks about Mark Zuckerberg’s perspective on artificial intelligence. Mr. Zuckerberg agrees that unsupervised learning is the key to advance artificial intelligence and plans to build his personal AI assistant this year. He believes that self-learning AI still has long way to go and people shouldn’t be afraid of it. Instead, it’s possible to make good use of it.

As a grad student at Northwestern, with a strong interest in technology and data analytics, I recommend the following three action items to anyone who shares similar passion:

• Think AI - Artificial intelligence is worth noticing, learning, and investing or contributing in other ways.

• Grow Together - Researchers and engineers have made some progress but still far from making real intelligent machines.

• Be Fearless - Artificial intelligence is not evil or dangerous, at least not at this moment.

Whether you are a student, an employee, an employer or an entrepreneur, as long as you are a technology enthusiast, these three tips will make you stand out from your peers and give you a head start when you develop a career in TECHNOLOGY.

Yuchen Luo @blazermania1

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Yuchen Luo is a full-time student in the Medill Integrated Marketing Communications program. After completing his undergrad at USC majoring in Business Administration and minoring in Sports Media, Yuchen worked for a Santa Monica ad agency where he analyzed consumer, competitive and campaign performance data to provide insightful media planning recommendations. This experience opens up his interest in the application of data analytics in marketing and advertising. Beyond data analytics, he is developing his new found interest in coding by taking online coding courses and training programs. He is super passionate about technology and his long-term career goal is to help a technology startup succeed with his all-around skill sets in data analytics, marketing, and strategy consulting.