Are Marketers Driven by the GenAI Gold Rush?
Around 32% of marketing organisations have fully implemented AI in their workflows, and an additional 43% are experimenting with it, reveals a recent Salesforce report. However, they continue to face integration challenges.
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As the industry makes significant strides towards digital transformation, customer expectations continue to change. They expect authenticity and personalised attention from brands, prompting enterprises to incorporate genAI-powered technologies in their marketing and CX functions.
“Generative AI has reshaped conversational experiences. Having a single source of truth across interactions and channels powers context. This customer context allows for more relevant and intelligent conversations, and raises the bar for personalisation,” says Lavanya Jindal, Senior Research Analyst, Asia/Pacific Customer Experience and Value Streams, IDC Asia/Pacific.
However, many organisations still struggle to fully adopt AI to foster personalised and meaningful conversations for enhanced engagement and loyalty. A survey from Salesforce revealed that only 31% of marketers are completely satisfied with how they use customer data to create relevant experiences.
Why is AI adoption still a struggle for marketers?
Although marketers are evolving their practices in a highly competitive landscape, they embrace AI for hyper-personalised customer experiences with predictive analysis.
However, obstacles such as integration complexities, employee and skills shortages, data silos, and lack of customer views continue to surge. The same survey from Salesforce unveiled the following:
- With concerns related to security and customer trust as adoption ramps up. Around 32% of marketing organisations have fully implemented AI in their workflows, and an additional 43% are experimenting with it.
- Around 39% of marketers believe loyalty program functionalities are accessible across all touchpoints
- Despite having access to multiple data sources, many marketers still seek unified analytics to gain valuable insights from customer data. Only 48% of marketers currently measure customer lifetime value (CLV).
Emphasising the challenges associated with the complete usage of AI, Ariel Kelman, President & Chief Marketing Officer at Salesforce, said, “We’re in a new wave of the artificial intelligence revolution — catalysed by the genAI gold rush — and marketers are leading the charge by embracing rapid advancements in the technology to better connect with customers and prospects. But AI isn’t just marketers’ biggest priority. It’s also their biggest challenge. A strong data foundation is critical to AI success for marketers as they work to bring together customer data for real-time activation.”
According to Velid Begovic, VP of Revenue at Infobip, “Conversational AI has gained significant momentum in recent years. To truly excel, it must be properly integrated across the technology stack alongside the human elements throughout the customer journey.”
How are AI-powered innovations redefining marketing and commerce functions?
In a move to derive valuable insights from their customers’ data, marketers will need to incorporate low-code, scalable AI-powered technologies, which eliminate data silos between platforms and teams. As a repercussion, these innovations will foster hyper-personalised customer engagements without impacting organisations’ operational efficiency.
Krishna Baidya, Sr. director of information and communication technologies at Frost & Sullivan, shared, “Advancements in genAI can be harnessed to significantly enhance conversational commerce solutions, empowering ecommerce marketers and online retailers to seamlessly connect with potential customers while delivering a personalised experience.”
“Infusing genAI with the knowledge base, brands can respond to queries and streamline customer support, ensuring efficient and reliable self-service options during conversations. Adding AI-powered assistance in live chat interactions will boost agent productivity and communication effectiveness,” she added.
Vonage introduced genAI-driven enhancements, such as marketing template content generator, live chat assistance, and intuitive knowledge base inquiries to its conversational commerce solution.
Consequently, this approach is making an impact on customer interactions across various touchpoints for modern enterprises, benefiting agent, marketing, and customer support teams alike. Besides enhancing the acquisition of valuable customer data, it’s optimising operational efficiency through automation.
In another scenario, ADA, a provider of digital and data-driven business transformation services across Asia, launched a suite of AI CoPilots to redefine enterprise marketing and commerce functions. Its AI CoPilots encompasses four strategically devised tools, including full-funnel marketing, ecommerce, conversational AI, customer segmentation. Each CoPilot unifies disparate information streams, dismantling the silos between different platforms and business units.
