Here Come the Robots
I watch my manners when I talk to Siri. When the robots take over, I want to be remembered as one of the good guys. In general, I’m a lover, not a fighter but really, I just want them to let me keep my job.
By 2020, one in five jobs will shrink because of computerization, and five million jobs will be lost to automation.
Thanks a lot, self-checkout. I knew you were too convenient to be good for us.
But kind of like that time in the 80’s when everyone thought we’d have flying cars by now, we really don’t know what the true implications of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are going to be. Even so, eighty percent of B2B marketing executives believe that by 2020, AI will revolutionize the marketing industry.
Right now, a lot of the predictions seem to be that automation will help “automate workflow” which is a nice way of saying “take the menial BS out of our days” while us sentient humans do all of the wonderful creative thinking.
(As mentioned above, I personally fear robots, and think that such a flippant attitude towards machines is pure hubris, but hey, what do I know?)
What will robots be capable of in the future? Well…
AI will be particularly helpful when it comes to customer service. Chatbots already have complete, helpful and sometimes hilarious conversations with customers who message brands on Facebook.
But it’s more than just Chatbots who have pretty rigid, pre-planned responses. The newest technologies like Smart Speakers and Home Assistants, such as Alexa and Jibo, are capable of learning, and are coming dangerously close to thinking.
Somewhere around 50% of marketers are predicting that AI will be able to understand customer behavior, manage real-time customer interactions, and even personalize the customer experience across channels.
(They’re starting to use the word “Hyperpersonalization” a lot, which just sounds too much like HAL 9000 for my taste, but I digress…)
More importantly, 61% of marketers foresee that AI will have the biggest impact on “Delivering the right message on the right channel at the right time,” which, with all due respect, for as convenient and cool as it sounds, also sounds a little too much like a human, thinking skill.
Listen, I’m not exactly a tin-foil hat wearer, but I feel like a lot of the advertising industry needs to maybe read a few more dystopian novels—Isaac Asimov, specifically.
What happens when this artificial intelligence, that has all sorts of “hyperpersonal” information about us (like where we live, what times we go to work, and even where we generally connect to digital devices) decides that it’s better than us?
Luckily, for humanity, Jeffrey Scott is still human, and while I’m personally terrified of AI, most other people in this agency think it’s pretty cool.
So if you’re someone who sees the future a little more Tony Stark and a little less I, Robot, then give us a call. We’d love to help you figure out how to best use technology to your advantage.
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