Australian marketers are far more positive about artificial intelligence (AI) than European counterparts, but challenges holding back the technology include a shortage of skills and wariness by media buyers.
In a study of 100 senior marketing professionals, 80% believe AI will improve effectiveness, 74% believe AI systems will make marketers' jobs easier and 58% are generally positive about AI.
In Europe, only 17% of marketers believe AI will enhance their jobs and in the next five years and 47% felt neutral towards the technology.
Part of the discrepancy between the two regions is that European marketers are still reeling from years of cutbacks from the global financial crisis, which compounded fears over job security. Australian marketers are also known as quick adopters of technology once it has been introduced.
JJ Eastwood, managing director of Rocket Fuel, which conducted the study with the Association for Data-driven Marketing and Advertising (ADMA), told AdNews AI will impact upon “every single aspect of advertising”.
“Eventually, every advertising opportunity will be digital, then that makes it ripe for a machine to make a decision around the buying process,” he says.
ADMA CEO Jodie Sangster believes AI has a major role to play in customer services.
“Often organisations get it wrong. There's a lot of focus on acquiring customers and nurturing customers, but the part where it falls off a cliff is customer service," she says. "This needs to be brought into that marketing umbrella and artificial intelligence can play a massive role.
AI faces challenges
The major hurdles holding back AI adoption in advertising and marketing are a shortage of skills, C-suite buy-in and wariness by media buyers.
Eastwood says he recently saw push-back at a global trading desk with traders within programmatic questioning whether Rocket Fuel's platform should make all of the decisions.
“The challenge that we're coming up against is breaking down the traditional ways of planning and buying,” he says.
“These things are so ingrained and have been in place for 50-plus years. You don't need to guess what audience is going to interact with your ads, machines really can make hard decisions on your behalf. It requires media buyers letting go of the reins a little bit.”
Sangster says there is also a skills challenge in that marketers need to better understand the role AI can play and ensure there is buy-in across the whole enterprise, which requires a cultural shift.
“It also takes investment and that is about adopting a step-by-step test and learn approach,” she says.
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