Artificial intelligence (AI) – while still in its early stages – is being increasingly applied in the context of marketing.

Companies across all industries are using available and emerging technologies to process data, learn about their audiences, and streamline their operations, ultimately providing a better experience for customers.

The question is, will your brand move forward as the technology does, or will the impending AI revolution put your business at risk?

CHE Proximity recently released a whitepaper that explores how growing accessibility to AI will impact brand experiences and marketing now and in years to come.

When it comes to finding their right AI fit, the report warned marketers not to boil the ocean, but instead focus on small improvements with low implementation barriers to prove value before increasing scope.

CHE Proximity also outlined six principles that can help…

1. Design around the customer, not the technology

Map your desired outcomes for personas in the form of ‘user stories’; the structure behind outlining goals as ‘user stories’ demonstrates their core value. From here, you can clearly prioritise strategic outcomes. Example: ‘As a customer, I need this experience, so that I remain loyal to the brand.’

2. Define opportunities and explore them

Take the identified customer value and define a hypothesis for how it can deliver on a business opportunity. This gives a direction to your opportunities, whether it’s using AI for optimisation of marketing automation; presenting customers with the next action on the path to purchase; conversational bots to drive customer engagement and conversions; prediction and forecasting to establish product growth; or internal process automation for improving operations across the business itself.

3. Understanding current infrastructure/roadmaps is critical

Review your existing digital ecosystem and technology stacks. It’s important to land on a solution that fits within your brand’s current campaign and BAU set-up. This infrastructure audit will inform the generation of ideas and ultimately shape the solution design.

4. Validate against a business case

Develop a proof of concept to evaluate technological challenges, and pivot where required to establish whether the idea is feasible. Then validate this against a business case to establish measurable outcomes against the journey and product roadmaps.

5. Test, learn and iterate

User testing should be a focus ahead of market release. Ask some participants to complete a series of tasks that mimic the actions users may take when engaging with the product. Ask for running commentary as they attempt to complete the tasks for further insight into what they’re thinking, doing and feeling as they carry out the assignment. This leads to a more refined end product to meet your customer’s needs.

6. Get to market quickly and optimise

At CHE Proximity, once an idea is approved to proceed into full production, our solutions are delivered running Agile, where software is developed incrementally. The main benefits of implementing Agile are full project transparency to all stakeholders, risk mitigation, shorter delivery lead times that see sequential releases reach the market sooner, and – most importantly – the ability to adapt to changes in market conditions or technological advances.