With the development of technology, the number of cases where artificial intelligence (AI) is used in the business field has increased. With the shortage of workers due to population decline, the use of AI is beginning to attract attention for efficient marketing and sales promotion. This time, in addition to the definition and mechanism of AI, we will explain how to use it in the marketing field.
What is artificial intelligence (AI)?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a computer system with cognitive and learning abilities related to human intelligence. Although experts have different definitions of AI, the concept of “science and technology for generating intelligent computer programs” is now becoming more common.
Research into AI is surprisingly old, starting in the 1950s. About 60 years have passed since then, and with the advancement of technology, the use of AI is progressing in the marketing field.
The biggest benefit of using AI in marketing is the improvement of operational efficiency. For example, if AI is introduced on an EC site, it will suggest the best products based on the user’s preferences and past purchase history. Humans can analyze user preferences, but AI can be used to efficiently analyze and propose.
Differences between machine learning and deep learning
Artificial intelligence (AI) is often referred to as “machine learning” and “deep learning”. Especially in the field of deep learning, “AlphaGo” developed by Google DeepMind in 2016 defeated a professional Go player and received a lot of attention in newspapers and news. Recently, the terms AI, machine learning, and deep learning are often used interchangeably, but each has different characteristics.
AI is a computer system with human intelligence. AI is treated as a broad concept, with various definitions given by experts.
Machine learning and deep learning, on the other hand, are part of the techniques for generating AI systems and have a narrower meaning.
To generate an AI system, it is basic to first create rules called algorithms. When creating these rules, humans set their learning method for machine learning, and deep learning automatically learns from accumulated data and generates algorithms.
In other words, both machine learning and deep learning are methods included in the broad concept of AI. When comparing the two, deep learning is newer and does not require human definition when generating algorithms. Deep learning can therefore generate AI systems more efficiently than traditional machine learning.
How to use AI
With the advent of machine learning and deep learning, AI technology has advanced dramatically in the last few years. Nowadays, it is not uncommon for AI to be used in business, such as in self-driving technology and the medical field. In particular, the use of AI in marketing is attracting attention.
Here, we will introduce how to use AI in marketing with examples.
Artificial intelligence proposes user-preferred products
A representative system that utilizes AI is “SENSY” provided by Colorful Board. SENSY is an AI system that can analyze the preferences of products that users have purchased in the past. Based on the analyzed user preferences, it will suggest the most suitable product by linking the company’s products.
Especially in the apparel industry, marketing using SENSY is progressing. Examples include Haruyama Shoji, which uses AI-based product proposals for direct mail (DM), and Isetan Mitsukoshi, which uses SENSY as a support tool for customer service. In addition to physical stores and DM, SENSY can also be used for EC sites.
Since apparel products come in a wide range of sizes and colors even with the same model number, it is not efficient to manually analyze user preferences. The reason why SENSY is used so much, especially in the apparel industry, is that AI can efficiently link huge amounts of product information with user information.
Artificial intelligence proposes website improvement policies
As shown in the example of SENSY above, AI can analyze accumulated data and make optimal proposals based on the analysis results. By applying this method, in addition to customer support and sales promotion, it is also possible to propose the optimal improvement policy for the website.
The “AI analyst” provided by WACUL uses artificial intelligence to analyze access analysis data for corporate sites and owned media. Websites that have introduced AI analysts are designed to receive advice on improvement policies from artificial intelligence.
Access analysis data contains a huge number of analysis patterns depending on access terminals and user paths. Of course, analyzing by hand requires a considerable amount of time and effort, so it can be said that introducing AI is more efficient.
In addition to analysis, the AI analyst also provides advice on improvement policies, so it has suddenly become famous as a website analysis tool.
summary
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a computer system with human-like intelligence. AI research began about 60 years ago, but in recent years, with the advent of methods such as machine learning and deep learning, more and more companies are using AI for marketing.
In particular, AI excels at analyzing various accumulated data and making optimal proposals based on the analysis results. By using AI in marketing, it is possible to propose optimal products that match user preferences and effectively operate websites.
