More than a third of marketers (36%) say their company doesn’t have a “clear and actionable plan for AI integration into their marketing strategy,” according to a new report. On the plus side, 40% said they have “a clear plan and are executing it well.”
Noteworthy:
- Find these places and don’t work there: 10% of those without a plan also said, “and we don’t know where to start.”
- I feel for this group: 22% said they have a plan but “are struggling with the execution.”
The SOCi AI Marketing Transformation Index (registration required) is based on responses from more than 300 digital marketers to questions about AI utilization in marketing and plans for its use.
Privacy, cited by 52% of those surveyed, is marketers’ top concern regarding AI in marketing. It was followed by “over-dependence on technology” (46%), “making data ‘AI-ready’” (41%), and “AI potentially replacing my role” (36%). Other concerns included integrating current systems (35%) and ensuring ROI (30%).
Marketer’s top concerns about AI in marketing
Underlining the need for more training around AI, 47% said their biggest challenge is a “lack of understanding of AI.” This was followed by “difficulty in aligning AI with marketing goals” (44%), “inadequate training or education” (43%), and “budget constraints” (36%). Only 1% reported other challenges, while 7% are not integrating AI at all.
Concerning dedicated marketing personnel for overseeing AI models, 39% have specialized staff, 21% do not, and 37% are in the process of training or upskilling their staff.
And now, here are this week’s releases:
- ZoomInfo’s ZoomInfo Copilot is an AI-powered solution that unifies a company’s go-to-market data, including CRM data and ZoomInfo’s data. It uses generative AI to provide insights and recommendations for sellers. It also has AI-guided prospecting, dynamic buying committees, generative AI-powered outreach, AI Email Assistant, unified data and customization options.
- 10Web’s AI Ecommerce website builder provides online store creation, optimization and management with artificial intelligence. It’s integrated with WordPress and WooCommerce and provides payment processing, product and order management, AI image and content generation, hosting, tax and shipping options and analytics.
- ChannelMix’s Pacing Dashboard integrates real-time data from various marketing sources and uses predictive pacing algorithms and AI-powered plan types to help marketers optimize their budget allocation and campaign performance.
- Medallia has four new generative AI solutions for its Medallia Experience Cloud. Ask Athena lets users ask questions about their business performance, customer segments, or feedback records and get answers from their own data. Intelligent Summaries generates summaries of customer interactions, profiles and more, that can be used across the company’s technology stack. Smart Response lets employees create personalized and accurate responses to specific feedback, using generative AI, while still having the option to edit, send and control the final response. Themes helps employees identify and analyze issues with more detailed and actionable Themes including Intelligent Summaries and to track and investigate emerging trends and KPI changes over time.
- China Trading Desk’s China Marketing Maestro is an AI tool for understanding Chinese consumers. It uses surveys, research and data from China’s marketplace to provide expert knowledge of China’s digital marketing landscape, which involves local platforms such as WeChat, Douyin and Xiaohongshu. It also helps to create culturally relevant content and optimize advertising options for different consumer segments.
- Viant Technology’s Viant Data Platform is an advertising technology platform. It lets advertisers use privacy-centric and reliable signals in partnership with publishers. It features Chat with Data, a generative AI technology that analyzes campaign performance and important KPIs such as ROAS.
- Solvacy’s new social media management platform uses artificial intelligence to streamline digital marketing. It simplifies complex digital marketing tasks and offers comprehensive tools for content creation, analytics and social media strategy optimization. Key features include AI-Driven Content Suggestions, Analytics Dashboard, Multi-Platform Management and Influencer Collaboration Hub.
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About the author
Constantine von Hoffman is managing editor of MarTech. A veteran journalist, Con has covered business, finance, marketing and tech for CBSNews.com, Brandweek, CMO, and Inc. He has been city editor of the Boston Herald, news producer at NPR, and has written for Harvard Business Review, Boston Magazine, Sierra, and many other publications. He has also been a professional stand-up comedian, given talks at anime and gaming conventions on everything from My Neighbor Totoro to the history of dice and boardgames, and is author of the magical realist novel John Henry the Revelator. He lives in Boston with his wife, Jennifer, and either too many or too few dogs.
