AI to have greater impact than social media

Warc's'Toolkit 2017', in association with Deloitte Digital, indicates that more than half of global CMOs said they expected the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on marketing and communications to be greater than the impact of social media. AI, defined as the ability of computers to take on tasks that have previously required human intelligence to complete, such as speech recognition or interpreting data, will have a major impact on the marketing industry next year. David Tiltman, Warc's head of content, says, "2017 looks set to be the year that many brands take their first steps in artificial intelligence. Machine learning is already being applied to programmatic trading and we have seen brands such as Aviva in the UK improve its media efficiencies as a result. The next major application looks set to be chatbots, as marketers look to respond to consumers' take-up of messaging apps."