Marketing, advertising, communications & public relations trends, statistics, charts, graphs, infographics, presentations, and video that are not published to the e-Strategy Internet Marketing Blog or to eStrategy TV. This site is published daily by David Erickson, a veteran marketing professional.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is more than just a job-eliminating technology. It also has the potential to change how people approach creative work. In July, Wrike and EdgePeak Consulting surveyed 1,552 "creative professionals" who work in various fields including design, art, film, video production and advertising. The researchers found that 85% of respondents believed that AI will have a significant impact on their creative output in the next two years. No other emerging technology was expected to have an impact this big.

Businesses and consumers are experiencing a gap in perception when it comes to the use of AI. While almost two-thirds (63%) of businesses believe that chatbots and virtual assistants make it easier for customers to get their issues resolved, only one-third (33%) of consumers agree, according to a customer experience benchmark report from NICE inContact. There is an even bigger gap when it comes to businesses believing that customers would like to use their virtual assistants (such as Amazon Alexa/ECHO or Google Home) to interact with them. While 68% of businesses carry this perception – and despite ownership of such devices continuing to increase in the US – only 30% of customers actually want to interact with businesses using them. Even so, businesses are continuing to look to the future when it comes to voice ordering.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) to drive campaigns and experiences is one of the most exciting prospects for digital marketers and e-commerce professionals in the coming years, more so than virtual or augmented reality and the internet of things (IoT). The latest Digital Trends report from Econsultancy and Adobe also reveals that top-performing companies are more than twice as likely as mainstream companies to already be putting AI to use. The study is based on a survey of almost 12,800 digital marketing and e-commerce professionals from the client-side (60%) and supply-side (40%), with respondents hailing primarily from Europe (44%), followed by Asia (21%), North America (16%) and other regions. Top-performing companies are those who exceeded their business goals and believe that they're outperforming their competitors. Some 28% of these organizations say they're already using AI, compared to 12% of "mainstream companies."

This infographic by PricewaterhouseCoopers illustrates the rise of robotics and AI.