IBM (NYSE: IBM) and its subsidiary The Weather Company, which includes The Weather Channel digital properties, were determined to be "the overall most accurate provider globally" by ForecastWatch, a premier organization for evaluating the accuracy of weather forecasts. In its latest comprehensive study of forecast accuracy released today,ii Global and Regional Weather Forecast Accuracy Overview, 2017-2020, commissioned by IBM, ForecastWatch named IBM's The Weather Company as the weather forecast provider whose forecasts overall were the most accurate globally when aggregated across all geographic regions compared and time periods covered. Further, the data showed that the gap between The Weather Company (noted as The Weather Channel in the report) and the next best overall provider has increased every year of the study.iii "A forecast is most helpful when it comes from a recognized, trusted source, and the pursuit of accuracy is at the foundation of what we seek to provide to help customers, consumers and marketers to make important decisions every day," said Sheri Bachstein, CEO of The Weather Company and GM of IBM Watson Advertising. "The study is evidence of how IBM is helping advance the science of weather forecasting through continued innovations in AI, data and cloud computing."

The AI Standards Working Group, co-chaired by IBM Watson Advertising and Nielsen, today released the guide Artificial Intelligence Use Cases and Best Practices for Marketing, which is intended to help executives, marketers, and technologists get the most from artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). The announcement was made during the IAB ILM annual conference. The guide -- which provides dozens of working examples -- draws directly from the real-world experience of the co-chairs as well as publishers, agencies, and ad-tech companies. It includes nine use cases that span internal robotic process automation and data migration for agencies as well as AI use cases for creative, contextual, video, and more. David Olesnevich, head of product at IBM Watson Advertising, and IAB AI Standards Working Group co-chair, believes the work and the guide provide a road map through insights driven by conversations about real-world challenges faced daily by some of the industry's largest brands.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the national trade association for the digital media and marketing industries, is focusing its AI Standards Working Group to develop artificial intelligence (AI) standards, best practices, use cases, and terminologies in an effort to scale AI and enable the industry on its full potential. The group is newly co-chaired by IBM Watson Advertising and Nielsen. The first release of 2021, "Artificial Intelligence Use Cases and Best Practices for Marketing," will help executive leaders, marketers, and technologists get the most from AI, and do it responsibly. Created for those already working with AI or looking to leverage it in their business, this guide draws directly from the real-world experience of co-chairs IBM Watson Advertising and Nielsen as well as top publishers, agencies, and ad tech companies in the industry. It's not an ivory tower overview of AI: it's a specific guide for what to do for executives that are in the thick of it.

How significant an impact can we reasonably expect AI to make on digital marketing? Rosy predictions have a knack for either showing up late, floundering or somehow failing to fulfill their promise. At IBM Watson Advertising, CMO Randi Stipes looks at AI as a practical toolset that has been in place for a decade rather than the vague promise of a rosier future. I recently asked Randi to give us an AI update. Paul Talbot: What's happening with AI at IBM that's different from how it's being deployed elsewhere?

Advertising stands to be rebooted by advances in artificial intelligence – but the industry must re-learn practices to embrace the power of machine learning. In this video interview with Beet.TV, Hlavacek explains how AI could make a step-change. "A number of players in the ecosystem – ad-tech companies, publishers, marketers – they're starting to understand how AI can help them predict what actions their consumers are going to take when they don't have all the data that they're used to having," he says. "AI is a new category of advertising and it's really going to change everything that we do, much of the way programmatic changed everything that close to a decade ago happened in the digital space." So, what is AI really?

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced three new products to add to its growing suite of AI solutions for brand and publishers. The new capabilities are privacy-forward and designed to allow brands to reach consumers while considering user privacy. IBM intends to work with industry leaders, including Xandr/AT&T, Magnite, Nielsen, MediaMath, LiveRamp and Beeswax to help scale the use of AI across the industry. The announcement was made this morning at Advertising Week's digital-first virtual event #AW2020. "While the advertising industry strives to re-emerge strong from the global economic and societal issues we faced this year, it's also deep in the throes of a major transformation with changes to mobile identity, certain elimination of third-party cookies, compliance and regulatory shifts and increased demand for trust and transparency," said Bob Lord, SVP, Cognitive Applications and Blockchain, IBM.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are using predictive algorithms to determine a ... [ ] customer's lifecycle in social media One of the biggest challenges brands face today when utilizing social media is finding the right influencer to align with – and while a "wrong" choice likely won't hurt a brand in most cases, it could be more of a wasted effort. However, in a worst case scenario working with the wrong influencer can have a detrimental impact on a brand. According to a survey conducted by Salesforce Research last year, 92% of consumers surveyed report that trusting a brand makes them more likely to buy products and services. In addition, nearly a third – 32% – of consumers also said that the influencer's core values should also align with that of the consumer's. While human marketing teams can comb through the social media feeds of influencers for past posts to judge appropriateness as well as effectiveness, which can be a time consuming endeavor, and could still miss something important.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are using predictive algorithms to determine a ... [ ] customer's lifecycle in social media One of the biggest challenges brands face today when utilizing social media is finding the right influencer to align with – and while a "wrong" choice likely won't hurt a brand in most cases, it could be more of a wasted effort. However, in a worst case scenario working with the wrong influencer can have a detrimental impact on a brand. According to a survey conducted by Salesforce Research last year, 92% of consumers surveyed report that trusting a brand makes them more likely to buy products and services. In addition, nearly a third – 32% – of consumers also said that the influencer's core values should also align with that of the consumer's. While human marketing teams can comb through the social media feeds of influencers for past posts to judge appropriateness as well as effectiveness, which can be a time consuming endeavor, and could still miss something important.

The role of artificial intelligence in advertising is leaping from the experimental stage to something more commonplace, as all marketers want to reach "the right person, at the right time, at the right place with the right message." That was the impetus behind lawn care services chain TruGreen's expanded use of IBM Watson Advertising's AI tools to target specific customers with ads recommending specific offers related to local conditions. TruGreen boasts 2.3 million commercial and residential customers with 260 lawn care branches in the United States and Canada, plus about 35 franchise locations. To reach those people and businesses with a timely message about their individual lawn care needs, the IBM Watson ads takes in many factors that might come into play, such as weeds, thin grass, dryness, lack of growth, or grass discoloration. "At TruGreen, we are constantly looking for new and innovative ways to interact with consumers," said Kari Rajaniemi, Chief Marketing Officer, TruGreen.