As the calendar flips, marketers will look to find new ways to gain an edge. As IBM predicts, a new breed of marketers is emerging with the help of artificial intelligence. IBM Watson Marketing released its 2019 Marketing Trends Report, highlighting trends in the industry. The team predicted that in the emotion economy, consumers will likely engage more with brands that are authentic and deliver on their convictions. That may not be a new development on its own, but IBM believes AI and machine learning will make hyper-personalization a reality as the proliferation of data and the streamlining of marketing stacks will allow marketers to deliver personalized content at a massive scale.

The Home Shopping Network was a victim of its own success. Its reach had expanded across innumerable digital platforms--but while this generated reams of data about its customers, HSN's marketers struggled to keep track of individual retail journeys. To up its odds of driving conversions, the company needed to better understand its individual customers, from their unique tastes to their browsing habits. To make that possible, HSN knew it had to automate and accelerate data collection across its channels. It also had to deliver that data to marketers in an organized, easily understandable format that enabled them to take action quickly.

The age of artificial intelligence (AI) is upon us. In the past few years, vast improvements have been made in how well computers can recognise objects in images and understand human voices. Progress in these areas has been made due to increased computing power and the availability of large stores of data, which, when combined, have made AI systems dramatically more effective. These same forces are also being used in marketing. AI, or'cognitive', marketing systems use industrial computing power, big data, and machine learning to improve marketing performance.

Managed by Sarah Untiedt and Darla Blakes.