The following article was written by Mark Jones and was originally posted on PerformanceIN.com. You can view the original post here. Vivek Sharma, CEO of Movable Ink shares his thoughts on how Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning will have vital roles in email marketing next year. Email is poised to retain its long-standing reign as the workhorse of digital marketing into 2018. Contrary to annual predictions that "this year will be the death of email," the next 12 months will see the channel continue to grow and evolve as marketers adopt smarter strategies and technology that allows for greater personalization and better customer experiences. While email is not dead or dying, its continued success will rely on marketers' ability to stay relevant and connect with customers who care more about experiences and how a product fits into their lifestyle than the actual product itself.

In preparation for the new year, PerformanceIN continues its annual tradition of connecting with performance marketing experts to get their single biggest prediction for the industry in 2017. In this piece, Steven Ledgerwood, MD at Emarsys, sees artificial intelligence being a big hit among marketers, starting from next year. Today's customer has a massive amount of choice when shopping. However, they are increasingly busy and constantly on the move, which makes it difficult for brands to stand out in an ocean of available products and offers. How can marketers create personalised offers for their customers in 2017, especially when considering the current explosion of shopping channels and enormous amounts of customer data?