An Overview of the Audience of One Report: The Marketer and the Machine

Audience of One: How Marketers Use AI to Spotlight Customers

Movable Ink’s flagship report Audience of One: The Marketer and the Machine, is here! In a comprehensive study encompassing hundreds of marketers around the world, one theme in the chase for customer engagement stood out: AI. While marketers’ newfound focus on AI is hardly surprising in the year of ChatGPT’s debut, each marketer’s experience with the solution has differed. Just as every customer is a unique individual, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to AI.

While virtually every marketer finds AI to improve the customer buying journey, aid personalized experiences, and effectively automate manual tasks, challenges surrounding data remain. Managing customer data, safeguarding data privacy and security, and consistent deployment are all functions that marketers are still navigating. 

The optimal way to reap the benefits of AI while overcoming its initial challenges is by learning the current trends and solutions from marketers across the globe. Discover five key takeaways from the Audience of One Report: Marketer and Machine to hit the ground running with your AI endeavors next year. 

AI Is Ubiquitous in Marketing

From consumer behavior analysis to personalization and campaign optimization, marketers everywhere embrace AI. Across various marketing functions, AI is proving to be a game-changing solution.

Back-end analysis is more automated and granular than ever. Using AI, marketers can easily access and understand their data insights to leverage for content. AI is also an asset in marketers’ day-to-day operations, speeding up content creation—such as SEO, short-form copy, or idea generation—and optimizing campaigns. With its various applications, AI has become the Swiss army knife of a marketer’s toolkit.

Strategic Potential for AI

While marketers are quick to leverage AI, there are still areas for growth. Cross-channel communications—content, email, and mobile communications—digital advertising, and social media, all hold great potential for marketers, yet only half of surveyed marketers are currently using AI for these channels.

Quick AI adoption for digital advertising and content marketing is expected in 2024, but more opportunities for growth remain. Marketers that are looking to get ahead of the curve will optimize their cross-channel marketing with AI sooner rather than later.

Efficiency Gains for Campaign Management

Time is one of the most precious commodities for marketers, and AI alleviates manual pain points. Currently, about half of marketers are using AI to monitor multiple campaigns, manage data analysis, and perform ROI assessment for major time-savings. 

Additionally, the overwhelming majority of marketers report that AI automation allows them to pursue a more strategy-focused approach. Every point of the marketing process has the potential for AI automation. Content ideation, personalization, and A/B testing can be revolutionized by AI. Strategic deployment—segmentation and targeting, sentiment analysis, frequency management, and send-time personalization—reaches a level of effectiveness that simply isn’t possible through manual efforts alone.

AI’s Effect on Peak Season Planning and Budgetary Forecasts

The 2023 peak season is right around the corner, and the majority of marketers have already integrated AI into their strategies. With the solution’s predictive insights and automated content generation, enhanced engagement is expected due to a heavy use of AI in peak season marketing. 

Additionally, marketers’ investment in AI reaches far beyond peak season. This past year, nearly 90% of surveyed marketers increased their budgets for AI-powered personalization in digital marketing, indicating the solution's linchpin position in marketers’ strategies. From 2022 to 2023, 86% of marketers indicated an increase in budget for AI, and history is expected to repeat itself in 2024.

Tightening AI Ethics and Responsibility

With great AI-power comes great responsibility, and marketers know it. Marketers are cautious of invading customers’ privacy or dealing with IP issues. AI output proves to need human oversight as marketers work hard to tighten their AI code of ethics to avoid stereotypical recommendations, discriminatory targeting, or biased content. 

Private AI, rather than open-source, has shown itself to be a more reliable option for marketers. With this solution as marketers’ foundation, they can ensure their AI outputs are free of bias and reflect brand values and voice.

Use AI to Put Customers Front and Center

Marketers have spoken, and it’s clear that AI is the path forward for cutting-edge, competitive marketing. To get an in-depth look into global marketers’ current and future plans to leverage AI to make their customers feel like one in a million, read the full report here.