The first full day of Marketing Artificial Intelligence Conference (MAICON) has come to a close. Our outstanding speakers shared insights on the main stage and within breakout sessions focused on strategy, automation, data and analytics, talent, agency, and much more. Below are some key takeaways from each session to help you become an AI expert.
Become a Marketing AI Pioneer
Paul Roetzer - Founder and CEO, Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute
“80% of what we do every day will be intelligently automated to some degree in the next 3-5 years.”
To start off MAICON Day 2 on a high note, our very own Paul Roetzer shared his five steps for becoming an AI pioneer:
- Pilot AI use cases.
- Get more from your data.
- Become an informed buyer.
- Educate and engage management.
- Be curious—explore AI.
Is This AI?
Karen Hao - AI Reporter, MIT Technology Review
Derived from her “What is AI?” MIT Technology Review article, Karen Hao shared her cheat sheet for defining whether technologies are actually AI or not. She explained that although the question may seem simple, the answer could be very complex because the boundaries of AI are constantly evolving.
How AI Will Change Marketing Forever
Christopher S. Penn - Co-Founder and Chief Innovator, Trust Insights
“Either you will manage the machines, or the machines will manage you.”
Every business wants their marketing to be better, faster and cheaper. How do we accomplish this? The answer is artificial intelligence. According to Christoper S. Penn, AI promises three things: acceleration, accuracy, and automation. In his session, Penn used real-world cases and examples of companies usingAI to drive costs down and revenue up.
Piloting AI: The Inside Story of Grant Thornton’s Path to More Intelligent Marketing
Sarah Hocking - Associate Director, Marketing Innovation, Grant Thornton LLP; Paul Roetzer - Founder and CEO, Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute
“Maybe AI is the answer, maybe it isn’t. Take time to seriously examine your use cases first.” — Sara Hocking
Piloting AI is not always easy. Sara Hocking walked attendees through Grant Thornton’s journey to more intelligent marketing. She shared ways to inspire your team’s marketers to embrace AI and strategically identify AI use cases.
Hello, Voice.
Mitch Joel - President, Six Pixels Group
“Voice is a huge brand opportunity. It's an entirely new internet.”
Welcome to the no-touch world. According to Mitch Joel, voice is the new smartphone. In fact, 31 millions Americans will shop using a smart speaker in 2019. Joel wowed attendees with facts on the how voice assistants and smart audio will control technology, and eventually change our businesses and lives forever.
Advancing Humanity and Business with Robotics
Kass Dawson - Head of Marketing and Communications, SoftBank Robotics; Mitch Joel - President, Six Pixels Group
“We’re trying to get people comfortable with talking with a robot.” — Kass Dawson
It took 450 years for technology to advance from the printing press to the personal computer. Kass Dawson explained how major technology leaps are happening in a single year today. He also talked about the risks of introducing so much change so quickly, how we can mitigate those risks, and how robotics and AI will ultimately benefit businesses and our personal lives.
Augmented Intelligence: The Exponential Marketer
Nikos Acuña - Speaker, Author, Futurist
“The future of marketing is about the future of experiences.”
As Marshall McLuhan said, “First we build the tools, and then the tools build us.”
In his keynote, Nikos Acuña provided attendees with a kaleidoscopic snapshot of exponential change in marketing technology through artificial intelligence, and how brands and agencies can achieve predictive fluency in a cognitive world.
Automated but Not Autonomous: How to Talk to Users in a Machine Learning World
Angela Pham - UX Content Strategist, Facebook
"How do we [Facebook] serve the world, not a subset?”
There is a fine line between “creepy and cool” when it comes to predicting machine enabled conversation technology online. Facebook UX Content Strategist Angela Pham joined us to share insights and examples on how Facebook uses technology to scale a 1:1 conversation to two billion users without losing the human touch.
From the Attendees
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Ashley Sams
Ashley Sams is director of marketing at Ready North. She joined the agency in 2017 with a background in marketing, specifically for higher education and social media. Ashley is a 2015 graduate of The University of Mount Union where she earned a degree in marketing.