Right now, if you asked us to name the biggest, buzziest trend of the past couple years, we’d probably only have one answer for you.

Artificial intelligence.

We’re not sure if we could even name another trend that comes close! Not to oversimplify or dismiss the incredible potential that artificial intelligence, or AI, holds for so many aspects of our lives. But we use the term “trend” because right now AI is, well, trendy. Super trendy.

AI has permeated seemingly every industry, sometimes in foundational, game-changing ways. And other times, it’s been nothing more than a buzzword, its actual usefulness debatable, to say the least. On the sillier side, maybe you’ve seen ads for “AI-powered workouts,” as though the basics somehow aren’t quite cutting it anymore. On the Orwellian side, a Google AI that makes eerily convincing phone calls, which we hope is never used for scams or spam robocalls.

Toss these doomsday or leg day examples out, and what you’re left with is the possibility of rapid innovation in our technology and data. And who is always in the market for more technology and data?

Well, people like us. Marketers are all about measurement, engagement, and data. Crafting the perfect message for clients and potential customers may be an art. But finding new opportunities to improve our data and more robustly report it? That’s a science.

Artificial intelligence will impact the marketing landscape forever.

So, how can you harness it? We’re diving into several of the applications of AI in marketing so you can understand exactly how it might integrate—or not—into your day-to-day work as a marketer.

A Short History of AI. Like, Really Short.

We’re not going to get too deep into the history of artificial intelligence, but so you can appreciate how best to apply AI to your company’s marketing work, you should definitely know the AI basics.

Artificial intelligence is used to describe the area of computer science that is being used to develop computers and machines that work and solve problems like humans.

AI is already hard at work in many aspects of your day-to-day life, whether you realize it or not. That Spotify Daily Mix, the one with banger after banger that gets you through your morning workout? Artificial intelligence. Randomly generated video game levels that provide your son or daughter with plenty of new dungeons or city streets to explore with their friends? Artificial intelligence. Your Waze GPS app that shows you the perfect shortcut that shaves an extra five minutes off your morning commute? You guessed it.

Artificial Intelligence & Smarter Marketing

As researchers and tech companies continue to deepen the capabilities and expand the applications of AI, you’ll find yourself bumping into it more and more. But one area that’s of particular interest to us over here at Green Candy Media is marketing.

1. Website Experiences that Convert

When a user finds their way to your website, you want them to stick around for a while. Ideally, they’ll sign up for your emails, make an account, or complete an order. Unfortunately, most marketers have been historically limited by their ability to tune a web experience to a user. A landing page is nice and all but is there a way to go further?

You bet. Artificial intelligence can apply the type of user info that is normally bound to your Facebook Pixel to automatically sort and display the deals or content a user might be more likely to respond to. For an apparel retailer, this type of algorithm could take a user’s basic demographic or location data to tune the main display image or pop-ups. A man in Florida sees the buy one, get one sale on graphic tees while a woman in Alaska sees 15% on outerwear.

Major companies already use AI to get people to your website, but from there, you’re on your own. The right algorithm can help your web visitors find what they like and stay a while.

2. Content Creation

We just felt the collective shudder of every content marketer and graphic designer out there, but hear us out. We don’t think you’ll ever be able to replace the brilliance of a thoughtful writer with an eye for storytelling. But we all know that our talented content teams are often tasked with less-than-inspiring writing and graphic design tasks.

Artificial intelligence has the potential to take over the redundant, menial, or flat-out boring content creation tasks and give your team a new lease on their creative marketing work. For example, a finance company might be in the habit of releasing quarterly market reports, creating white papers for certain financial products, or even stock market recaps. These tasks are straightforward, repetitive, and easy work for the right program.

There are already AI programs designed to do just that. Artificial intelligence can allow your team to scale up its content creation capacity while taking mundane tasks off your plate, allowing your creative team to spend more time doing what they’re best at—being creative.

3. PPC Advertising

Pay-per-click advertising requires some effort. So much effort, in fact, that many marketing teams outsource it entirely. From determining budget and target keywords to crafting the perfect CTA, PPC is often the cornerstone of many direct response campaigns. But as we all know, not every PPC campaign is as successful as we’d hope.

Major digital advertisers like Facebook already apply AI in their ad delivery, using your ad campaign’s goals and budget to help them ensure your ads are delivered to better users, at better times, over the right timeframe to maximize your results for your spend. However, there’s no reason why AI can’t be used across advertising platforms. A program that uses machine learning to optimize your PPC spend across multiple advertisers could take work of your hands and improve ROI, all at once.

Is artificial intelligence the future of marketing?

Many industries will probably always require a human touch, but AI is transforming exactly where that touch is applied. From freeing up your creative team from menial tasks to improving your site’s UX, there are plenty of ways artificial intelligence can transform your marketing campaigns.

AI may not be the end all, be all of marketing’s future—but it certainly deserves to be a part of the conversation. Will it be a part of yours?