During my midday coffee, the call of the third robotic advertising provider lit up at noon. I was going to skip it, but the picture was of a really nice lady.
I admit, they know me well by now. Or more precisely, they have my visual preferences stored in the database. After a brief introductory flirtation, she presented the facts directly and intelligently. Apparently they also know what kind of approach I like.
"We have suggestions for product, packaging and advertising improvements that will bring you exactly 3.938845% profit increase over the next 6 months."
I sensed some of those slight electronic tones in her voice, but I had to admit it sounded very humanly. I almost wanted to ask her if she has time for coffee later today to talk in person.
GDPR was a historical anomaly
"But how did you come up with these suggestions if we still have some new versions of products in stock that we haven't even inserted into the database yet?"
"Your co-worker photographed them. Analysis of the photos in his cloud showed that you have identical products as a similar company in Senegal. Apparently you share the same creative process pattern."
“Which co-worker?”
I realised that the question was out of place, but I couldn’t believe we humans were still so sloppy despite all the instructions regarding photography. Or do I have a competitor among my employees?
"I can't tell you for privacy reasons. I can only say that his watch has the best camera in the company."
Who pays the artificial lady?
"But how will you increase my profits if I pay more to you than I am paying to your competitor?"
"Their in-depth learning system has less information about your business. Therefore, their ads offered to users are less efficient. As well, landing pages are not optimally composed for those users. The difference in profits will be due to higher income."
"If I understand correctly there will be more income for you and me? So the higher price will be paid by the buyer?"
"Exactly."
The artificial lady has many lovers
I look around the cafe and see Darko in the corner with a slightly blissful smile on his face. I wave and he turns the screen of his phone slightly towards me. She looks different, but I see the same logo in the corner of the picture. With a few gestures, he signals to me that he has accepted their offer.
"Tina, right?"
"Martina. Tina called you yesterday."
"I apologize, Tina is a nicer name for me." (I'm checking to see if the program has detected my lie and will choose Tina's name next time). "Well ... Darko from our competing company accepted your offer. I will stay on yesterday's offer from your new competition for now."
"What competition, if I may ask?"
"You know I can't tell you. I can only say that she has slightly shorter hair and she's older than you for a year or two."
There was complete silence for a few moments. Somewhere in the nearby chain of blocks, probably some young man had just turned on a new shooting game. Or did I simply mislead the algorithm with an unexpected response?
"Darko made a great decision. As I notice, you're in the cafe together. I have a new offer for you."
I turned her off. I called my real friend Tina and invited her for a coffee.
Is this the future of marketing?
Almost every day, a new system of in-depth learning (which some like to call artificial intelligence) penetrates in our electronic drawers. It promises more profit for less investment. A few lines of script in the website and already your sales and profits are increasing at the expense of algorithms.
But how will you choose between these systems?
If you are not sure, Analytics 2025 may help you :)
Image by StockSnap from Pixabay