BACKAutomation Station — Humanising the Art of Artificial Intelligence
Process automation has undoubtedly been a hot topic of discussion across many industries of the world. From large-scale industrial work down to the seemingly unconnected processes of marketing. Through the years, automation and marketing technology has become deeply ingrained into the foundation of a modern day digital marketing agency. As such, the competition for applying automated processes with a human touch is steep. Much like the centralisation versus decentralisation paradox, juxtaposing these seemingly contradictory concepts involves far simpler processes than first imagined.
The MAdTech Convergence — how martech and adtech go together
When handling marketing technology, it often goes hand-in-hand with advertising technology (adtech). Sometimes known as MAdTech, their paths are seemingly irreversibly and consistent bound together by data. That is, they routinely and intentionally cross in order to make the most out of their data analytics and sourcing. From a business perspective, handling the realm of marketing and advertising in one fell swoop means consolidating data and optimising the management of it. A point of contact for martech and adtech would be through the use of a data management platform (DMP).
DMPs don’t just focus on collecting and analysing data in one place, they utilise algorithms to target the niche audience that your brand is focusing on in order to create a range of “personalised” advertising campaigns to meet their interests. DMPs allow brands to improve media-buying decisions in the process of real-time bidding, at the same time they’re crafting and delivering personalised offers and content to existing and potential customers. In this process, you see the “human” touch of automation in the way your audience is provided with content that is most relevant to their needs.
Working off the grid — check for disturbances in the [automation] force
When toeing the delicate line of humanising an automated process, there will always be the risk of algorithms feeding incorrect information to artificial intelligence (AI). This is expected of AIs; they’re not all-knowing, no matter how much we’d like to think so. This particular flaw is one of the biggest arguments against automation that might need an additional check-and-balance — and who better to do it than someone on the frontlines of their customer journey?
Combining the world of customer service and automation may seem counterproductive, but where else would you get a better insight on how to improve the automation process than from your customers? This further plays into the ways that decentralisation supports processes like automation and humanisation. Good automation is meant to help customers and employees get where they want to be and what they need more efficiently. To be human is to err, but likewise to trust an AI implicitly can lead to disastrous outcomes. Finding a middle ground and fine-tuning your company’s balancing act will help sustain the humanity of your automation process in the long run.
Finding your chi — achieving equilibrium between automation and humanisation
Automation helps businesses and teams make sense of their data without strenuous manual effort. It allows processes to be implemented to create a resource of information to share across a brand, as well as delivering predictive capabilities to amplify their algorithms. Key places to implement these processes include your Sales Qualification Leads (SQLs) and your Marketing Qualification Leads (MQLs). Through a customer experience and campaign, these automation processes allow specific trends in behaviour to be catalogued and stored away for further use. At the same time, humanisation lends a hand at providing your customer experience with a literal human touch. You’re personalising their experience, overseeing their journey, and ensuring that your target audience knows that your brand is dedicated to their satisfaction.
Much like the rest of life, martech is a delicate balancing act. Likewise, there is no black and white about how automated processes and humanisation coexist. In the most superficial sense, combining two contradictory concepts is visually and mentally appealing to the human mind. There is an understanding that neither is better than the other; that they have their own strengths. The same can be said about martech and its many seemingly contradictory facets. It’s about finding the best ways to utilise each concept to make your marketing and sales funnel work as effectively and seamlessly as possible.
