2024 SNAPSHOT: Considering AI in marketing, marketers must be open to innovation yet take a practical and speculative approach to adopting the technology to see what really makes a difference and what doesn’t.
Has AI been given more credit or hype than it deserves? Possibly. Discourse across the internet and marketing boardrooms presents a consistent sentiment: AI is a powerful tool, not a magic wand.
“Avoid the “hammer-everything” approach (Maslow’s Hammer). Just because you have a new tool (AI) doesn’t mean it’s the right solution for every problem,” says Arvind Dutta, Principal Product Manager, Teams at Microsoft.
AI in marketing has augmented functions to a great extent, with use cases like identification of customer patterns, automation of repetitive tasks, personalisation based on real-time predictive analytics, and more. But it works best when combined with human oversight.
Human-meta skills, defined as the combination of higher-order abilities such as empathy, creativity, emotional intelligence, and critical thinking, are essential for delivering optimised results in partnership with AI.
“These are the skills that turn everyday customer interactions into meaningful connections. Think of them as the human heart that pumps life into an otherwise robotic machine. Without these skills, AI alone is like a powerful engine with no steering wheel, moving but directionless, full of potential but lacking the wisdom of human guidance,” says Fraser Hay, founder of ItStacksUp.
AI won’t transform the results of a mediocre campaign, but it can change the grassroots level of creating a campaign and optimise the end results. As businesses continue to explore the possibilities of AI, they must remain focused on using these tools to enrich—not replace—the personal interactions that are at the heart of intelligent customer experiences.
CXM Today flips through the 2024 library, which contains works by industry experts and in-house writers, to present the trends and attitudes of the industry’s current state. The following four stories discuss AI in marketing.
Is GenAI Worth the Hype for CX Leaders?
While the potential of genAI is vast, CX success depends on thoughtful implementation and a balanced approach that prioritises both technology and the human touch. As businesses continue to explore the possibilities of AI, they must remain focused on using these tools to enrich—not replace—the personal interactions that are at the heart of intelligent customer experiences.
The Fusion of Meta Skills and AI Will Fuel CX Growth
Meta-skills are higher-order abilities such as empathy, creativity, emotional intelligence, and critical thinking that turn everyday customer interactions into meaningful connections. On the other hand, AI, the ultimate powerhouse of precision, doesn’t tire or forget; it processes vast amounts of data faster than any human ever could. The future of CX lies at the intersection of human meta-skills and AI technologies.
Transforming CX Matrix with Conversational AI: Key Innovations and Impact in 2024
With ever-evolving consumer needs for engaging experiences in real-time, lucrative opportunities exist for innovations around AI-powered chatbots. From introducing Sprinklr’s Digital Twin to Salesforce Copilot for CRM chatbots, innovations around conversational AI in 2024 have already disrupted global industries across verticals.
Resist the Temptation to Implement AI for the Sake of It
Companies seem to be in an arms race to deploy AI features, but unfortunately, many of these rushed products fail or have to be rolled back. When you think of implementing genAI, ask yourself: What user problem are we solving and why is AI the best solution compared to a non-AI solution? It is best to use AI where it can improve efficiency for existing tasks, and leave nuanced creative projects for humans.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 represents a robust cloud-based CRM solution with features such as pipeline assessment, relationship analytics, and conversational intelligence. It utilises AI-powered insights to provide actionable intelligence via predictive analytics, lead scoring, sentiment analysis, etc. Currently, Microsoft operates in 190 countries and is made up of more than 220,000 employees worldwide.
HubSpot is an inbound marketing, sales, and customer service software provider, offering robust CRM and automation solutions. Some of its products include Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Operations Hub, Content Hub, Commerce Hub, Marketing Analytics and Dashboard Software. Guided by its inbound methodology, HubSpot enables companies to prioritise innovation and customer success.
Monday.com is a project management software company, offering a cloud-based platform that enables businesses 
Headquartered in San Mateo, California, Freshworks is a global AI-powered business software provider. Its tech stack includes a scalable and comprehensive suite for IT, customer support, sales, and marketing teams, ensuring value for immediate business impact. Its product portfolio includes Customer Service Suite, Freshdesk, Freshchat, Freshcaller, Freshsuccess, and Freshservice. Freshservice for Business Teams has helped several global organisations to enhance their operational efficiency.
Talkdesk offers an innovative AI-powered customer-centric tech stack to its global partners. The company provides generative AI integrations, delivering industry-specific solutions to its customers. Talkdesk CX Cloud and Industry Experience Clouds utilise modern machine learning and language models to enhance contact centre efficiency and client satisfaction.
The company offers comprehensive cloud-based solutions, such as Microsoft Dynamics 365, Gaming Consoles, Microsoft Advertising, Copilot, among other things, to help organisations offer enhanced CX and ROI. Its generative-AI-powered speech and voice recognition solutions,such as Cortana and Azure Speech Services empowers developers to build intelligent applications.
IBM is a global hybrid cloud and AI-powered 
Uniphore is an enterprise-class, AI-native company that was incubated in 2008. Its enterprise-class multimodal AI and data platform unifies all elements of voice, video, text and data by leveraging Generative AI, Knowledge AI, Emotion AI and workflow automation. Some of its products include U-Self Serve, U-Assist, U-Capture, and U-Analyze. Its Q for Sale is a conversational intelligence software that guides revenue teams with AI-powered insights, offering clarity on how to effectively keep prospects engaged.
Google Cloud accelerates every organisation’s ability to digitally transform its business. Its enterprise-grade solutions leverage modern technology to solve the most criticial business problems 
8×8 offers out-of-the-box contact centre solutions, assisting all-size businesses to efficiently meet customer needs and preferences. It offers custom CRM integrations support and integrates effortlessly with third-party CRMs like Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Zendesk, and more. Offering global support in all time zones & development teams in 5 continents, its patented geo-routing solution ensures consistent voice quality.
Sprinklr is a comprehensive enterprise software company for all customer-focused functions. With advanced AI, Sprinklr’s unified customer experience management (Unified-CXM) platform lets organisations offer human experiences to every customer, every time, across any modern channel.
Upland offers a comprehensive suite of contact centre and customer service solutions with products including InGenius, Panviva, Rant & Rave, and RightAnswers. InGenius enables organisations to connect their existing phone system with CRM, further enhancing agent productivity. Panviva provides compliant and omnichannel capabilities for highly regulated industries. Whereas, Rant & Rave, and RightAnswers are its AI-powered solutions, 
Zoho Social, a part of Zoho’s suite of 50+ products, is a comprehensive social media management platform for businesses and agencies. The Zoho Social dashboard includes a robust set of features, such as Publishing Calendar, Bulk Scheduler, and Approval Management to offer businesses all the essential social media publishing tools. Its monitoring tools help enterprises track and respond to relevant social conversations.
Hootsuite, headquartered in Vancouver, is a social media management platform that streamlines the process of managing multiple social media accounts. Some of its core offerings include social media content planning and publishing, audience engagement tools, analytics and social advertising. Its easy-to-integrate capabilities help marketing teams to schedule and publish social media posts efficiently.
Brandwatch enables businesses to build and scale the optimal strategy for their clients with intuitive, use-case-focused tools that are easy and quick to master. Bringing together consumer intelligence and social media management, the company helps its users react to the trends that matter, collaborate on data-driven content, shield the brand from threats and manage all the social media channels at scale.
Zoho Corporation offers innovative and tailored software to help leaders grow their business. Zoho’s 55+ products aid sales and marketing, support and collaboration, finance, and recruitment requirements. Its customer analytics capabilities come with a conversational feature, Ask Zia. It enables users to ask questions and get insights in the form of reports and widgets in real-time.
Salesforce-owned Tableau is an AI-powered analytics and business intelligence platform, offering the breadth and depth of capabilities that serve the requirements of global enterprises in a seamless, integrated experience. Marketers can utilise generative AI models, AI-powered predictions, natural language querying, and recommendationsons.
Fullstory is a behavioural data platform, helping C-suite leaders make informed decisions by injecting digital behavioural data into its analytics stack. Its patented technology uncovers the power of quality behavioural data at scale, transforming every digital visit into actionable insights. Enterprises can increase funnel conversion and identify their highest-value customers effortlessly.
Contentsquare is a cloud-based digital experience analytics platform, helping brands track billions of digital interactions, and turn those digital 
Amplitude is a product analytics platform, enabling businesses to track visitors with the help of collaborative analytics. The platform leverages the capabilities of 
Adobe Experience Cloud offers a comprehensive set of applications, capabilities, and services specifically designed to address day-to-day requirement for personalised customer experiences at scale. Its platform helps play an essential role in managing different digital content or assets to improve customer happiness. Its easy-to-optimise content gives users appropriate marketing streams, ensuring product awareness.
Started in 2005 in a Sweden-based small town, Norrköping, Voyado offers a customer experience cloud platform that includes a customer loyalty management system. This platform helps businesses design and implement customer loyalty programs, track customer 
TapMango provides a comprehensive, customisable, flexible and feature-rich customer loyalty program. The loyalty tools include an integrated suite of customised consumer-facing technology, easy-to-use merchant tools, and automation algorithms, all aimed at enhancing customer experience. Adaptable to any industry, TapMango’s platform helps merchants compete with larger chains, converting customer one-time purchases into profitable spending habits.
Adobe Experience Cloud offers a comprehensive set of applications, capabilities, and services specifically designed to address day-to-day requirements for personalised customer experiences at scale. Its innovative platform has played an essential role in managing different digital content or assets, to improve customer happiness or satisfaction. Some of its products include Adobe Gen Studio, Experience Manager Sites, Real-time CDP, and Marketo Engage.
