• MarTech Today
  • Sections
    • Ads
    • Marketing
    • Content
    • Sales
    • Analytics
    • Management
    • Resources
    • More
    • Home
  • Follow Us
    • Follow
  • MarTech Today
  • Ads
  • Marketing
  • Content
  • Sales
  • Analytics
  • Mgmt
  • Resources
  • More
  • Events
    • Follow
  • SUBSCRIBE

MarTech Today

MarTech Today
  • Ads
  • Marketing
  • Content
  • Sales
  • Analytics
  • Management
  • Resources
  • More
  • Events
  • Newsletters
  • Home
Martech: Marketing

Demandbase survey: Marketers sure like them some AI

But only a few are currently using it.

Barry Levine on December 15, 2016 at 10:00 am
  • More

artificial-intelligence-ai-machine-learning-brain-ss-1920Once upon a time, we writers would note whether some new tech was cloud-based or not.

Now, it’s often assumed that all business software lives in the cloud.

At some point sooner than we think, the same is going to happen to artificial intelligence (AI). You’ll just assume all marketing software employs some flavor of AI.

We’re seeing this complex technology showing up in all kinds of marketing tech, where automated insights, natural language processing and pulling predictive patterns from massive amounts of data can be particularly helpful.

To cite just a few recent announcements: Salesforce’s Einstein, Adobe’s Sensei, Google’s expanded machine learning service, Amazon’s new AI service, Adgorithms’ self-driven marketing/ad platform, YesPath’s AI-powered Account-Based Marketing platform, IBM Watson’s many occupations, Grey Jean’s AI-driven personalization platform, Signpost’s automated customer relationship management platform, Wizer’s AI-based marketing survey tool, and Emarsys’ AI Marketing platform.

And, in October, B2B targeting platform Demandbase launched a business relationship engine that utilizes AI to automatically find potential business account targets, based on inferred needs, interests and connections. The company described this DemandGraph as “B2B’s first AI-driven business graph.”

Since that announcement, SVP Aman Naimat told me, his company has been “using AI for all our offerings, [and] it was imperative to understand what CMOs [know about it].”

So Demandbase conducted a survey to find out what AI means for marketers.

The survey was conducted last month by Wakefield Research, via an online form and an email invitation that garnered 500 responses from B2B marketers — managers or higher — at companies with 250 employees or more. Demandbase said they didn’t provide Wakefield Research with a list of their own customers.

The results, released this week, indicate that most marketers are quite enthusiastic about artificial intelligence, and they seem to understand some of its uses.

But mostly, they’re not actually using it yet. At least they don’t think they are.

Some data points from the survey:

  • Slightly more than three-quarters (77 percent) of respondents say AI will be “the next big thing,” even though it’s already popping up all over the place. Twenty-three percent describe it as “just a lot of hype.”
  • Seventy-nine percent say it can revolutionize the marketing industry within five years.
  • Seventy-eight percent say they are very confident or somewhat confident how to use it for marketing, but 90 percent say they’re not currently using it, 60 percent acknowledge difficulties in integrating AI into their current tools, and 54 percent say they would have difficulty training employees how to use it.
  • Among those not currently using AI for marketing, 40 percent say they will within three years.
  • And how will they know if their use of AI is successful? From the survey:
From Demandbase

From Demandbase

The biggest takeaway from the survey, Naimat said, is “the level of confidence that AI is real enough to impact marketing.”

“Ten years ago,” he said, “even asking this question was madness.”

Marketers don’t yet know the details of AI, he noted, but they know it adds intelligence, and they know where they want to apply it to get deeper insights.

AI is a moving target, he said, because, “as we solve problems, we change its definition.”

Currently, Naimat suggested, AI is considered to be more about understanding language and providing insights, but it could evolve toward being more about cognitive understanding and automated decisioning as language and insights become commonplace.

At any rate, marketers will soon have a quick way to find out the latest definition.

They’ll just ask the nearest AI brain what it does.



About The Author

Barry Levine
Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.

Related Topics

Channel: Martech: MarketingMachine Learning & Artificial IntelligenceMarketing Automation

Subscribe to receive daily martech news and expert insights. See terms.


We're listening.

Have something to say about this article? Share it with us on Facebook and Twitter.

Get the daily newsletter digital marketers rely on.
See terms.

ATTEND OUR EVENTS

MarTech 2021: March 16-17

MarTech 2021: Sept. 14-15

MarTech 2020: Watch On-Demand

×

Attend MarTech - Click Here


Learn More About Our MarTech Events

White Papers

  • A Beginner’s Guide to Omnichannel Marketing using Marketing Automation
  • The Top Five Objections That Hold Companies Back From Doing SEO
  • How To Optimize SEO With UGC
  • Email Tune-Up: A 5-Point Inspection to Get Your Program in Gear
  • Digital Marketing Report Q4 2020: Benchmarks and Insights for 2021
See More Whitepapers

Webinars

  • The Secret Behind SEO Success: Predict Rank with the Power of Data Science
  • How to Avoid the Digital Transformation Trap
  • How to Build a Marketing System of Record
See More Webinars

Research Reports

  • Local Marketing Solutions for Multi-Location Businesses
  • Enterprise Digital Asset Management Platforms
  • Identity Resolution Platforms
  • Customer Data Platforms
  • B2B Marketing Automation Platforms
  • Call Analytics Platforms
See More Research

Receive daily martech news and analysis.
Martech Today
Download the Martech Today app on iTunes
Download the Martech Today App on Google Play

Channels

  • Advertising
  • Marketing
  • Content
  • Social
  • Commerce
  • Sales
  • Analytics
  • Management
  • Home

Our Events

  • MarTech
  • SMX

Resources

  • White Papers
  • Research
  • Webinars
  • MarTech Conference

About

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Marketing Opportunities
  • Staff
  • Connect With Us

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • iOS App
  • Google Play

© 2021 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

Your privacy means the world to us. We share your personal information only when you give us explicit permission to do so, and confirm we have your permission each time. Learn more by viewing our privacy policy.Ok