Artificial Intelligence Applied to Digital Marketing

Introduction

The creation of the Internet as we know and understand it today, revolutionized in a notorious and permanent way the way the world, organizations and people operate and communicate with each other. This new paradigm opens doors for emergence in Era of the Internet of Things (IoT). The term Internet of Things is defined as a set of interconnected computerized tactics, digital and mechanical devices, that hold the ability to transmit data over the internet without any human involvement (Singh et al. al., 2020). The new technological era consists of the connection between the digital and the physical world, thus allowing people a constant connection using objects (things) (Braga, 2020). The insertion, application, and use of IoT causes changes abrupt changes to the way communications and interactions are carried out, resulting in new opportunities and challenges for organizations and, consequently, for digital marketing.

Of all the technologies conveyed and rejuvenated with the appearance and comprehensive application of IoT, which has gained greater prominence in the business world and, simultaneously, has been studied and worked on is, Artificial Intelligence (AI) (Braga, 2020). Through an investigation carried out by Demandbase (2019), only 18% of marketers who participated in the study are using AI, 22% to implement, 24% evaluating its use and 20% planning its adoption (Demandbase, 2019). In addition, another study by Demandbase, Salesforce Pardot and Demand Metric, referring to the difficulties of adopting AI in digital marketing, demonstrates that 55% of the respondents presented the cost of implementation as barriers, 52% the lack of necessary skills and 31% said they did not know where and how to start (Viveiros, 2019). AI, by itself, is a complex and vast subject in its specificities and applications. General knowledge about what AI is, where it is inserted, what it does and what is its purpose, it is vague and little known in detail. Despite the lack of understanding widespread about this technology, AI has shown potential to offer new and better capabilities/benefits to marketing, especially regarding use of the digital environment. The premise consists of the ability of AI to allow the digital marketing efficiency and effectiveness, capabilities to acquire in-depth knowledge and across users/consumers, increased impact and success of marketing, automation and process execution facilities, predictive capabilities, and real-time actions. The union and cooperation of the two areas will lead to strategies, objectives and competences required for the work execution of a marketeer are changed (Sterne, 2017), thus presenting the need to understand the impacts, benefits, current capabilities, and difficulties, as well as the acquisition of potential future trajectories.

The emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT), enabling constant connectivity between the digital and physical realms. This paradigm shift has ushered in new opportunities and challenges for organizations and digital marketing. Among the various existing technologies, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has gained greater prominence due to its exceptional problem-solving capabilities and its potential to optimize opportunities. The Expertonential rise in AI implementation within digital marketing has been substantiated by the American Marketing Association's research of 2019, indicating a growth of 27% in comparison to the year 2018 (Steimer, 2019).

This chapter provides an account of an Expertloratory investigation that utilized a quantitative research approach, which involved conducting 10 interviews with specialists, to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the effect of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on digital marketing. The chapter highlights the key aspects associated with the integration of AI and digital marketing, as well as outlines the research methodology, presents an analysis and discussion of the research findings, and culminates with the conclusions drawn from the study.