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You’ve likely noticed, or at least heard the buzz, that more and more companies are using AI for marketing. Indeed, the future of AI in marketing looks assured when you consider that schools like Cornell University, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and Northwestern University are now providing courses focused on use cases for AI marketing tools.
You don’t have to go back to school to expand your understanding of what’s happening in this space, though. The following list of 26 examples of AI in marketing—from e-commerce to social media marketing to search engine optimization (SEO)—can be your starting point for learning.
These examples can help spark your thinking about how to use AI marketing tools in the future. Although to be frank, if your company and its marketers aren’t yet using AI solutions or at least researching the benefits of AI marketing tools, you’re already falling behind. And even if your business is among those on the leading edge of using AI for marketing, the technology is evolving so rapidly that you can’t let up on efforts to keep pace with change.
AI technology, including generative AI tools, is helping to enhance essentially all aspects of marketing from lead generation to customer relationship management (CRM).
AI-powered tools are providing crucial, real-time insights into consumer behavior. And many marketing organizations are using AI to automate social media and outreach programs, facilitate dynamic pricing, optimize digital ad bidding, segment audiences, and more.
Salesforce is the leading global provider of CRM software and applications—and the company is at the forefront of innovating with generative AI. Its Einstein GPT can deliver “AI-generated content across sales, service, marketing commerce, and IT interaction at hyper-scale.”
Having the world’s #1 CRM means Salesforce has access to literally trillions of customer data points. And that information can be blended with public data to make Salesforce’s more than 200 billion AI-driven predictions per day across “Customer 360”—its entire suite of products—super accurate. That’s a huge differentiator for Salesforce, and a tremendous lift for marketers.
HubSpot’s AI solution features two main tools: Content Assistant, which uses AI to craft personalized marketing and prospecting emails, social posts, blog ideas, and compelling CTAs, and ChatSpot, a conversational CRM that connects to HubSpot and allows marketing pros to send follow-up emails and create contacts via voice commands rather than data entry.
Adobe Marketo Engage is billed as the world’s largest marketing automation platform. It enables “always-on” account-based marketing, lead management, and email marketing across all channels. Marketers can use the platform to attract, segment, and nurture customers and drive engagement.
Amazon is another powerful example of AI in marketing. The company’s relationship with AI goes back more than 20 years. It was one of the earliest adopters of AI in e-commerce and today, it’s one of the best-known, thanks to products like its Alexa virtual assistant technology.
AI permeates every corner of Amazon’s e-commerce business from personalized and speech recognition-enabled shopping to improve the customer experience, to robotics and automation in the supply chain for boosting operational efficiency.
As the world’s largest e-commerce company, China’s Alibaba has amassed—and continues to grow—a vast trove of data from its 1.3 billion active customers. It uses that information to optimize the virtual shopping experience for its customers through precise product recommendations, customer service, and “pervasive personalization.”
In 2023, the company announced it was opening up its own AI model to third-party developers as potential competition to OpenAI and Meta.
eBay has used AI for years in data analysis to make recommendations to users and predict customer behavior on its huge sales platform. Now, it is rolling out AI tools to its sellers so they can customize experiences for their buyers. For example, sellers can create 3D product renderings in a snap (and without any professional equipment) to create a more natural browsing experience for buyers.
Of course, the world’s largest retailer uses AI for marketing and creating more frictionless customer experiences. And with 4,700 Walmart stores and 600 Sam’s Clubs in the United States, a huge online grocery presence, and a very popular shopping app, it has no shortage of customer data to feed its AI models. Walmart is evening robotic floor cleaners equipped with inventory intelligence towers to scan inventory on shelves in the store and alert the warehouse when stocks need to be resupplied.
For countless modern marketers, Google is a vital resource to support their digital marketing efforts. Google offers AI-powered ad solutions such as Performance Max, Search ads, and Discovery ads to help businesses find new customers, unlock additional opportunities, and accelerate growth. The Google Ads webpage even uses an AI-powered Google Ads Expert chatbot to help marketing pros navigate the product suite.
Facebook uses Copysmith’s AI writing assistant to help users automatically generate and create ads on its platform in eight easy steps. It offers free and paid programs. In the paid program, Facebook uses Copysmith’s machine learning to monitor a user’s ad likes, deletions, and edits to fine-tune future copy to mimic the writer’s style more closely.
Spotify may not immediately pop to mind when thinking about AI in marketing. But the music service makes extensive use of AI to curate and design playlists for listeners based closely on listener preferences. Based on user preferences, Spotify can deliver relevant songs from the service’s list of most listened-to songs as well as introduce classics and new music. Its Spotify DJ program serves up songs users may like based on what the AI has learned about their tastes.
A key reason that Netflix is the dominant over-the-top (OTT) platform is its use of AI and machine learning to deliver highly personalized suggestions to subscribers based on their viewing history, preferences, and even their location. The AI-powered recommendation feature is believed to be worth $1 billion a year to the enterprise. Netflix also uses AI for operational effectiveness, predicting future subscriber activity so that it can plan technological improvements efficiently.
Here’s an example of AI in marketing that demonstrates how brands can use AI to stand out from the crowd. In early 2023, Coca‑Cola used “a first of its kind” AI platform to engage digital artists, ad creatives, and fans in a contest to create original artwork for ads using iconic assets from the Coca‑Cola archives. Winners of the “Create Real Magic” contest will appear on a billboard ad campaign in New York’s Times Square and London’s Piccadilly Circus.
Nike jumped into AI in a big way in 2018 through the acquisition of two predictive analytics enterprises. Predictive analytics enables Nike to crunch data from their various apps and Fitbit devices to predict customer purchasing behavior.
Nike also developed an AI-powered app to accelerate its direct sales to consumers. The Nike Fit app, available in store and as a smartphone download, creates a highly accurate digital picture of a customer’s foot using computer vision, AI, and machine learning. It then uses the picture to make informed product recommendations to the consumer.
One of this coffeehouse company’s major initiatives is Deep Brew, a project harnessing AI and the Internet of Things (IoT) to drive the brand’s personalization engine, optimize store labor allocations, and drive inventory management in stores. One example: Sensors in coffee machines at Starbucks’ stores feed data back to Deep Brew to indicate when they will need maintenance.
Airbnb enlisted AI technology to scan social media, blogs, search engine results, and other public information to enhance background checks and identify potentially abusive guest conduct. The online marketplace for short- and long-term property rentals also deploys machine learning algorithms to deliver smart pricing and help boost occupancy rates for hosts.
Grammarly is “powered by an advanced system that combines rules, patterns, and artificial intelligence techniques like machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing (NLP) to improve” users’ writing. The company’s latest product is GrammarlyGo, a communication assistant that uses generative AI to create content based on the user’s voice. And Grammarly for Marketing Teams is designed to help marketers create high-quality, engaging marketing content that is clear, consistent, and scalable across platforms
OpenAI hit the headlines in November 2022 when, with little fanfare, it launched ChatGPT. Less than three months later, ChatGPT was hailed as the most popular internet app ever and OpenAI was leading the AI charge into consumerism. OpenAI has also developed a tool called Talk to Transformer, which is an AI-powered chatbot that can generate natural conversations based on user input, making it easier for content creators to quickly come up with ideas for their content.
BuzzFeed's AI-powered quizzes are a prime example of how AI can be used for content creation. No two people are the same, therefore no two people's quiz results should be the same — that's why the AI gives users personalized responses that are unique to them. AI has helped Buzzfeed go beyond cookie-cutter content and speak to users on a deeper level.
IBM Watson Assistant is an adaptable AI chatbot that IBM claims “gets it right the first time.” It uses deep learning, machine learning, and NLP models to “understand questions, find or search for the best answers, and complete the user’s intended action through conversational AI.” As an example, IBM Watson Assistant can clarify unclear requests and use responses to improve its understanding so it can create a better customer service experience.
Uber is much more than a rideshare company, and it has been deep into AI since it was a startup. AI is a big component of Uber’s customer service offering, which routes customer service interactions to the most relevant agents. Uber also uses AI throughout its platform to optimize the rideshare function and set dynamic pricing, and its business operations for risk assessment and marketing.
Zendesk’s bot builder enables users to deploy advanced customer service bots that are “specific to CX teams” and “pre-trained with customer intent.” This leads to more personalized and accurate responses—helping make agents’ lives easier. Zendesk’s AI can also conduct intelligent triage, analyzing requests automatically and routing requests to the right agent.
SEMrush's digital marketing platform provides marketers with market research, advertising, social media, content marketing, and SEO. The SEO Writing Assistant from SEMrush is an all-in-one AI-powered copywriting tool that provides real-time feedback on SEO, readability, originality, and tone of voice. And its AI-powered Rephraser tool helps writers and marketers to rewrite short pieces of original content and adapt them for different channels.
Yoast is a search engine optimization plug-in that checks all the SEO boxes in WordPress. Yoast’s generative AI-powered tools can help marketers create compelling headlines, blog posts, social media updates, and even meta descriptions.
BrightEdge Insights bills itself as an “AI-powered personal data analyst.” It uses deep learning and big data to automate recommendations to improve websites, fix errors, and analyze what competitors are using in their marketing campaigns.
HubSpot's AI-powered SEO tools, known as "Breeze," make it easy to optimize your website. Breeze helps you find the right keywords, improve your content, build quality backlinks, and stay ahead of your competition.
Arizona-based Banner Health, one of the largest nonprofit healthcare systems in the U.S., uses Invoca’s call tracking and analytics platform to optimize its media spend and decrease cost per appointment. After it implemented the AI-powered solution, Banner Health was able to track which marketing efforts were driving appointment calls, making it easier for the business to optimize its budget and personalize customer experiences.
Read the full Banner Health case study here
Satellite television company DISH Network turned to Invoca’s AI-driven conversation intelligence platform when its marketing team wanted to start optimizing paid media for subscriber LTV, without losing scale. DISH worked with Invoca to create closed-loop attribution enhanced with subscriber LTV. Through this move and related strategies, DISH saw a 500% lift in return on advertising spend (ROAS).
Read the full DISH Network case study here
Comfort Keepers is a leading provider of in-home care for seniors, with over 650 franchisee locations. Franchisees rely on the company’s marketing team to deliver new sales opportunities and qualified job applicants. Comfort Keepers uses Invoca’s AI-powered call tracking solution to understand which calls come from its website or a search ad extension, so its knows exactly which calls its driving to franchisees through its national advertising efforts.
Read the full Comfort Keepers case study here
If you’re struggling to see which Google Ads efforts are contributing to your revenue, you’re not the only one. Rogers Communications is a leading communications and media company, and Invoca stepped in to help them see exactly which of their campaigns, ads, and keywords were driving phone call conversions. This was a game-changer. Rogers is now able identify their highest-performing campaigns and use that intel to power up their Google Ads with Smart Bidding. The results? A tremendous 82% decrease in cost per acquisition over two years and an 18% boost in net revenue from paid search!
Invoca also helped Rogers spot keywords that were attracting the wrong kind of calls, like customer service inquiries. By cutting out these dud keywords, Rogers could reallocate that budget to their high-performing campaigns, making their marketing machine even more efficient.
Read the full Rogers Communications case study here
Taylor Wick, Director of Marketing at Rick's Custom Fencing & Decking, was looking for a way to track phone leads more accurately. Invoca's solution provided detailed call tracking data, allowing Wick and her team to understand which marketing efforts were driving the most valuable leads. By using this data to optimize their campaigns, they were able to reduce their cost per lead by 70% and double their lead volume. Additionally, Invoca helped them identify underperforming keywords that were wasting their PPC budget.
Read the full Rick's Custom Fencing & Decking case study here
No one knows for certain what the future of AI in marketing holds. But these 26 examples of how companies are currently using AI in marketing or providing AI marketing tools offer some ideas. There is a wealth of AI-powered solutions you can add to your marketing toolkit right now—and that includes Invoca’s cloud-based conversation intelligence platform.
You can use call attribution data from Invoca to inform media spending, marketing campaign tactics, and customer acquisition strategy, helping you to improve experiences all along the customer journey. And with Invoca’s conversation analytics technology, Signal AI Studio, you can automate call listening and categorize calls in real time to identify trends, segment audiences, and find new strategic opportunities.
Want to learn more about how Invoca's AI can help you boost marketing campaign performance? Check out these resources:
