Artificial intelligence expert Michael Priddis discusses AI’s impact on B2B marketing, and how embracing risk is the key to success.
All signs suggest that artificial intelligence (AI) will radically alter almost every profession. Promising in-depth and highly efficient data analysis, and the capacity to transform customer experience, AI has the potential to be an invaluable tool for marketers. Michael Priddis, AI expert and CEO of AI research and development firm Faethm, says thoughtful implementation and investment is instrumental to successfully using AI in B2B marketing.
Artificial intelligence expert Michael Priddis
How local marketers can be industry leaders
Although human-like AI is not yet a reality, and may not be for a very long time, Priddis suggests that now is the time for companies to invest and plan for a future where AI is more sophisticated and ubiquitous. “This is something that’s going to transform pretty much every area of work in the not too distant future,” he says. “Any type of work that’s process-driven or information-driven is ripe for AI. The fact that it’s not yet in widespread adoption doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t be looking at it. I think now is the time to do it. You want to get ahead of the curve and not be behind it.” Australian companies are particularly well equipped to start planning for a rise in AI, though many don’t yet realise it. “Australia is the worst country in the OECD at collaborating with research and development [R&D]. In the 2015 OECD survey, Australia ranked 33rd out of 33 for R&D collaboration,” Priddis says.“We need to understand how to try, fail and try again in the company setting.”“It’s just not on the general radar, across industries, and that’s retail, manufacturing, insurance. You name it, they’re not doing it. In other countries, Europe particularly, North America to a certain degree, it’s quite standard for marketing teams and strategy teams, product teams, whatever, to spend a good part of their time with the local R&D labs saying, “What’s going on? What’s happening? How do we use it?”.” But Priddis points out that if companies in the Asia-Pacific region were to make more of an investment in AI research they might be pleasantly surprised with the results. “Australia has a very good R&D sector,” Priddis says. “There are 67,000 people working in R&D in this country, and it’s well-funded by government. It’s just not got a huge amount of corporate involvement, so marketers should be going to R&D, whether it’s major universities or private companies, and saying, “How do we get our hands on these sorts of technologies? How do we understand what the impacts of them might be?”.”