AUTOMATION & AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) is sometimes confused with automation, and the terms are often used interchangeably. When talking to vendors, it's critical for digital marketers to decipher exactly what's being offered so you know it will truly address your needs. Today, let's demystify these terms and discover what happens when the two are combined.

Differences Between Automation and Artificial Intelligence

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) or marketing automation software is great for simple activities and repetitive tasks that follow instructions or workflows set by individuals. It is best suited for highly repetitive and predictable tasks. Automated tools require manual configuration and human supervision to effectively execute campaigns. The trick with robotic process automation or marketing automation is for humans to anticipate every permutation so the machine is programmed to behave the right way every time. This is why constant vigilance is required. If the environment changes, marketers must manually step in and make the necessary adjustments.

AI refers to how computer systems can use huge amounts of data to imitate human intelligence and reasoning, allowing the system to learn, predict and recommend what to do next.

Capabilities enabled by AI include natural language processing (NLP), computer vision, and facial recognition.

Machine learning and deep learning (in the form of neural networks) power the most sophisticated AI available today.

An AI capable of understanding marketing KPIs can use various algorithms that act in concert to find signal in the noise of data and find paths to solutions that no human would be capable of. Most AI that uses machine learning today works in an assistive fashion, providing next best action recommendations to humans who then decide whether to trust them or not and then manually make adjustments.