Whether there is an appetite or not they [brands] have to face the changes said Imad Lahad, Head of APCO’s AI Comms Lab, during an interview with Communicate . He spoke to us about how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is moving at a pace that is 10 times faster than digital transformation.
“Companies that won’t be able to keep up with that and change their mindset, they will be hit with that.”
How is AI influencing story telling?
It’s changing because it is given you an option to tap into potential of resources into an execution wise. That was manually available before but that takes ages. Thats one. Two, the options and sophistication of the content, the option that you put out of the story is much more relevant for the audiences because those platforms and tools will give you, based on the audience you are looking at and the analytics, what kind of audiences are you looking at that appeals more to them. Based on statics and learning, you have much more potential which creates much better engagement and reach.
The beauty about it is when you connect to a paid platform to get this message maximized then you can on the spot adjust and optimize the campaigns. It can be to some sort interactive.
Could you introduce your philosophy within the changing landscape of media.
Whats changing is not the media, it is the industry in general whether it be communications, advertising, as we know it, public relations, digital, all of these are changing and every now and then we have structural changes in the way we operate. This time that change is being disrupted with a field like AI and through out this change its not affecting what we do, its affecting the ecosystem. Its moving into an area where these separate practices are getting much more versions because these tools and platforms enable aspects of marketing and communications and not just one side.
When you talk about AI you mean statical data?
It is the foundation, it is not just the statistics, AI has two folds. You have AI, simply the concept, which has been around the 50s. So anything that we can automate for the machine to do it instead of us is kind of AI. To do it in a smart way not just a repetitive way . So when machines are taking decisions and making judgements and so forth which is replicating the way we think and operate- this is AI.
The foundation of that is built on data. You need to have a data infrastructure first, this is why you have machine learning because the machine needs to learn from a big set of data then they will identify patterns of usage or behavior or whatever and from these patterns they start getting similarities or certain trends and start applying according their thinking- basically whatever they learnt. So if you don’t have something to learn from, the machine will not learn it.
Walk me through this, lets say I am starting a campaign about health care in X country, and I come here how can you help with AI?
The title is AI, now the implementation you have so many tools and platforms and start ups and big names in this space today. Whether it is from the Google’s of the world etc. It starts with a challenge, the same basic brief, who is your audience why?. Instead of relying only on rigid data that has been in the platform from previous campaigns.
You try to find trends that were not observed before or [use] some analytical tools and monitoring tools that you can start running and see how people are going through topics. Then it will start coming back to you with some kind of insights and identify influencers that are guiding those discussions and from there you can link the same platform or another one, start getting messages and content and creative to reach those audiences and it can be automated in a way that you can have one on one content and visuals coming to different individuals, not only on the campaign levels but we are also talking creative copy level to certain audiences according to the objectives of the campaign.
It can be to some sort of interactive.
Is this technology more effective on social media ?
Of course it is more effective on digital platforms not only social media. It can be web, apps, or the most relevant rising star in that space is voice. But the potential of them is getting brands on board. Because brands need to have their own voice, their own unique personas so people can talk to them. It is not a call center. You need to entertain the discussion. So the voice component in which AI can provide in that space is huge.
Search when you go on google, you will get the results in the first page and then a lot others. This is based on algorithms that is relevant to the service provide or the website. But at least you have those choices. The way the companies design in their search will also change.
Watch Imad talk about Artificial Intelligence at the Institute of PR.
