Generative AI became a part of public consciousness and conversation in November 2022. About a year and a half later, the world is still buzzing about what it can do for just about every industry. We've talked in broad terms about 'boosting productivity,' 'streamlining operations and processes', and 'enhancing customer experiences.' However, the "how" for leveraging this technology to transform specific business functions is still somewhat lacking. I believe this is because real use cases that demonstrate ROI are still being identified within a profitable business framework. And that's what we, at Virtusa, are helping our clients do.

Many parts, no whole, and a whole lot of wasted potential

For the last few years, marketing organizations have already been harnessing the power of AI and ML in disparate bits and pieces to manage the customer journey. Think about the chatbots we increasingly see responding to simple queries and gathering basic information or the mass 'personalized' emails we all receive that make recommendations that are more or less tailored to our stated interests, and so on. This is AI, machine learning, and generative AI at work in three areas:

• Analytics: AI and ML help derive insights that help with segmentation, mapping buying journeys, and (sometimes) predictive analytics.
• Content: More specifically, creating content that is personalized, from the shirt displayed on your "suggested" shopping cart to the movie suggested by your streaming platform.
• Service: Driven primarily by a goal of improving the speed of issue resolution as well as lowering costs, almost every organization serving a large number of customers uses some AI- and generative AI-powered tools to help get existing customers to the answers and service they need as quickly as possible, from chatbots to suggested answers to queries on the website or social media.

However, a crucial challenge remains. Most of these tools are disparate and meant for specific tasks. This means that the marketing teams trying to manage a customer journey are only seeing siloed data for specific moments in a customer journey, but not the journey itself – and therein lies the rub.

So, what will happen when these different components of the customer journey are integrated into one seamless, automated, and optimized customer experience driven by an 'AI brain'?

The advent of Marketing AI

To automate and optimize the customer experience loop, its different aspects need to be consolidated and combined into one integrated, data-driven journey powered by AI and generative AI. This model would combine the analytics and insights powered by traditional machine learning and AI with the content generation power provided by generative AI to produce hyper-personalized content at scale – without burning a big hole in your budget.

How does this work? By using AI/ML to identify customer needs, wants, and patterns and get a recommended 'next best action.' Then, optimize content across multiple channels (email, imagery, social media, and so on) to deliver a message that is personalized for that specific customer. And finally, automating the loop by powering the insights with the responses from that cycle and optimizing communication and the customer's journey.

Digital natives such as Netflix, Amazon, and Spotify are already doing this very well for a few years now. It is us laggards in industries with more traditional business models and selling patterns (in particular B2B marketing and sales) that need to read the writing on the wall and get going.

For example, we all know that no two people's Netflix homepages are the same, and every page is populated with 'You might like' recommendations that only seem to get better and better over time. Or that when you share a playlist that Spotify has created for you with someone else, that playlist becomes customized to their preferences. In the case of image-driven experiences like Netflix or Amazon or some cutting-edge clothing or cosmetics retailers, even the thumbnail image that you see is personalized to appeal to you specifically. How cool is that! This is what customers are now learning to expect as normal, and all of us other marketers need to wake up and smell the coffee or get left behind.

Unlocking potential with a unified approach

At Virtusa, we are helping our clients and partners across industries achieve this level of integration and automation with our Helio suite of services. Case in point: we recently worked with a leading American home entertainment provider to tap into the power of personalization and redefine its remarketing with analytics. For this particular client, its legacy, mobile-unfriendly website was proving to be a barrier to connecting with existing and new customers. Besides being unable to deliver the right messages and offers at the right time, it could not track web metrics, so the company was dependent on third-party partners for the analytics and content creation. We deployed a suite of Adobe generative AI tools to enable them to personalize their website, capture insights and analytics, customize offers, and enjoy faster time to market. The benefits were manifold, enhanced experiences for customers being first and foremost. Our client also saw improvements in brand visibility and an increased ROI.

So, what do CMOs need to do in the age of generative AI?

Realizing the full potential of generative AI in marketing automation requires a strategic shift. Here are the three key areas where Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) can take action:

• High-quality, accurate data: This is the fuel for AI systems in marketing. CMOs and their teams need to ensure robust data collection and management strategies are in place, including guaranteeing data accuracy and establishing data governance practices. This is a constant process that requires vigilance, but the rewards it can pay are exponentially beneficial (similar to cybersecurity).
• Tech-savvy marketing teams: Effective implementation and management of AI-powered marketing solutions requires recruiting, training, and retaining tech-savvy personnel. Marketing leaders need a vision to oversee generative AI implementation across the entire customer journey. Siloed decision-making needs to become a thing of the past.
• Governance and ethics: As enterprises leverage AI for their marketing, ethical considerations are paramount. A governance framework is crucial to mitigate risks like AI fabrications ('hallucinations'), biases, data breaches, and copyright infringement. Since generative AI may not be ideal for high-pressure choices, heavily regulated environments, or high-volume tasks, human oversight and limitations on generative AI's creative freedom in marketing campaigns are essential safeguards. Appointing an accountable leader and forming a technology oversight board are the first steps, potentially complemented by a human review of customer-facing content and restrictions on the topics generative AI can address.

The future of marketing is personal…

With a robust data infrastructure and a team in place, enterprises can unlock the potential of generative AI. This goes beyond personalization at individual touchpoints to marketing that fosters deeper customer engagement through dialogue. Examples include using an AI-powered chatbot on WhatsApp to engage with customers in real-time, based upon their geo-location and time of day, which tell you what they are likely shopping for, answer their questions, and drive sales. Or being able to offer customers insurance plans that are personalized based on their age, lifestyle, medical histories, and location at the very moment they begin to think about it through search queries. Or enabling healthcare providers to make the shift from preventive and reactive care to proactive care by harnessing health history and data that results in a conversation that gives beneficial advice while freeing up doctors' time to focus on those most truly ill.

From your website to email marketing campaigns and even social media interactions, a unified platform would orchestrate a seamless experience. This approach ensures customers receive a consistent and personalized experience, regardless of the channel they interact with.

… and generative AI is the key to unlocking its potential

Personally, I believe that for the function of marketing, AI and generative AI are already well on their way to reinventing the way organizations manage the customer journey. It would not be an exaggeration to say that there isn't an aspect of marketing that isn't being touched by these technologies. In the best of cases, they're helping to enhance customer experiences in a myriad of ways – such as improved product discovery, personalized marketing communication, and conversational chatbots that provide real, useful answers without asking you to prove that you're human – marrying convenience, timeliness, and a personal touch. The preponderance of feedback so far is that these tools are, by and large, not making experiences any worse… and that they are getting better all the time. So, it's no surprise that we are seeing more and more organizations looking to adopt generative AI solutions. One could go so far as to say that there will come a time soon when it becomes 'standard' across all marketing functions to have AI and generative AI embedded in our processes and work streams, similar to how technologies like the PC or Microsoft Office changed the way every corporate function operated for the better.

CMOs who embrace a unified generative AI approach, prioritizing data, building tech-savvy teams, and establishing strong governance will be best positioned to deliver exceptional customer experiences that drive brand loyalty and business growth. Those who lag behind risk falling short of customer expectations and missing out on a significant competitive advantage.  This is the start of a brave new AI marketing world…care to join us?