WILL ROBOTS REPLACE MARKETERS?
IN A WORLD WHERE MARKETERS ARE FEELING DISPLACED, TECHNOLOGY TAKES ANOTHER ARTIFICIAL ROBOTIC TURN, THAT HAS AN ENTIRE INDUSTRY WONDERING WHAT’S NEXT.
The first robotic prototype is just weeks away and its creating a storm of uncertainty in an industry that has just changed its take on where marketers sit in the whole martech world.
Sitting front and centre in Queensland University of Technology’s robotics division, a new way of marketing is being born. It is streets away from the software applications that are ruling marketing departments, like customer relationship management and marketing automation, taking a step in a direction that has no return.
Founder of a new wave of displacing marketers’ roles in marketing departments, Mellissah Smith, is not your average tech entrepreneur. In fact, she is redefining a career that has been hers for 25 years – with no apology in sight.
Her Robotic Marketer is the ultimate marketing professional – accurate, deep diving into the realms of data that researchers would only dream about, and strategic based on facts, not gut instinct or a campaign that may have run successfully in the past.
“I’ve been writing marketing strategies for over 20 years, and I’ve never felt as though any strategy is as good as it could potentially be,” says Smith who has a seamlessly never-ending desire for perfection.
The hardest part of writing a marketing strategy according to Smith is access to data, past the usual suspects; Google, Bing and Yahoo. In fact, she believes that data beyond what is easily accessible is not only rich, but can be utilised to determine the path forward and reduce shrinkage of budgetary loss due to trial and error.
“From robot-driven marketing workshops where participants can ask dumb questions without feeling stupid, through to the delivery of a marketing strategy to your inbox, Robotic Marketer is your perfect marketing colleague, or if you like, the only strategy writer that can deliver business outcomes better than a human.”
Businesses will be given marketing strategies that are more powerful, intuitive, data driven and outcomes based than any other marketer would be able to achieve.
The recent launch of Robotic Marketer isn’t without controversy, with marketers and educators alike feeling the pinch of not knowing where their place is in a field that has grown in maturity.
“Martech positions will eventually be redefined, like marketing degrees,” said Smith.
“Robotics and artificial intelligence is playing a bigger role in marketing departments, and marketers need to be re-skilled to accommodate this change. Universities will need to play a bigger role in the innovation stakes as too many students are finishing their degrees without the skills required in a progressive marketing department.”
Robotics and AI are seen as one of the biggest disruptors in corporate marketing departments, leaving professionals who have adapted to the wave of social media, data science and marketing automation, forced to learn how to feed robots data relevant to businesses, without subscribing to the rigor of writing a strategy. Their role in roll-out and creativity may remain firmly intact, however, it’s robots that will force new careers within organisations.
“Robotic Marketer is the perfect marketing colleague, allowing marketers to do what they love most about marketing; be creative, drive campaigns and share information with the robot.”
In the very near future, it’s hard to avoid just how big of a role robotics will play in marketing and for now, much of the industry is fighting to provide confidence within business that a robots’ role will never replace a human in marketing – but is Robotic Marketer going to prove them wrong?