As marketing strategies of enterprises evolve to become more data-driven, analytical, and focused on engagement, the worldwide use of robots armed with artificial intelligence seems naturally imminent in the future of interactive marketing.

The field of robotics has experienced a rapid progress in recent years, giving emergence to robots that are getting ever-closer to perfectly emulate humans in interactive marketing. Although initially robots were conceptualized and developed almost exclusively for automate industrial operations, the integration of AI, machine learning, and deep learning have opened up a world of possibilities for the application of robotics in different business areas. One of the areas that can benefit from the use of robots is marketing. As traditional, unidirectional marketing is being replaced by interactive marketing, there is an increasing need for systems that collect and analyze massive volumes of customer data. This need can be fulfilled by robots powered by artificial intelligence, making them a part of the future of interactive marketing.

Interactive Marketing: The Next Level of Marketing

Traditional marketing consists of communication and advertisements that are not very focused, and consequently not relevant to a majority of the audience. Add to this the fact that customers, in general, don’t like to be persuaded while making purchase decisions. Customers want to interact with and learn about a brand and make purchase decisions based on adequate information. Since people don’t like to be sold to, it is no surprise that only 9% of digital ads are viewed for more than a second. This lack of engagement can be overcome by providing target audiences with more relevant ads and marketing messages. This is what interactive marketing does by making marketing a two-way communication process. Interactive marketing allows the customers to share their preferences, enabling marketers to create and display highly relevant marketing messages to them. This feedback-based method of marketing ensures greater levels of customer engagement, allowing businesses to provide enough information to customers for making decisions.

Robotics: the Future of Interactive Marketing

You might already be aware of humanoid robots being tested and used to enhance customer experience and engagement. One such example is Pepper, SoftBank’s humanoid robot, which is capable of capturing emotional cues from people and adapting its behavior appropriately. Leading organizations such as Nestlé are planning on using intelligent robots to inform customers about their offerings in an interesting way, ensuring increased engagement. The popularity of humanoid, smart robots is evident by their positive reception in the market. French company Aldebaran’s 58 cm tall robot, NAO has sold about 10000 units globally and is being used to improve customer experience by corporations such as Mitsubishi UFJ financial group, as a part of their marketing strategy. These examples provide enough evidence to suggest that once fully mature, AI-enabled robots will play a major role in interactive marketing by serving a wide range of roles like solving customer queries, informing customers on new offerings, and collecting and analyzing data.

It is quite clear that just like industrial robots will eventually rule the factory floor, social robots, who specialize in interacting with humans, are the future of interactive marketing. Social robots will have a significant role in improving the relationship between businesses and customers. AI and robotics are gradually going to take a major role in every aspect of business, including marketing. And as a business leader, you should be prepared to invest in the technology to ensure you establish an early advantage in your industry.