A true genius in his own right, a whole new generation came to know Alan Turing, played brilliantly by Benedict Cumberbatch, in the movie on his life and impact on ending WWII, The Imitation Game. Turing predicted machine learning would play a big role in modern computing in his article the Turing Test way back in 1950.
Turing was way ahead of his time, a major theme in the movie. Now, the world has caught up. The major advancements in readily accessible computing power, the quantity of data available and algorithms that truly make machine learning possible are driving the ability to process data, analyze it and act on it in ways that would make Mr. Turing proud.
This has completely changed the machine learning game: the fundamental concept remains the same, but now it’s far more sophisticated, efficient and easily deployable.
Beyond the big, headline-grabbing examples of how machine learning will impact our lives — such as driverless cars — the potential it offers to put an end to the bland and sometimes ineffective customer experiences that many retailers are delivering to their customers is truly exciting.
By harnessing machine-learning, businesses can revolutionize the way we all engage with their store or use their service. Forget product recommendations as we know them today, this takes us far beyond that into the realms of much more hyper-personal sophisticated experiences.
The rise of programmatic customer experiences
To get a sense of the potential impact of machine learning on customer experience, you only need to look as far as the arrival of programmatic advertising a few years ago.
This completely revolutionized how ads are bought and targeted online, harnessing data to not only automate a lot of the “grunt” work, but also to make much smarter, more strategic decisions about where the opportunities for brands lie. The use of programmatic techniques enables campaign performance improvements of between 30 percent and 50 percent, according to some studies.
In the same way, harnessing machine learning for programmatic customer experience has enabled marketers to identify clear customer segments and target them in ways that they know will resonate. They now start from a position of knowing who their customers are and what will excite them, empowering them to focus their efforts on meeting their needs and exceeding their expectations…