How We’ve Been Using Artificial Intelligence 

Artificial intelligence has become the buzzword of all buzzwords. It doesn’t just dominate big tech offices and conference tables. It has become a household name.  

For many, the word brings to mind depictions of robot takeovers in pop culture. Robots threaten the human race in movies like I, Robot. TV shows like Westworld and Black Mirror raise ethical and moral dilemmas. 

If you’re worried, stay calm. Take a deep breath. These Hollywood depictions make it easy to be fearful of emerging tech. But, as a business leader, it’s important to understand where the world is going so you can adapt to it.  

By better understanding artificial intelligence, you may unlock never-before-seen business opportunities. Below we’ll provide answers to the following questions: 

1. What is artificial intelligence? 

2. How does artificial intelligence work? 

3. What are the different types of artificial intelligence? 

4. How has MLCworks been using artificial intelligence? 

Our goal is to equip you with the knowledge to continue to grow and transform your business. 

What is artificial intelligence? 

“Hey, Siri, play ‘Karma’ by Taylor Swift.”  

If you’ve ever uttered those words to your iPhone, you’ve just leveraged artificial intelligence. 

Siri was developed by a bunch of very smart people who fed a machine a large input of data. The goal was to develop a virtual assistant that could understand human language and intent. The outcome? You are able to play a catchy song through Spotify without finding it yourself.  

But, oh, there’s so much more to it. 

At its most basic level, artificial intelligence refers to a machine that can receive, process, and provide information. It mirrors human intelligence in being able to conduct the following processes: 

Natural Language Processing 

Human language is complex. For computers to understand us, they must be able to interpret our words and intent. Natural Language Processing, or NLP, is a form of artificial intelligence that essentially allows computers and humans to better interact. 

You’ve seen this technology play out in your daily life—including the Siri example above. Other household examples include Amazon Alexa, Google Translate, Waze, and Google Search.  

Your email software also uses it to filter out spam messages. Your smart TV also uses it when you give a voice command to adjust the volume. None of these technologies would be able to work without Natural Language Processing. 

Pattern Recognition 

When you don’t organize data, it can become a jumbled mess. AI systems need to recognize patterns in data in order to make sense of it. Without pattern recognition, a piece of software would not be able to provide decisions or predictions. 

There are many household products that leverage AI and pattern recognition. Your Nest Thermostat recognizes patterns in your daily routine to adjust temperatures. Your Ring Doorbell uses pattern recognition to sense motion at your front door. Your Spotify account analyzes your listening habits to recommend new songs. 

Organized data allows AI to recognize patterns. This in turn leads to outcomes that solve very real, everyday problems. More on that below.  

Problem Solving 

The core mission of technology is to solve problems – from everyday to complex challenges. Are you looking for a song to perfectly fit the current vibe? Spotify has recommendations.  

Are you looking to find the quickest route to your destination? Google Maps has you covered. 

Software like Spotify, appliances like smart ovens, and gadgets like robot vacuum cleaners have a job. They promote quality of life. They wouldn’t be able to do so without copying the human ability to problem solve. 

How does AI work? 

Look around your office or living room. You should now be able to notice all the gadgets that leverage artificial intelligence. Now, it’s time to go deeper. 

You now know that artificial intelligence aims to replicate human intelligence. It is useful in developing software that accomplishes work faster for us. But how does it accomplish these tasks? 

Imagine building AI like one would teach a child to ride a bicycle.  

Start with the Basics 

You may start by telling a child the basics of a bicycle. You may explain handlebars, pedals, and brakes to them. Without this information, a bicycle wouldn’t quite make sense. In the same way, AI tools are given very simple sets of information, or data, to process. 

Lead by Example 

Before they can start cruising, kiddos need to know how to bicycle. You may hold their handlebars and guide them down the sidewalk – showing them when to brake or turn. With AI, you must give examples for it to learn from so it can begin to recognize patterns.  

Give Training Wheels 

The wobbles are going to happen. Thank goodness for training wheels. These little helpers ensure the child gets a hang of the process before graduating to two wheels. When building AI, you must first give it simple processes before moving on to more complex ones. 

Allow for Mistakes 

Remember when the training wheels came off and you tried to pedal as fast as you could? The curb came too quickly and BAM! Next thing you know, your mom is doctoring you up with Neosporin. This mistake, however, teaches you to watch out for curbs next time. In the same way, AI has to learn and adjust to be as effective as possible – and avoid zooming headfirst into a curb. 

Give Room to Grow 

It’s amazing to watch a child gain confidence on a bicycle. Soon, they’re handling new roads with ease.  

Similarly, as AI gets smarter, it becomes more confident. It soon begins using all the information it has gathered to conduct more complex tasks. This is when we as consumers are able to play with fun gadgets like Siri voice assistants, Nest thermostats, or Ring doorbells. 

What are the different types of artificial intelligence? 

If you’re wondering when the robot takeover begins, you need to understand where we currently stand today. This is where the different types of AI come into play. 

Narrow or Weak AI 

We consider everything we have been discussing so far in this blog as narrow or weak AI. This is AI that has been given information and trained to perform a task – but it cannot do anything beyond that task.  

Virtual assistants, robot vacuums, search engines, and chatbots are examples of weak AI, but they are not limited to these. 

It’s also as far as current technology has taken us. 

General or Strong AI 

Many people fear a future where computers have consciousness. This would be considered strong AI. This type of AI can perform any intellectual process a human can, including self-awareness. 

Rest assured, general or strong AI is currently only a theoretical concept. 

How has MLCworks been using artificial intelligence? 

So far, we’ve provided everyday examples to help explain artificial intelligence. Sure, we like geeking out on the latest household gadgets. But we love digging into AI for business and marketing use cases. 

For us, AI is not a new concept. Lately, the world buzzes with tools like ChatGPT, but marketers have utilized AI for far longer. Below are just a few of the ways we have leveraged AI to drive results for our clients. 

Reaching Audiences  

The more we know about your audience, the better we can reach them. Their demographics, interests, and behaviors are all useful in telling advertising platforms where your ads should go. 

Take social ads for example. We “feed” a series of information to the advertising platform so it knows where to serve your ads. We basically tell Facebook what audiences we want to reach, and the platform uses AI to find them. 

Let’s say your audience includes homeowners in the New Orleans area. We can go even further and tell the social platform the exact age, location, interests, and behaviors of the people we want to reach. The platform’s AI will use this information to scour their platform for people who fit this description. 

The outcome? Our clients are able to reach their exact audience and reduce wasted spend. 

Optimizing Campaigns 

We know our clients want to receive the most bang for their buck. The advertising platforms in our arsenal are crazy good at optimizing toward the highest return. 

Search engine marketing, among other platforms, leverages AI to provide advertisers with greater returns. What does this look like exactly? 

When we set up campaigns, we give the platform some parameters. We provide the ads we want to serve, the keywords we want to target, the budget we want to reach, and the outcome we want to see.  

Then, the magic happens. As a campaign runs, Google’s AI will work hard to find the exact audiences who are most likely to take action. It’ll learn and learn and learn – getting better at finding your next best customers.  

The longer we allow a campaign to run, the better the AI gets at delivering the results our clients want to see. You want leads? The AI will optimize to give you a plethora of new contacts.  

You want sales? The AI will work hard to give you as many transactions as possible for your budget. 

Marketing Automation 

As we just mentioned, advertising platforms use AI to give businesses greater ROI. Another way these tools support business growth is through marketing automation. Email and social media platforms use AI to uncover the best dates and times to send messages to audiences.  

When sending email campaigns to our clients’ email lists, we leverage AI in the form of marketing automation. Our team creates the content, designs for optimal engagement, and allows the software to send at the most optimal time for engagement. 

We also leverage marketing automation when scheduling social media posts. Social platforms often provide recommendations for the best time to post based on audience behavior. This allows us to post when your audience is online – ensuring your content will be seen. 

Personalization 

Did you know that people are more likely to convert if a brand’s message is personalized to them? It’s true, but you’re probably thinking, “That would require a lot of work.” 

Think again. It’s possible with AI, baby.  

There’s a term we marketers refer to as dynamic content. Essentially, we can feed a social or search platform with a series of potential ad messages. The platform will then leverage AI to serve the most relevant message based on a specific user’s behavior. 

Crazy, right? 

We’ve also used it to personalize email communication. Something as simple as directing email software to use each contact’s first name in email copy can greatly improve email engagement. 

Search Engine Optimization 

AI has been a godsend in helping us boost website traffic for clients. We use AI to improve a client’s website for search engines by researching keywords, optimizing content, and maintaining technical aspects. 

Keyword research would be a daunting task without the help of AI. Our in-house tool can sift through a vast amount of searches to find the most relevant keywords for our clients. It shows popular topics and ones with many searches but not much competition. 

We also leverage AI to prioritize content optimizations and technical issues. For example, AI can give our team insight into what technical issues are causing the most problems on a website. With this information in hand, our SEO wizards can make the necessary fixes to get a client’s website back on track.  

Stay Ahead of Emerging AI with MLCworks 

If you’re wondering, we’ve definitely played with emerging AI like ChatGPT. This tool has become the latest fixture in the marketing world, and we’ve been swept up in the buzz. 

Our thoughts? From content outlines to hashtag variations, ChatGPT has been an efficient writing assistant. Beyond that, nothing beats human creativity. So far, our best campaigns have come from the minds of our real, live, human team.  

If you’re curious about AI and how it can help your business, let us know. We’d love to geek out with you. Follow the link below to reach out, and our in-house consultant robot will reach out to you. Just kidding, we don’t have one of those—yet.