11 Extraordinary Insights Into AI and E-commerce from the Past Week: E-commerce Link Digest

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Hey, Big Thinkers! We’re finally getting some spring weather here at Thinks Central, so hope you don’t mind if we skip the setup this week and jump straight into this list of 11 extraordinary insights into AI and e-commerce from the past week. Enjoy:

1. So, don’t know if you saw, but our old friend Mark Zuckerberg spent a couple of days explaining Facebook and privacy to a group of clueless old men Congress this past week. Clearly, the markets don’t seem to think the, ahem, brain trust on Capitol Hill has any chance of successfully reining in the social media giant, leading the company’s stock price to rise 4% in the last week. And, as TechCrunch points out, regulation could ultimately protect Facebook, not punish it. Obviously, we’ll keep watching this one for a bit, but until customers or a more technically-competent Congress acts decisively, Facebook’s probably going to weather this storm.
2. That said, the role of data, tracking, and privacy clearly are getting a lot more play in the media than they were just a few months back. Which is why maybe Facebook's data problem will end up as your data problem. And that’s definitely something worth thinking about for your brand/business.
3. All of this has much larger implications for your business than may appear at first glance. For instance, we’ve long talked about the fact that AI makes big data little. And Harvard Business Review rightfully explains that if your data is bad, your machine learning tools are useless. Expect a lot more talk around this topic over the next few months.
4. While we’re on the topic of AI, you won’t want to miss these 8 exceptional insights into voice and AI and their effects on digital marketing from the E-commerce Link Digest series.
5. Business Insider has a great look atAI in marketing and how brands can “leverage artificial intelligence to improve personalization, enhance ad targeting, and make marketing teams more agile.” Wow, that’s quite a mouthful. But it’s also quite true.
6. Want to know more about the effect of AI on marketing? Well, check out these recent episodes of Thinks Out Loud, our e-commerce and digital strategy podcast. The first looked at where AI will affect sales and marketing first, and most while the second outlined 7 ways you can use AI in B2B sales and marketing. Good stuff all around.
7. For one real-world example, Digiday put together a great case study of how Tumi is using AI in marketing campaigns, online and in stores that’s well worth checking out.
8. That Tumi story is a great example of what marketing at the speed of digital looks like in practice.
9. It’s fair to ask, of course, whether with the rise of the machine: “Will your job become obsolete?” as Rita Shapiro-Das does over on The Future of Commerce blog. And, given that reality, R. Edward Freeman and James R. Freeland argue over at MIT Sloan Management Review argue that the time for retraining is now.
10. You don’t need to wait for your company to make that a priority (in fact, we’d argue that it’s probably a mistake to wait around for that to happen). We’d recommend you check out our quick and dirty guide for how to keep up with technology as a marketer instead.
11. Finally, let’s wrap-up this week’s look at 11 extraordinary insights into AI and e-commerce from the past week — and bring all these stories together – with this set of 6 quick content marketing and AI insights and these 6 proven digital marketing trends.

Have a fantastic weekend, Big Thinkers. Catch you back here next week!

If you’re looking to learn even more about how changing customer behavior will shape your marketing going forward, be sure an register to receive a special report I’ve produced in conjunction with hotel marketing firm Vizergy, “Digital Hotel Marketing in a Multiscreen World.” While it’s targeted specifically at hotel and resort marketers, the lessons apply to just about any business. You can get your free copy of the report here.

You might also want to check out these slides I had the pleasure of presenting recently about the key trends shaping marketing in the next year. Here are the slides for your reference:

Finally, you might enjoy some of these past posts from Thinks to help you build your e-commerce strategy and your digital success:

• 6 Mobile Commerce and Strategy Insights: E-commerce Link Digest
• Content is Still the King
• The Digital Strategy Myth
• Why Mobile Payments Will Rule
• Driving Seamless Experiences in 2016 (Thinks Out Loud Episode 149)
• Mobile is So Much Bigger Than You Think (Thinks Out Loud Episode 140)
• It’s Not “Mobile First.” It’s “Customer First.”
• 8 Killer Entries About Improving E-commerce Experience: E-commerce Link Digest