NEW YORK – A panel of experts in artificial intelligence discussed the technology’s future and if the current hot commodity has lasting power in the long term at ad:tech New York 2016.

The AI in Marketing forum constituted a masterclass in innovation for marketers looking to organically integrate the burgeoning technology into their workflows. The panel worked to redefine many common misconceptions surrounding AI, and depicted examples of its role in our current IT and creative infrastructures.

“We are not in the business of generalized artificial intelligence; like what you’ve seen on Star Trek,” said Ari Sheinkin, vice president of marketing analytics at IBM. “When we talk about this space we’re talking about cognitive.

“We’re talking about machine learning. This AI is not broadly intelligent, but is there to help, say, a doctor or a salesperson in making decisions.”

AI in Marketing
The panel began with a simple, yet essential, question, asked by moderator Brent Breen, founder of Qnary: “When an acronym like AI becomes hyped, it requires a definition. What does that definition mean to you?”

Dave O’Flanagan, CEO of Boxever, a data analytics firm that counts Emirates and Air New Zealand among its clients, responded in kind.

“It’s the ability to replace or enhance tasks that would traditionally be done by a human,” he said. “It’s really about helping people get smarter with data.”

“It’s not about displacing creativity, it’s about enhancing it.”

Mr. O’Flanagan continued on the rate of uptake among clients interested in AI, which is growing steadily, according to his accounts.

“Most of our customers are thinking not how to scale back their operation, but how they can invest more in data science,” he said. “Whether its price more effectively or building a better relationship with their customers, they’ve got to build that capability in house because the market is moving at such a pace.”

“Right now, I think that consumers are figuring out that advertising is fake and experiences are real,” said Jason Snyder, CDO at MRM//McCann. People are willing pay money not to see ads. So, right now advertisers are making a toxic asset.”

“The thing that’s interesting to me is when machine intelligence starts creating culture,” said Snyder, whose larger agency’s Japanese operation created an artificial intelligent creative director. “The creative folks are generating stories.

“Moving forward, the way that we’re trying to leverage and embrace AI is generating stories that are, for lack of a better term, incomplete. What you can think of as a sort of gestalt marketing.”

Mr. Sheinkin also spoke on AI’s capability to leverage data points for the purpose of both ecommerce and traditional retail.

“Sometimes you’re not even aware that you’re interacting with this kind of cognitive intelligence,” said Mr. Sheinkin. “For example, if you go to The North Face, try the personalized shopper that’s powered by Watson.

“It’s going to ask you natural language questions like, ‘Where are you going?’ or ‘What do you plan on doing?’ and it’s going to bring in other information like the weather where you’re going, and use that information as a basis to make recommendations,” he said. “It’s incredibly natural, and the results are dramatically improved over traditional experiences.”

“And this is an infant that can beat you at chess. Wait until it’s a teenager.”

Future of AI
The panel also touched in difficulties in integrating and scaling AI technology with clients.

“Where this machine intelligence lives is a bit challenging, certainly inside of the client organizations,” Mr. Snyder said. “It inhabits a space somewhere between the office of the chief marketing officer, the chief technology officer and the chief information officer.

“The life cycle for many of these people within is 18 months, and the time to get a scale project like this up and running is probably going to be at least two-thirds of that. So how do you bring something that is going to be transformative in the context of their business to life that quickly, and how do we help them figure out who should own this from an executive advocacy standpoint?”

The panel closed with a droll question from Mr. Breen: “In a future with true artificial intelligence, what’s the first question you would ask it?”

Equally droll was Mr. Sheinkin’s response, who shirked the interrogative for an imperative.

“Pick up the kids. Cover my four o’clock meeting. I’m going to be in bed.”