How AI-powered features are transforming marketing automation tools.

Many marketing automation platforms (MAPs), like much other marketing technology, are being updated with new AI-powered functionality.

One reason for this is the desire to improve personalization and implement it across all aspects of marketing. According to the Salesforce State of the Connected Customer report, 5th edition, 73% of respondents — both consumers and business buyers — expect companies to “understand my unique needs and expectations,” with 62% expecting companies to anticipate their needs and 56% expecting offers to always be personalized.

AI-powered MAPs assist organizations in identifying new consumers and automating the process of acquiring leads and nurturing them to sales readiness through channels like as email, social media, websites, and display ads.

They can also direct consumers and prospects to personalized landing pages and other experiences that guide them down the buying funnel. These platforms are intimately integrated with CRMs and CDPs, continuously collecting additional lead data to drive insights and further personalization, with artificial intelligence and machine learning driving features such as segmentation, content generation, and campaign optimization.

One of the key applications for AI is to improve customer journey orchestration. This can contain recommendations for the next-best channel, content, and deal. Some suppliers additionally provide dynamic personalization and segmentation powered by AI, in which the system can estimate a contact’s likelihood to respond to a specific offer.

Here are some of the elements from our new report Marketing Automation Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide.

• Create forms and landing pages.
• Create intelligent campaigns.
• Send time and channel optimization.
• Understand frequency with which prospects are being emailed.
• Create predictive reporting models.
• Suggest/generate content personalization for emails and website experiences.
• Generate creative for email campaigns.
• Personalize landing pages on the fly.
• Assist or write copy for campaigns.
• Generate content for email, SMS and push notifications.
• Personalize messaging.
• Suggest next-best actions.
• Automatic campaign optimization.
• Lead and account scoring/prioritization.
• Create email body copy and subject lines.