In the age of intelligent agents, how does marketing work?

Amazon Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant, Microsoft’s Cortana.

These intelligent agents, and their more limited bot cousins, have taken up positions as new interfaces between customers and marketers.

For decades before they emerged, marketing and advertising had been based on getting the product pitch in front of the potential customer.

But how does this pitching work when there is an intelligent agent of some kind standing between the seller and the buyer?

Research firm IDC predicts that, within three years, an astounding 40 percent of e-commerce transactions will be enabled by cognitive agent/artificial intelligent shoppers. One recent sign: the Alexa-containing Amazon Echo Dot was the best selling item in the Amazon superstore this past holiday season.

All of which means that digital marketing and advertising may be in for what might be called a tectonic adjustment.

That is, an earthquake.

[Read the full article on MarTech Today.]

About The Author

Barry Levine

Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.