July–August 2021
Article
Harvard Business Review

Why You Aren't Getting More from Your Marketing AI

By: Eva Ascarza, Michael Ross and Bruce G.S. Hardie

Format:Print

Abstract

Fewer than 40% of companies that invest in AI see gains from it, usually because of one or more of these errors: (1) They don’t ask the right question, and end up directing AI to solve the wrong problem. (2) They don’t recognize the differences between the value of being right and the costs of being wrong, and assume all prediction mistakes are equivalent. (3) They don’t leverage AI’s ability to make far more frequent and granular decisions, and keep following their old practices. If marketers and data science teams communicate better and take steps to avoid these pitfalls, they’ll get much higher returns on their AI efforts.

Keywords

Artificial Intelligence; Marketing; Decision Making; Communication; Framework

Citation

Ascarza, Eva, Michael Ross, and Bruce G.S. Hardie. "Why You Aren't Getting More from Your Marketing AI." Harvard Business Review 99, no. 4 (July–August 2021): 48–54.