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  • 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
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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; AI and Machine Learning

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.
  • Find it at Harvard

About The Author

Eva Ascarza

Marketing
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • 2022
    • Faculty Research

    When Less Is More: Using Short-term Signals to Overcome Systematic Bias in Long-run Targeting

    By: Ta-Wei Huang and Eva Ascarza
    • August 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Retail Media Networks

    By: Eva Ascarza, Ayelet Israeli and Celine Chammas
    • March 2022 (Revised March 2022)
    • Faculty Research

    Managing Customers in the Digital Era

    By: Eva Ascarza
More from the Authors
  • When Less Is More: Using Short-term Signals to Overcome Systematic Bias in Long-run Targeting By: Ta-Wei Huang and Eva Ascarza
  • Retail Media Networks By: Eva Ascarza, Ayelet Israeli and Celine Chammas
  • Managing Customers in the Digital Era By: Eva Ascarza
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