'Bots' in Business
Do you remember ‘Robotic Process Automation’ learnt in the operations management class? It refers to automating repetitive tasks in various industrial operations (e.g. assembly line manufacturing, warehousing) - using robots. But, now companies have climbed up the technology ladder and started to embrace “technology beyond factory floors”. It means they integrate artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, deep learning and robotics in other business domains, including marketing.
Why?
Reasons range from cut-throat competition to shifting customer preference that have made the old marketing ploys obsolete. Hence, marketers have shifted focus to ‘interactive marketing’ which means “two-way communication” between the company and the customer and which ensures better customer engagement. Drawing on this philosophy, ‘chatbots’ have invaded the business world. These days, chatbots, and not customer service representatives, suggest a trip, answer a call or reply a chat in call centres, write news articles and entertain audience at the storefront, theme parks, and trade shows. Companies are also using voice-controlled virtual assistants (remember, Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa?) to interact with the customers and make their life easy by answering queries and giving suggestions. The Google Assistant can memorise your schedules, direct you toward the nearest coffee shops and plan for your doctor’s appointment. Aristotle, a programmable device of Mattel, the toy company, can read bedtime stories to the kids and teach foreign words to the toddlers. Steve, a security robot, patrols office complex.
A big leap in this direction is the AI-enabled social robots that look like humans. Using Humanoid robots is no longer a futuristic concept. AvatarMind in the Silicon Valley has commercially launched iPal, a 3.5-foot-tall friendly humanoid robot who can play the roels of a companion, a caregiver to lonely senior citizens, a home tutor for education of autistic children and a store assistant in telecom stores, restaurants and banks. Pepper the humanoid robot from Softbank Robotics, can read and respond to human emotions and is employed by many global companies in multiple marketing job roles. Pepper promoted Nescafe vending machines for Nestle, Japan, delivered pizza for Pizza Hut, China and efficiently handled the front office receptionist role in various organizations.
Robotics has invaded the media industry too. Daily we read newspapers and magazines in offline or online mode. But, do we realize that these days many news articles are written not by human reporters or journalists but by...AI-based news bots! In May 2020, Microsoft sacked many journalists who were managing the MSN and Edge news homepages and replaced them with AI software to select, curate and edit news. The company stated it was "a shift away from humans in favour of automated updates for news". In India too, many media houses trimmed the workforce as they integrated bots in their business. In the future, perhaps, your favourite TV celebrity could be a robot instead of a human being! In 2019, China’s state media unveiled Xin Xiaomeng, a female (AI-based) news anchor. The pink-dressed anchor can mimic human facial expressions and hand gestures while presenting a story and is popular among the viewers.
As the net of AI-based applications spreads wider day by day in our life, Oxford University researchers Michael Osborne and Carl Benedikt Frey predicted that in the near future AI will outperform humans in following areas: driving a truck (by 2027), writing a bestselling book (by 2049) and working as a surgeon (by 2053)!
We look forward to a fascinating future...
Reference
1. Mende, M., Scott, M. L., van Doorn, J., Grewal, D., & Shanks, I. (2019). Service robots rising: How humanoid robots influence service experiences and elicit compensatory consumer responses. Journal of Marketing Research, 56(4), 535-556.
2. https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/ai-begins-reading-news-creates-job-loss-scare-for-journalists-ians-special-119030400720_1.html
3. https://tech.hindustantimes.com/tech/news/microsoft-sacks-journalists-replaces-them-with-robots-71590845326999.html
4. https://www.nestle.com/media/news/nestle-humanoid-robot-nescafe-japan
5. https://www.robotshop.com/community/blog/show/will-robots-change-the-future-of-marketing
6. https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf
Originally published in IBS Mumbai magazine Manthan Issue 2, Edition 2022 p.13-14
