Marketing to AI Bots

AI assistants are rapidly colonizing consumers’ homes. Analysts estimate that Amazon, for instance, has sold some 25 million Echo smart speakers, which people use to engage with its AI assistant, Alexa, and that number is expected to more than double by 2020. Once you take into account the millions of other devices that can already host Alexa through iOS or Android apps, Alexa’s market penetration looks even higher.

Google Assistant, accessed chiefly through Google Home cylinders and Pixel phones, is now available on 400 million devices. Earlier this year Apple launched a Siri-enabled HomePod, and Samsung has acquired Viv, an intelligent assistant company founded by Siri’s creators, to bolster its Bixby AI assistant platform. Microsoft and Tencent have platforms for their own AI assistants (Cortana and Xiaowei), and virtual assistants Chumenwenwen and Xiaoice (which is capable of uncannily human conversations and reportedly has 40 million registered users) are already popular in China.

Over the next decade, as these firms and others fight to establish the preferred consumer AI platform, AI assistants will transform how companies connect with their customers. They’ll become the primary channel through which people get information, goods, and services, and marketing will turn into a battle for their attention.

AI assistants will help consumers navigate their increasingly overwhelming number of choices. Every year people buy from thousands of product categories, deciding among dozens or hundreds of options in each. Even routine purchases can be time-consuming; nonroutine purchases often require sorting through the nuances of competing offers and are fraught with risk. While shopping for shoes may be fun, picking the right toothbrush from more than 200 products is pretty tedious. Choosing the wrong tennis racket can ruin your game, and buying an ill-considered cell phone plan or insurance policy can be costly.

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