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The Rise of AI and Automation in Marketing Industry

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What is marketing automation?

Marketing automation is just compelling software to preset marketing tasks. Many marketing sections automate repetitive jobs such as email marketing, social media posting — not just for the sake of competence, but so they can deliver a more modified experience for their clients. The technology of marketing automation makes these tasks much easier.


What are marketers doing with AI?


Marketing companies focus on advertising automation and optimization, i.e. chatbots for service and helping in sales, and content personalization. 1.82 billion people globally are estimated to use a chat app in 2018 and by 2020, clients will achieve 85% of their connection with the enterprise without interacting with a human.


What do leading consultants have to say about the usage of AI and automation in marketing?

• McKinsey and Firm:


As per an article by McKinsey & Firm, organizations presenting know-how to gross sales can determine ways in which ship double-digit features in return-on-investment. McKinsey & Firm additional states that automation is achievable in 30% of gross sales actions.


Organizations that took on gross sales automation continuously report a rise in customer satisfaction, effectivity improvements of 10 to 15%, and gross sales improve.

• Accenture:


Accenture graphed 2,000 customers globally, out of which 70% count on that knowledge will play a significant position in their lives within the following three years. Around 83% of bigger than 6,000 companies agreed that experience is a vital part of human expertise.


As per the review, 76% of executives strongly agree that companies must re-engineer skills that carry knowledge and prospects communally in a human-centric technique.

• PwC:

As per PwC, AI will give as much as US$15.7 trillion to the international financial system by 2030. However, in line with PwC’s 2020 AI Predictions Report, there’s a sharp failure within the range of managers you’re arranging to implement AI company-wide in 2020.


Merely 4% are planning to organize experience as in comparison with 20% final 12 months. 90% of the graphed managers moreover consider that AI gives extra substitutions than risks.


• Bain and Firm:


As per Bain and Firm, many establishments are scheduling to spread their reserves in automation after the arrival of coronavirus. The most latest AI survey by Bain and Firm evaluated that companies that make use of AI have been 4.2 more likely to have entry to upfront tools and applied sciences than the others.

The products also confirmed that 90% of tech managers take into account AI and machine studying as significances.
As per them, a combination of AI and machine studying into their product strains and companies is necessary. Executives choose using AI to cut back prices and purchase new prospects.

Conclusion:


AI and automation will be the forerunners in taking new ideas from spark to flame and exceed the present levels of inventiveness.

New methods of storytelling will appear as we influence more media platforms and this is when we are just getting started with AI. Many main companies are already leveraging AI and automation to produce new marketing policies.

Crypto

Report: Bitcoin usage “miniscule” compared to traditional non-cash payment systems

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Image by MichaelWuensch from Pixabay

In a report published on 10 May, the US Congressional Research Service (CRS) – the public research arm or think tank of the United States Congress – found that bitcoin usage is miniscule compared to traditional non-cash payment systems such as credit, debit, Venmo, Apple Pay and check payments.

The CRS discovered that while demand for cash in the US is steadily growing, its usage for payments is declining – but despite this trend, people have yet to turn towards bitcoin as an alternative like industry insiders may have hoped.

“To date, the migration away from cash has largely been in favour of traditional non-cash payment systems; however, some observers predict new alternative systems will play a larger role in the future,” the report said. “Such alternative systems aim to address some of the inefficiencies and risks of traditional non-cash systems, but face obstacles to achieving that aim and involve costs of their own.”

“Private systems using distributed ledger technology, such as cryptocurrencies, may not serve the main functions of money well and face challenges to widespread acceptance and technological scalability,” the report found.

The report also said that the price of bitcoin does not accurately reflect its overall demand. The CRS looked at how many times bitcoin is transferred per day and found that the number of transactions were “miniscule” compared to other, more traditional systems.

For example, in 2019 through 12 March “the bitcoin system averaged about 310,000 transactions per day globally, a pace that would result in about 113 million transactions per year”, while over US$144 billion traditional non-cash payments were made in 2015, almost 1,275 times the average number of yearly bitcoin transactions. Learn how to buy cryptocurrency like Dogecoin.

Researchers described this as a measure of the number of times that two parties have exchanged bitcoin; this kind of data does not tell us how many times bitcoin has been used to buy something.

“Some portion of those exchanges, possibly a significantly large portion, is driven by investors giving fiat currency to an exchange to buy and hold the Bitcoin as an investment. In those transfers, Bitcoin is not acting as money (i.e., not being exchanged for a good or service),” the report said.

The CRS said that it found it difficult to envision an economy where cash had been replaced, at least in the near future, but conceded that cash’s “hegemony as a payment system appears to have come to an end,” and that the ubiquity of its acceptance in the real-world seems somewhat precarious.

“If non-cash payment systems significantly displace cash and cash usage, and acceptance significantly declines, there would be a number of effects (both positive and negative) on the economy and society,” the CRS warned.

“Now or in the near future, policymakers may face decisions about whether to impede or hasten the decline of cash and consider the implications of doing so,” it added.

Crypto

Blockchain and the UK

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Depending on who you ask, blockchain is either totally overhyped or its going to save the world, your business and your country’s economy in one fell swoop. It’s also wildly overcomplicated, confusing and often misunderstood.

Put as simply as possible, blockchain is a series of digital information (the blocks) stored in a public database (the chain).

Blocks are made up of three things: information about transactions; information about the people or entities involved in a transaction, using a unique digital signature devoid of any identifying information; and information that distinguishes blocks from other blocks so that identical transactions aren’t mixed up with one another.

When a new block is added to the blockchain, it becomes publicly available for anyone to view and users can sign up to connect their computer to the blockchain in order to receive automatic updates when a new block is added.

Each computer in the blockchain network holds a copy of the blockchain, creating thousands of copies and making the information incredibly hard to manipulate.

Cryptocurrency protocols are often built on blockchain – they are essentially electronic cash systems that are fully peer-to-peer, without the involvement of a trusted third party, such as banks or governments who are usually involved in such systems.

Despite the continued inaccessibility of the technology, companies and countries alike have already started finding new, innovative applications for blockchain. Here are just a few of the ways that blockchain is being used in the UK.

Innovate UK

In 2018, the UK government’s “innovation agency” pledged a total of £19 million to fund innovative ideas for new products, processes and services in the fields of “emerging and enabling” technology, including distributed ledgers or blockchain, and health and life sciences.

The government specified that the projects must have the potential to transform a wide range of markets and generate significant economic growth, and provide business growth, productivity or an export opportunity for at least one small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) and be applied in more than one industry, sector or market.

Alongside blockchain, the government also considered projects looking at bio films and energy harvesting, big data and cybersecurity, robotics and sensors, and satellite communications and Earth observation, among many other topics.

Isle of Man Global Hub

Earlier this year, the Digital Isle of Man, an advisory body based on the self-governing British Crown dependency located in the Irish Sea, launched a global hub for the development of blockchain initiatives.

The body also opened the Blockchain Office to “guide blockchain businesses through current and future regulatory landscapes”, and Isle of Man Sandbox, a “testbed” for innovative new blockchain projects.

The Office’s main function is to “facilitate a dialogue between business and local and international regulators”, and to “help blockchain platforms design and future-proof their concepts” in-line with regulation. It will also provide guidance and marketing support, and encourage collaboration.

Meanwhile, the Sandbox is intended to be “a collaborate space” for companies to “live-test” their product, service or delivery mechanism in an environment where risk to “ordinary financial consumers” and the financial systems are contained.

Also read: Best Crypto Exchanges to Trade Bitcoins, Altcoins

“The response . . . has been tremendous, with a number of premium blockchain businesses and emerging starts-ups approaching the Office for early participation,” Lyle Wraxall, CEO of Digital Isle of Man, said in a statement issued by the island’s government. “There are no signs of interest slowing, and we look forward to collaborating with these innovative pioneers…”

Cryptoassets Taskforce

The UK government convened a Cryptoassets Taskforce in May 2018 to research and outline the country’s policy and regulatory approach to cryptoassets and distributed ledger technology in the financial services sector as part of the government’s overarching FinTech Sector Strategy.

The taskforce consisted of Her Majesty’s Treasury, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England, and released its final report in July of the same year.

It commits the authorities to take actions to “maintain the UK’s reputation as a safe and transparent place to do business in financial services”, ensure high regulatory standards and protect consumers in financial markets, guard against potential future threats to financial stability, and allow innovators in the financial sector who “play by the rules to thrive”.

FCA Innovate

This is a sandbox initiative set up by the United Kingdom’s Financial Services Authority (FCA) which allows companies to request support and also test out their service within a regulatory sandbox. Although the project is not explicitly focused on blockchain, 40 percent of the firms selected for the initiative’s fourth cohort were blockchain based.

For example, Fineqia is a blockchain-based digital platform that enables companies to issue and administer debt and equity securities, including bonds backed by cryptoassets, and 20|30 is a distributed ledger-based platform that allows companies to “raise capital in a more efficient and streamlined way”.

Crypto

Blockchain has found a surprising home in journalism funding

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 Image by xresch from Pixabay 

Meet Civil, the blockchain-based journalism marketplace that’s been confusing the media for the last two years, ever since it went public in the summer of 2017. Funding for journalism is somewhat scarce these days due to a combination of various factors, including less investment, decreasing ad revenue and consumers’ increasing reluctance to pay for their news when they can get it for free on social media. However, journalists still need to get paid for their work so the industry has started trying to get creative.

Put as simply as possible, blockchain is a series of digital information (the blocks) stored in a public database (the chain). Blocks are made up of three things: information about transactions; information about the people or entities involved in a transaction, using a unique digital signature devoid of any identifying information; and information that distinguishes blocks from other blocks so that identical transactions aren’t mixed up with one another.

When a new block is added to the blockchain, it becomes publicly available for anyone to view and users can sign up to connect their computer to the blockchain in order to receive automatic updates when a new block is added. Each computer in the blockchain network holds a copy of the blockchain, creating thousands of copies and making the information incredibly hard to manipulate.

Cryptocurrency protocols are often built on blockchain – they are essentially electronic cash systems that are fully peer-to-peer, without the involvement of a trusted third party, such as banks or governments who are usually involved in such systems.

When Civil was first announced, the cryptocurrency boom – symbolised by Bitcoin’s ascendency into the zeitgeist – was in its early days. The start-up described itself as a “self-sustaining global marketplace for journalism that is free from ads, fake news, and outside influence”. This would be achieved via a new blockchain-based token called CVL, which would act as a combination currency/governance structure/voting mechanism. As a general rule, journalists aren’t the most tech-savvy people in the world (the majority of us come from liberal arts backgrounds) and many were confused about what Civil actually was, but nevertheless it launched a decent number of newsrooms that actually started putting out some good work.

Also read: Best Crypto Exchanges to Trade Bitcoins, Altcoins

The official sale of CVL tokens was originally scheduled for late 2017 but was pushed back to September 2018 and failed badly. It raised less than 20 percent of its minimum goal, mostly due to the confusing 44-step process for buying said tokens – which looked utterly ridiculous when compared with, say, Amazon’s one-click purchase mechanism. However, the folks behind Civil returned to the drawing board and launched a slightly less complicated version on 6 March 2019 with only 33-steps. Basically, they removed functions that meant purchasers had to leave and return to the Civil site multiple times during the process, made the steps and language used to describe them much clearer, and asks you to pass one quiz opposed to the previous two it required. It’s still incredibly complicated when compared with most online shopping experiences or digital overseas transfers but at least this time around there’s no deadline to buy; instead, the sale will end when – or if – Civil sells a total of 34 million tokens.

There are several reasons why someone might be interested in purchasing CVL tokens and they haven’t really changed with the revamp (spoiler alert: profit doesn’t feature on the list at all, although it may do in the future, depending on how the currency fares). The most compelling is also the most obvious: it offers the opportunity to be involved in a news distribution platform that is owned by the participants (as opposed to a rich media mogul), who govern each other and promise to engage in ethical journalism (unlike some of those aforementioned rich media moguls). If you buy your tokens directly from Civil, rather than on the open market, you’re also supporting the Civil Foundation, which in turn supports several newsrooms. That said, it’s now possible to make donations to those newsrooms with your credit card, sans tokens. However, you can also use your tokens to tip Civil’s journalists and newsrooms, and at the US$1,000 level you can start your own Civil newsroom and unlock various blockchain-related publishing tools. Learn how to invest in cryptocurrency like Dogecoin.

This is obvious value to a virtually incorruptible money trail, direct connections to readers, reduced reliance on third party tech companies (such as social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, which have been known to accidentally encourage the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories by promoting so-called “fake news”), and ease of access to financing. However, in addition to these advantages Civil has also billed itself as a way for journalists to fight censorship around the globe. Because changes made to the blockchain are all a matter of public record, third parties such as governments will be unable to alter the information stored in it without notice. In theory, this means no one will be able to prevent these organisations from publishing what they want to publish. However, Civil will first have to deal with baggage inherited from ongoing turmoil and distrust in cryptocurrency markets, and a lack of understanding concerning the underlying technology and processes.