Meet the New Digital CX Gatekeeper

Me: “Hey Siri, delete all emails that aren’t relevant to what I’m interested in.”

Siri: “OK Steve, I have deleted all irrelevant emails and will prevent them from showing up in your inbox from now on. Would you like me to also block ALL future irrelevant content, from any source, on all your devices?

Me: “Yes, and make sure you block irrelevant web content while you’re at it."

Siri: I’m here to protect you, Steve.”

And this is only the beginning. At some point we won’t even have to ask.
Siri and other available AI personal assistants will “auto-magically" manage this for us. If you are a digital marketer, a chill may have just gone up your spine.

The amount of irrelevant content we receive on a daily basis is already overwhelming enough, but when you consider the scale at which IoT connected devices is growing, (estimates of 1 trillion connected devices by 2030 compared to about 20 billion connected devices today, up from a mere 500 million in 2010), we’ll all soon be bombarded with constant alerts, warnings, notifications, announcements, etc. from the things we own and use.

As I mentioned in my last blog, it's likely that at some point virtually every product we own will have a digital component to it (and inherent connection). From wearables to appliances to pets to consumables to car parts to tennis racquets -- virtually everything we have and use in our lives. More connection points means more inbound communications, all clamoring for our immediate attention.

The need for full-time support in managing and prioritizing this continuous deluge of alerts, messages, notifications (and yes, even marketing messages) will skyrocket. And that full-time support will likely reside within our mobile phone. It makes sense. It’s with us at all times, it’s always connected and,  has in fact become the first screen.

Our phone already collects data, behaviors, locations, purchase history, etc., so an AI personal assistant would already have the real-time details of what we're focused on at any given moment. This along with historical information would help guide the decisioning to delete, hold or pass thru prioritized content, constantly learning, improving and adjusting the hierarchies based on our behaviors.

There are  currently 3 flavors of AI personal assistant services:

• Technology-enabled artificial intelligence – (Siri, Google Now, Cortana, and soon to be released Viv.)

• Human enabled, where people respond to your concierge requests (Magic, Operator, TaskRabbit)

• Hybrids –  some combination of the two (Facebook M)

There’s little doubt these AI personal assistants will become an integral part of our lives, especially as connection points continue to increase and the technology gets more intelligent and useful.

Steve Kellogg
Digital Marketing Leader,  Strategist and Technologist