October 11, 2018

R2-D2 can easily overpower an evil galactic empire, but what about spreading The Resistance’s message with a stellar marketing campaign? Artificial intelligence could become the next resource in the fight against the Dark Side for better in-depth analysis and results-based marketing.

Robotic Marketer may not have access to The Force, but it’s the next innovation of marketing strategy for companies who use the program. This AI-based, online system integrates machine learning, data mining and information retrieval and extraction methods to generate high-level marketing strategies for clients. The use of a “robot” saves time, enhances data reports and creates the ability to translate research into real-world marketing methods.

Robotic Marketer founder Mellissah Smith said, “The rise of using AI and software in marketing has been game-changing, and while Robotic Marketer is the first in its space in the world, we have already started stage two, which is the automated implementation of the strategy—once again, primarily AI-based.”

Smith’s company is located at the Atlanta Tech Village, a community of startups that work together to support, connect and inspire entrepreneurs. She has been developing Robotic Marketer’s technology over the last few years and is now using it in-house at Marketing Eye.

“Marketing has changed for the better, and technology has been front and center of that evolution,” Smith said. “Marketing had to change because it was so hit and miss before technology made marketers more accountable and expenditure more effective.”

Robotic Marketer entered into a partnership with Queensland University of Technology (previous winners of the Amazon Robotics Competition) to create this technology. Instead of solely raising money from VCs and investors, Robotic Marketer has turned to crowd funding, asking clients, friends and connections to allow them to write their next 2018-2019 marketing strategies for $1,950. Currently, the company consists of 11 people, and they are hoping to grow that to 50 within the next four months.

Smith, along with her female chief technology architect, is not only paving the way for marketing technology, but also for women in the male-dominated field of artificial intelligence and robotics.

“It is empowering to be a woman that has developed a technology that will change our profession and reshape marketing departments—and 50 percent of the people working on the project are women; they were simply the best people for the job and that’s very satisfying,” she said. “Paving the way for women to back themselves when developing technology, and not looking straight away for investment or having men as co-founders, is necessary.”

The goal of Robotic Marketer’s advanced technology for clients is to not only increase accuracy of marketing strategies and eliminate the use of expensive marketing platforms, but also to accelerate the performance of the entire marketing team. Smith believes that with AI, businesses will get their marketing recommendations in minutes, rather than current methods that can take up to a year.

“The more we feed the robot, the smarter it becomes,” she said. “The more it links with financials, sales and performance, the better a company is able to adapt their strategy and get better bang for their marketing buck. What business doesn’t want the best marketing strategy to work from?”