Why Google’s Search Generative Experience Matters to Advertisers

Why Google’s Search Generative Experience Matters to Advertisers

by Jessica Skopek Google

Google made its strongest commitment to AI to date at its annual developer conference, Google/IO. The company announced a number of changes to its core products as well as new capabilities powered by AI, especially generative AI. They include:

Bard Available for Everyone

Google’s Bard AI is a powerful tool that can be used for a variety of tasks, including browsing the internet, searching for information from photos, writing code, and working with other apps. Bard is available to everyone, and it does not require a waitlist.

Bard Plugins Are Here

Bard plugins are a new way to extend the capabilities of Bard. There are currently a number of plugins available, including plugins for OpenTable, Kayak, Spotify, Walmart, and Indeed. These plugins allow you to use Bard to do things like make restaurant reservations, book flights, create playlists, and order groceries.

Gmail Is AI-Powered

Google’s new “Help me write” feature in Gmail uses AI to help you write emails. Simply type in a one-line prompt, and AI will automatically generate the rest of the email for you. You can then refine the email as needed.

Google Photos Get a Dose of AI

The new “Magic Editor” feature uses AI to help you edit your photos. You can use Magic Editor to change the lighting, remove objects, and adjust your position in photos. Magic Editor makes it easy to edit your photos like a pro.

Search Gets an Upgrade with the Search Generative Experience

But perhaps the most significant change: the launch of a new search feature, search generative experience (SGE). SGE uses generative AI to share answers to queries in the form of complete “snapshots” of content instead of providing a few rich snippets and links to websites for more information. Search can unfold as a series of questions and follow-up questions that the searcher refines (similar to ChatGPT prompt).

At the event, Google’s vice president of of Search, Liz Reid, demonstrated SGE by searching for “why is sourdough bread still so popular?”. The search results appeared almost immediately, and above them was a rectangular orange section that pulsed and glowed with the phrase “Generative AI is experimental.”

After a few seconds, the glowing section was replaced by an AI-generated summary of the search results. The summary included several paragraphs about the taste of sourdough bread, its prebiotic abilities, and other factors that contribute to its popularity. To the right of the summary were three links to websites that Reid said “corroborated” the information in the summary.

On Google’s blog, Reid provided even more context. She shared the example of a searcher asking, “What’s better for a family with kids under 3 and a dog, bryce canyon or arches.” Normally, a searcher might break this one question down into smaller ones, sort through the information available, and start to piece things together themselves. With generative AI, search can do some of that heavy lifting for you.

When SGE becomes available, searchers will see an AI-powered snapshot of key information to consider, with links to dig deeper.

Google Search

Below this snapshot, you’ll see suggested next steps, including the ability to ask follow-up questions, like “How long to spend at Bryce Canyon with kids?” When you tap on these, it takes you to a new conversational mode, where you can ask Google more about the topic you’re exploring.

Context will be carried over from question to question, to help you more naturally continue your exploration. You’ll also find helpful jumping-off points to web content and a range of perspectives that you can dig into.

How Will Ads Work in SGE?

Google said that SGE will feature search ads from the start. Advertisers will not be able to opt out of showing ads on the new search experience, at least not initially. Google will be closely monitoring the performance of ad placements and experiences during this experimental phase.

SGE ads will be displayed in dedicated ad positions and slots, and will be labeled as “sponsored ads.” Google said it will continue to test and adapt ads so that they provide relevant and useful results for searchers.

Here are some additional details about how SGE ads will work:

  • Ads will be displayed in a variety of formats, including text, images, and videos.
  • Ads will be targeted based on a variety of factors, including the search query, the user’s interests, and the user’s location.
  • Ads will be subject to Google’s advertising policies, which are designed to ensure that ads are relevant, useful, and non-misleading.

SGE ads will be a “native part” of the new search experience. The company believes that ads can be a valuable tool for helping users find the information they need, and that SGE ads will be no exception. Here is a screenshot of ads in the desktop user experience of SGE:

Ads in Google Search

As Google Search evolves with the introduction of the SGE, it will be important to track how your ads perform in this new environment. However, as SGE is still in its experimental phase, you will not be able to immediately track how your ads perform differently in SGE versus the old Google Search.

The generative AI feature is still under development, but it has the potential to change the way people search for information online. By providing users with a concise and informative summary of the search results, the feature can help people find information quickly and easily. Only time will tell how SGE ads will be received by users. However, Google is confident that the new search experience will provide a more relevant and useful search experience for everyone.

Contact True Interactive

At True Interactive, we advocate on behalf of our clients. We are monitoring these developments closely and assessing how to incorporate conversational AI. Contact us to learn how we can help you succeed in all forms of digital advertising.

Photo by Solen Feyissa on Unsplash

Is Search Ready for Conversational AI?

Is Search Ready for Conversational AI?

by Mark Smith Uncategorized

The brave new world of AI-powered search has hit a speed bump.

During the week of February 6, both Google and Microsoft announced they were developing new search capabilities that incorporate conversational AI, or chatbots that answer searchers’ queries with detailed, informative answers. This interface would provide an alternative to the search engines interface we are familiar with today, in which users need to click on to web links and read short snippets of content to find answers to their queries.

Microsoft said that its Bing search engine was using the same AI technology that powers the wildly popular ChatGPT chatbot created by OpenAI. (Microsoft has a multi-billion dollar investment in OpenAI.) Google said it was about to unveil Bard, a chatbot with similar AI-fueled capabilities. Bard was based on AI developed by Google for quite some time.

Both these Big Tech companies were responding to OpenAI releasing ChatGPT for public use on November 30, 2022. Since that date, ChatGPT had become the fastest-growing app in history.

Google didn’t outright release Bard – the company demo’d the product that week and said an independent party of reviewers was vetting the product before its ultimate public release. Microsoft started to make Bing’s chat interface available in limited preview mode.

At first, both companies received generally favorable attention for showing how rapidly two Big Tech companies could bring to market a new way to search. But then the problems began:

Definitely not a good look for conversational AI!

By February 16, things had gotten so bad that The Atlantic magazine was declaring “AI search is a disaster.”

In response, Microsoft said that these types of incidents are to be expected. Microsoft said, “The only way to improve a product like this, where the user experience is so much different than anything anyone has seen before, is to have people like you using the product and doing exactly what you all are doing. Your feedback about what you’re finding valuable and what you aren’t, and what your preferences are for how the product should behave, are so critical at this nascent stage of development.”

Microsoft also announced that it will begin limiting the number of conversations allowed per user with Bing’s new chatbot feature.

Meanwhile, Google has asked employees to improve Bard by rewriting answers for topics that employees know well – a human-in-the-loop approach in which people stay involved as supervisors of the development of AI products as well as the editing of AI-generated content.

So, what now?

Well, nothing really changes for businesses at the moment. Google has not rolled out Bard. Bing is still in preview mode. Clearly, there is work to be done. The bad press suffered by Google and Microsoft simply underscores how rapidly these companies are moving. From the standpoint of building public trust, it sure looks like they would have been better off taking more time before starting to take these products closer to market.

Conversational AI is coming to search. These products did not drop out of the sky. Sooner or later, this interface was coming. It happened too soon for Google and Microsoft to escape some reputational damage. But the big picture is that the industry is more aware now of how the search experience is evolving, warts and all.

As we’ve recommended in previous posts, we suggest that businesses watch the developments closely and experiment with conversational AI (as everyone is doing with ChatGPT right now). It is important to become familiar with the ways these tools function, including the way ChatGPT can generate content (known as generative AI). This is no time to ignore the phenomenon.

At True Interactive, we are staying in close contact with Google and Microsoft and will report developments as we learn about them.

Contact True Interactive

To succeed with online advertising, contact True Interactive. Read about some of our client work here.

Photo by Om siva Prakash on Unsplash

Is a ChatGPT Killer Coming from Google?

Is a ChatGPT Killer Coming from Google?

by Mark Smith Artificial Intelligence Google

It looks like the AI arms race is heating up.

Google is expected to announce soon the launch of a competitor to ChatGPT, the generative AI tool that has shaken the technology and business world.

ChatGPT is the product of OpenAI, the company that produced Dall-E, which uses AI to create images. ChatGPT is one of many chatbots designed to respond to queries from people by providing richer, more detailed, and more human-sounding answers than their predecessors. The incredibly slick bot uses AI to do everything from write copy to answer search queries to write code.

Some technology/business watchers have speculated that ChatGPT is a threat to Google Search. That’s because ChatCPGT responds to queries with a single answer that synthesizes information, which could upend how Google Search provides answers with links to information. Moreover, OpenAI is receiving deep funding from Google competitor Microsoft, which is incorporating the tool in its products, including, reportedly, Bing Search.

Well, Google has not taken the rise of ChatGPT lightly. Google’s parent Alphabet announced its quarterly earnings recently, and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said that Google is working on its own form of smart search. He said that “very soon people will be able to interact directly with our newest, most powerful language models as a companion to Search in experimental and innovative ways.”

Apparently “very soon” is almost here. On February 8, Google is hosting an event on YouTube, which will revolve around “using the power of AI to reimagine how people search for, explore and interact with information, making it more natural and intuitive than ever before to find what you need.”

Releasing an answer to ChatGPT is not far-fetched. Google has contended that it has been developing AI-powered search technology for quite some time but is not ready to share it publicly. Examples of Google’s AI-driven products include a chatbot language model called LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications), an image-generation AI called Imagen, and MusicLM, which translates text to music.

But when OpenAI seized the narrative about generative AI by releasing ChatGPT in November 2022, reportedly Google went into “Code Red” mode and began fast tracking the development of various AI products.

Google has reportedly asked employees to test potential ChatGPT competitors, including “Apprentice Bard,” which makes it possible ask questions and receive detailed answers similar to ChatGPT. Details about Apprentice Bard’s functionality were leaked to CNBC, which reported:

Apprentice Bard looks similar to ChatGPT: Employees can enter a question in a dialog box and get a text answer, then give feedback on the response. Based on several responses viewed by CNBC, Apprentice Bard’s answers can include recent events, a feature ChatGPT doesn’t have yet.

Meanwhile, recently it was reported that Google has invested $300 million in AI startup Anthropic, which is testing a rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Anthropic’s language model assistant, Claude, hasn’t yet been released to the public, but the startup told Bloomberg it planned to expand access to the chatbot “in the coming months.”

One way or another, Google is gearing up to respond – although the impact of a chat-powered AI tool on Google’s paid search business remains unclear.

At True Interactive, we are following these developments closely. We already use Google’s AI-powered ad products. Based on our experiences with AI, we strongly advise that businesses experiment with these tools carefully.

We also recommend that businesses keep people involved in managing AI (or any technology). People are needed more than ever to ensure that AI does its job well. For instance, our experience has consistently shown that automated ads powered by AI underperform without people involved to monitor and modulate them when necessary. The same is true of generative AI. These tools sure sound confident when they present information, but they make mistakes, and they are notoriously biased. They are nowhere near the point of being self-sufficient.

We’ll follow the developments from Google and report back on our blog.

Contact True Interactive

To succeed in the ever-changing world of online advertising, contact True Interactive. Read about some of our client work here.

Would ChatGPT from OpenAI Help or Harm Bing Search?

Would ChatGPT from OpenAI Help or Harm Bing Search?

by Mark Smith Search

It looks like Microsoft is going all-in with ChatGPT, the generative artificial intelligence (AI) tool that is taking the business and technology world by storm. What are the implications?

News about Microsoft

ChatGPT is a chatbot powered by AI. It can provide answers to complex questions with lightning speed conciseness, and creativity – and in a very conversational way. ChatGPT is the product of OpenAI, the company that produced Dall-E, which uses AI to create images. ChatGPT is one of many chatbots designed to respond to queries from people by providing richer, more detailed, and more human-sounding answers than their predecessors.

ChatGPT caused a huge stir after OpenAI released a beta version to the public on November 30, 2022, so that people would use it and give feedback to improve the product. It proved to be so slick and so intelligent that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said ChatGPT achieved one million users in less than a week after its public launch.

As we have blogged, ChatGPT can answer queries so eloquently and completely that some industry watchers have speculated that it might disrupt online search – specifically the way search answers queries largely by linking to other sources of content rather than sharing answers directly to the query.

Google reportedly has issued a “code red” to improve its own AI capabilities as a result. But Microsoft has been celebrating. That’s because the company has been an investor (to the tune of $3 billion) in OpenAI since 2019. OpenAI’s success is Microsoft’s success.

The $3 billion has paid for the huge amounts of computing power that OpenAI needed to build the chatbot. The investment has also meant that Microsoft can rapidly build and deploy new products based on the technology. And, it sounds like Microsoft is ready to do just that. Microsoft is reportedly investing $10 billion in OpenAI to give the company even more computing power. In return, Microsoft is:

  • Exploring the use of ChatGPT in its Office software (including Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook) to improve efficiency and productivity.

This is pretty heady stuff!

Implications

Let’s take a closer look at why Microsoft might incorporate ChatGPT into Bing. Reasons include:

  • Making search easier. As I noted above, generative AI could potentially change the way search engines present answers in search. Requiring searchers to find answers to their questions by clicking on links is a more labor-intensive process than responding to search queries with a single answer that synthesizes information. And on top of that, a smart chatbot can answer more complex questions. Wouldn’t you love it if you could ask a search engine, “Please tell me the fastest way to drive to Chicago, and by the way what are the highest rated Airbnbs for under $200 a night and close to a great steakhouse that serves Kobe beef?” – and have a complete answer delivered to you in a few seconds? That’s what smart chatbots promise to do.
  • Competing with Google. Google is easily the most dominant search engine in the world, commanding 80 percent market share. The company has a generative AI app of its own. But Google isn’t going to release that for the public to toy with largely because Google doesn’t roll that way. LaMDA, the name of Google’s own chatbot,  is in R&D mode, and, as such, it makes mistakes. If Google were release a mistake-prone bot to the public, Google could undermine its own credibility. OpenAI does not have this problem. The company’s model is to test and learn publicly. OpenAI is willing to generate street cred by getting to market faster than Google. And Microsoft reaps the benefits as both an investor and early adopter, which is where Bing comes into play. As The Verge reported, “Both Google and Bing already surface relevant information from links at the top of many search queries, but Google’s knowledge panels are particularly widespread when it comes to searching for information about people, places, organizations, and things.  Microsoft’s use of ChatGPT-like functionality could help Bing rival Google’s Knowledge Graph, a knowledge base that Google uses to serve up instant answers that are regularly updated from crawling the web and user feedback. If Microsoft is ambitious, though, it could even go much further, offering many new types of AI-based functionality.”

But there are also potential downsides, such as:

  • A threat to Microsoft advertising. I recently discussed how ChatGPT could threaten Google’s search advertising business. Google needs people to click on ads that appear next to search results in order to make money – and those ads include sponsored results. What happens when someone’s search query is answered completely and perfectly without anyone needing to click on any links? This question also applies to Bing’s ad business. Bing generated almost as much advertising revenue as Twitter and Snap combined in 2021. It remains to be seen how Bing would incorporate ChatGPT while protecting its own moat.
Bing Advertising

What Businesses Should Do

  • Experiment with ChatGPT (or the chatbot of your choice). Understand how they work. Get comfortable with the conversational way that ChatGPT answers questions. If you’ve invested in voice search, you are probably doing this already. How might this conversational format affect your own approach to online advertising? A number of practitioners are publishing in-depth posts about using ChatGPT as a tool for search engine optimization. (Here’s an example.) Before you do, know the risks, including the ones we have discussed in this post.
  • Don’t change how you do business. ChatGPT is fraught with many other issues such as potential copyright infringement. It’s not ready for prime time by any stretch.
  • If you are a Microsoft advertising partner, watch events closely. (We are doing that for our clients.) If Microsoft does indeed roll out a version of Bing that includes ChatGPT, ask your account representative how they are managing against the downsides of this tool.

Contact True Interactive

To succeed with online advertising, contact True Interactive. Read about some of our client work here.

Is OpenAI’s ChatGPT a Threat to Google?

Is OpenAI’s ChatGPT a Threat to Google?

by Mark Smith Google

Could a chatbot replace Google Search?

That’s what a lot of technology watchers are asking since the public release of ChatGPT, a chatbot powered by artificial intelligence.

ChatGPT is the product of OpenAI, the company that produced Dall-E, which uses AI to create images. ChatGPT is one of many chatbots designed to respond to queries from people by providing richer, more detailed, and more human-sounding answers than their predecessors.

ChatGPT caused a huge stir after OpenAI released a beta version to the public on November 30 so that people would use it and give feedback that will improve the chatbot. It proved to be so slick and so intelligent that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said ChatGPT achieved one million users in less than a week after its public launch.

It didn’t take long for journalists and pundits to test how well the chatbot would respond to the kind of challenging questions that people ask via Google Search. After all, for the most part, Google answers questions by providing links to other sources of information. This requires the user to do more work by clicking through the links for more detail. But ChatCPGT responds with a single answer that synthesizes information. Writer Parmy Olson wrote on Bloomberg:

I went through my own Google search history over the past month and put 18 of my Google queries into ChatGPT, cataloguing the answers. I then went back and ran the queries through Google once more, to refresh my memory. The end result was, in my judgment, that ChapGPT’s answer was more useful than Google’s in 13 out of the 18 examples.

“Useful” is of course subjective. What do I mean by the term? In this case, answers that were clear and comprehensive. A query about whether condensed milk or evaporated milk was better for pumpkin pie during Thanksgiving sparked a detailed (if slightly verbose) answer from ChatGPT that explained how condensed milk would lead to a sweeter pie. (Naturally, that was superior.) Google mainly provided a list of links to recipes I’d have to click around, with no clear answer.

That underscores ChatGPT’s prime threat to Google down the line. It gives a single, immediate response that requires no further scanning of other websites. In Silicon Valley speak, that is a “frictionless” experience, something of a holy grail when online consumers overwhelmingly favor services that are quick and easy to use.

But, wait a minute.

Doesn’t Google also have a chatbot? Yes, it does.

The Google LaMDA chatbot does what ChatGPT does. But Google isn’t going to release that for the public to toy with largely because Google doesn’t roll that way. LaMDA is in R&D mode, and, as such, it makes mistakes. If Google were release a mistake-prone bot to the public, Google could undermine its own credibility.

OpenAI does not have this problem. The company’s model is to test and learn publicly. OpenAI is willing to generate street cred by getting to market faster than Google.

And to be clear: ChatGPT makes mistakes and fabricates answers. It’s also under fire for providing biased information. But OpenAI released the tool publicly to unearth these problems in order to fix them, and no doubt ChatGPT will get better.

But Google has another problem: how does a chat interface get monetized? As writer Alex Kantrowitz wrote,

Even if chatbots were to fix their accuracy issues, Google would still have a business-model problem to contend with. The company makes money when people click ads next to search results, and it’s awkward to fit ads into conversational replies. Imagine receiving a response and then immediately getting pitched to go somewhere else—it feels slimy and unhelpful. Google thus has little incentive to move us beyond traditional search, at least not in a paradigm-shifting way, until it figures out how to make the money aspect work. In the meantime, it’ll stick with the less impressive Google Assistant.

The fact that Google is even developing a chatbot demonstrates that the company is looking beyond the current search interface. ChatGPT won’t “beat” Google. But it will likely accelerate Google’s embrace of chat as a search interface.

But how should businesses respond to all this?

  • First off, experiment with ChatGPT (or the chatbot of your choice). Understand how they work. Get comfortable with the conversational way that ChatGPT answers questions. If you’ve invested in voice search, you are probably doing this already. How might this conversational format affect your own approach to online advertising?
  • But don’t change how you do business. ChatGPT is fraught with many other issues such as potential copyright infringement. It’s not ready for prime time by any stretch.

The headline is this: if you’re all in with Google as an advertising platform, ChatGPT shouldn’t change your budget for 2023. But do spend time with it while you can do so for free. The time will likely come soon when OpenAI will turn ChatGPT into a commercial tool,

Contact True Interactive

To succeed with online advertising, contact True Interactive. Read about some of our client work here.

Get Ready for AI Everywhere

Get Ready for AI Everywhere

by Mark Smith Artificial Intelligence

In 2019, artificial intelligence (AI) will make digital advertising more targeted, thanks in part to the efforts of Google. But marketers will need to invest more time and effort to make AI pay off.

It’s clear that AI is essential to Google’s growth. In February 2018, CEO Sundar Pichai said AI is more profound than electricity or fire. A few months later, he published a statement of AI principles in which he outlined seven ways Google will use AI (and ways that Google will not). The post focused on the importance of using AI for social good. Pichai did not mention using AI for advertising, but Google is certainly applying AI to make advertising smarter.

For instance, in 2018, Google launched a number of products that use machine learning (a form of AI) to improve online advertising performance. I recently blogged about one such product, responsive search ads. As I noted, responsive search ads make it possible for advertisers to enter multiple headlines (up to 15) and descriptions (up to four) when creating a search ad. Then Google Ads applies machine learning to automatically test different combinations and learn which combinations perform best. In addition, per Google, advertisers can add a third headline and second description to your text ads, and your descriptions can have up to 90 characters.

2018 was just a warm-up for what’s to come in 2019. Businesses demand more accountability and ROI from their online ad spend, and AI does just that. I expect Google will focus more on using AI to make YouTube more effective. Google has already injected AI into YouTube with features such as maximize lift, which is a smart bidding tool that automatically adjusts bids at auction time to maximize the impact a company’s video ads have on brand perception. Maximize lift is supposed to help businesses reach people who are most likely to consider their brand after seeing a video ad.

One concern we often hear from advertisers is that YouTube is not as useful for direct-response campaigns as it is for brand building. In 2019, we’ll see the emergence of tools that do a better job targeting video ad content to people who are in shopping mode and ready to buy as Google makes YouTube more of a lower-funnel platform.

AI will make online advertising better. But AI will also require marketers to invest more time and energy to make it pay off, as I discussed in my post about responsive search ads. It’s important that businesses understand its uses and requirements. For more insight, contact True Interactive. We help businesses maximize the value of their online advertising and understand where the industry is headed.

Image source: https://pixabay.com/en/artificial-intelligence-robot-ai-ki-2167835/

Retailers Ramp up Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality

Retailers Ramp up Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality

by Héctor Ariza Retail

Last March we wrote about the increasingly important role that technologies like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) have in the marketing field. Since then, major businesses have continued to apply AR and VR to support a number of functions. Retailers have been especially keen to use these technologies for shopping. For example:

  • To capitalize on the uptick in mobile holiday shopping, Macy’s has launched an AR app that lets shoppers see pieces of furniture virtually within their homes, following the successful pilot of a VR experience to make furniture shopping more immersive. According to Macy’s, shoppers using VR headsets to view Macy’s furniture had more than a 60 percent greater average order value than non-virtual reality furniture shoppers.
  • Walmart recently announced the launch of new AR scanning tool in its iOS app to help customers with product comparisons. Unlike traditional barcode scanners (which allow price comparison on one item at a time), Walmart’s AR scanner can be aimed at multiple products on store shelves to view details on pricing and customer ratings.

Some studies predict the global economic impact of virtual and augmented reality to reach $29.5 billion. Although this number may sound overly optimistic, I do believe there is a lot of value in these technologies yet to be exploited. Both VR and AR have the potential to be among the most valuable tools in any marketer’s arsenal simply because they offer intimate and engaging experiences. They allow brands to build a more profound connection with consumers by offering personalized, interactive experiences. In addition, when combined with artificial intelligence, these technologies have the potential to help make life easier by empowering users to take immediate action (like completing a custom order on the spot).

VR and AR Defined

Even though they may look similar, VR and AR are different:

  • Virtual reality: refers to any kind of experience that places the user “in” another world or dimension usually by way of a headset with special lenses.
  • Augmented reality: the term we use when we place content “into” the real world by using cameras (e.g., Pokémon GO)

Although some brands have rushed to experiment with augmented reality on social media platforms, others are using AR and VR to support commerce. One of the cleverest campaigns was that one from the Spanish fast fashion retailer, Zara.

Although their storefronts may have appeared empty to the naked eye, they came to life when people pointed their phone’s camera at the shop’s window (or in-store podiums) after downloading the Zara AR App. This app enabled users to see seven-to-twelve-second sequences of models Léa Julian and Fran Summers wearing selected looks from the brand’s Studio Collection and allowed the viewers to instantly order any of the looks shown at the touch of a button.

 

Tommy Hilfiger is another example of a retail brand that has also deployed AR technology to improve the shopping experience in their stores. By placing digitally enhanced mirrors inside the fitting rooms, Tommy Hilfiger gave customers instant access to information like styles, models, sizes and colors available both in-store and online. The experience also allowed shoppers to request a new size or color without leaving the room and suggested other products to browse. These smart mirrors made product discovery much simpler and promoted sales by helping users find the right style.

iMirror for Retail from Pieter on Vimeo.

But the business potential seems almost unlimited when AR/VR is combined with artificial intelligence. An example is Salesforce’s Einstein AI technology, which was subject to practical testing along with Coca-Cola. As noted in this article from Diginomica:

Einstein was trained to recognize, identify and count the varieties and quantities of Coca-Cola bottles stored in one of its cooler display cabinets, simply by analyzing a photo taken with an iPad or iPhone. […] Einstein can then take that stock count and combine the information with predictions based on known seasonal variations, weather information from Watson [the IBM AI system], and upcoming promotions, to automatically calculate a restocking order.

There is no doubt about the potential benefits of new technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality and artificial intelligence for both consumers and businesses. In the ever-changing and dynamic world of digital marketing, it would be safe to expect tech giants like Google, Amazon, and Facebook to soon develop and introduce new features that accommodate for these technologies in their portfolio of products and services.