Artificial intelligence (AI) offers major opportunities for brands and consumers even as it poses the “ultimate test for privacy”, according to a paper in the Journal of Advertising Research (JAR).

Jan Kietzmann (University Of Victoria/British Columbia), Jeannette Paschen (KTH Royal Institute Of Technology/Stockholm), and Emily Treen (Simon Fraser University/Burnaby, British Columbia) admitted that AI has a “dark side” in their “Speaker’s Box” article for the journal.

While not dismissing the concerns about this technology, they looked at the “bright side” of how it can help consumers and brands alike by generating relevant ads in an environment that protects privacy.

A case in point: “Marketers now have the ability to identify their most valuable customers,” they wrote in Artificial Intelligence in Advertising: How Marketers Can Leverage Artificial Intelligence Along the Consumer Journey.

The authors continued: “Known as ‘propensity modeling’, this AI application crunches big data to assess customer lifetime value, likelihood of re-engagement, propensity to churn, and other key performance measures of interest.

“Once they know these metrics, advertisers can craft personalized communication as part of their customer-relationship management campaign to encourage the desired behavior, adjusting the communication during the campaign flight on the basis of the customer’s response.”

Moreover, they contended, “AI has shifted the way advertisers understand and guide consumers. In the future, new ways of consumer-generated data mining will drive consumer insight, and AI will become the ultimate test for privacy.

“With the help of machine learning, advertisers will be able to collect consumer data from many sources imperceptibly, combine those data, and mine them to deliver on-the-spot consumer insights.”

Sourced from Journal of Advertising Research