Four reasons why machine learning is advertising's next big thing

"Let's start at the beginning: machine learning is a type of artificial intelligence that gives computers the ability to do things like diagnose problems, predict things, control variables and outcomes, and plan things - all without being explicitly programmed to do each of those things. It is fueled by algorithms, and these algorithms teach themselves to grow and change when they're exposed to new data."

"You can think of machine learning the same way you think about human learning. A child watches a TV documentary about lions in Africa, witnessing a pack of lions brutally hunt and devour other animals. Some time later, he visits a tiger sanctuary in the US and through inference from his previous exposure to the documentary, understands that big animals with sharp teeth are potentially dangerous and so consciously stays a safe distance away from the tigers."

"Even the words 'machine learning' carry a lot of baggage for people. They feel foreign, scientific, and hard to understand. And for many professionals, the phrase still sounds like highly technical jargon. It certainly lacks the clear definition that would lead to a marketer feeling they can use it in everyday, real world applications. If machine learning is about applying new data and information to future scenarios, you can probably already see the wide and impressive applications it has in the real world."

Machine learning is being used to supplement human capabilities across fields such as art, music, customer service, video games, financial trading, news reporting, and advertising. The term often feels foreign and overly technical to many professionals, which can hinder practical adoption in marketing. Machine learning is a form of artificial intelligence that enables computers to diagnose problems, predict outcomes, control variables, and plan without explicit programming by adapting algorithms to new data. Human learning analogies demonstrate how prior exposure informs future inference. Data-driven machine learning applications are broad and are beginning to change how marketers target and deliver ads.

Read at The Drum