Increased Speed to Market With Cost Savings? Emotion AI is Your Secret Weapon

In an already digitally expanding marketplace, the last year-and-a-half kicked the transformation into overdrive. The ability to adapt or launch at lightning speed has become the charge for established companies and startups alike. As marketing budgets continue to recover from the 2020 fallout, the ability to measure consumer engagement quickly and respond to it effectively will be vital to maximizing return on investment.

To remain competitive, marketers need to access a deeper understanding of both existing and potential customers. Automation is vital, but traditional data analytics are mostly limited to measuring behavioral touchpoints. By employing emotion artificial intelligence (AI), brands can gain insight into a consumer’s subconscious, instinctive responses without the behavioral filters that come with making a prompted selection or answering a survey question.

Actionable Feedback

Whether used to gauge interest in a product or to test any number of marketing elements — design, messaging, in-store positioning — market research relies on consumer feedback. In a recent study, almost every company surveyed reported using customer feedback to make business decisions, with 83 percent of marketers using the input to conduct market research and 67 percent planning to increase market research spend in the next year. As a critical component of the business ecosystem, customer response data provides actionable insights that can make or break a marketer’s ROI.

As part of a go-to-market strategy for a new service or product, the stakes are arguably even higher. Brands need as detailed a road map as possible when launching into new territory, and consumer feedback provides critical insights to inform that strategy. No longer is the goal to push a product out to customers via traditional marketing media; for brands to compete in today’s multichannel landscape, customer experience is what drives repeat business and, ultimately, brand loyalty.

AI and machine learning have been instrumental in streamlining those efforts, particularly in customer service, where a positive experience goes a long way in building brand trust. Automation in customer interaction has been steadily climbing; even a pre-pandemic survey found that 37 percent of organizations reported integrating AI into their business in some form. With digital transformation at an all-time high, that number is climbing.

While adopting a more AI-enabled, data-driven approach to delivering positive customer experiences eliminates much of the guesswork involved, there's more that can be utilized. Specifically, emotion AI can go even further, helping companies connect with users at the deepest level possible.

Thinking vs. Feeling

Consumer feedback can be action-based, as in the case of shifting purchase behavior or other surface-level data. It can also be solicited via surveys or by enlisting focus group input. Both methods require time, either to await an observable pattern or to create a full-cycle testing scenario. In today’s fast-paced digital marketplace, real-time insights are critical to gain actionable data quickly.

Given that no response to a brand, product or ad happens more quickly than an emotional one, emotion AI is the key to harnessing the power of that instinctive, unfiltered feedback. In doing so, companies can use deeply personal insights to run ad campaigns, deliver product experiences, and share messaging that resonates with customers.

Less Time, Reduced Cost

Today’s marketplace is a noisy one, where consumers see more than 4,000 ads a day. By utilizing emotion AI, brands can tap into the subconscious behavior that drives 95 percent of purchase decisions. When emotion is interpreted with behavioral data, companies can learn how customers interact with their brands and why. A more complete picture forms quickly, humanizing the experience to show product developers which features elicit the most excitement and engagement in users or cause skepticism. This sort of detail early in the go-to-market plan is a game-changer in terms of timing and expense. It also works to avoid opportunity cost post-launch; brands that fail to communicate effectively with consumers have been shown to deliver nearly 40 percent fewer conversions.

While there will always be a place for traditional feedback channels, including surveys, polls and focus groups, today’s digital marketplace demands better. Emotion AI is the secret weapon in the effort to streamline development, accelerate the go-to-market cycle, and maximize ROI.

Ranjan Kumar is CEO of Entropik Tech, a world leader in building Emotion AI tech to understand human emotions by facial expressions, eye gaze, voice tonality, and brainwaves.