AI is increasingly being used across many aspects of business, and this includes adverts. This raises the question of whether AI will make these ads any better and whether there should be any concerns.

The personal touch

Ads need to be relevant to have any effect. For this reason, ads such as HTML 5 ads tend to be targeted at a particular demographic, such as students, new parents or the recently retired. This means that the ad budget is not wasted on irrelevant ads.

However, AI could make your HTML 5 ads and other forms of marketing even more personal. It could, for example, allow ads to be targeted directly at women in their thirties who are into keeping fit and are planning their wedding. AI might create ads that understand customers on an individual level, using their favourite colours and songs in the hope that this will result in greater conversion rates.

Is it intrusive?

To create ads that are personalised at this level, the AI will have to make even greater use of customer data. Many customers are already concerned about the amount of data businesses have on them. This may make them hostile to ads that feel too personal.

Ethical concerns

Most companies use data responsibly, but not all will, and this raises questions as to how much personalised targeting is too much. For example, might an ad tempt someone onto a gambling site when they previously had little interest in this? Or might political parties use this data to manipulate people to vote against their interests?