Getting ready for the next level of customer journeys with relay42 automated machine learning (2/2)

We continue our discussion with our machine learning expert, Karlo Sarin, and our Head of Product, Petra Bakker, on the benefits that predictive algorithms can bring to marketing experts. In our previous article, we explained the differences between manual and automated machine learning. In this part, Karlo and Petra continue to open the curtain behind our upcoming AI module for customer journeys. 

AI built for digital teams

As we shared earlier, traditional AI development and deployment are complex and time-consuming. Ideation, experimentation, visualization, demonstration, implementation, configuration, evaluation — and if things don’t work as expected at any stage, data scientists have to go back to the drawing board. 

Now, imagine a ready-made AI-enhanced marketing tool — a product you can connect to your existing systems and use to enhance your marketing strategy immediately. 

Journey AI (JAI), Relay42’s prediction module, brings that vision to life.

“The new AI module will work right out of the box. It will analyze the available data and automatically create machine learning algorithms so it will be a huge time-saver,” says Petra, “It allows digital teams to implement models and use them to optimize customer journeys immediately.

Machine learning algorithms often take months to develop. Relay42’s automated machine learning, on the other hand, is an intelligent generic trainer which can create custom machine learning models in a matter of hours. Its drastically reduced lead time means that you can:

• Deploy new AI-enhanced marketing algorithms quickly
• Try alternative models to see which one performs best

The Relay42 AI module is cost-effective

The development of a traditional AI model can be very expensive. Several data scientists work in a team, and data analysis, coding, and testing can take up to a year to complete. 

The Relay42 AI module will be much more cost-effective as digital experts will be able to: 

• Devote less of your marketing budget to development
• Experiment with ‘next best channel’ (NBC) scenarios in a cost-effective way

“Journey AI will make it easier to look at ‘next best channel’ actions. Most organizations don’t employ data scientists to analyze NBC options because they can’t gauge in advance how big the benefits might be. But an automated model like Journey AI can do the analysis for you — It’s quick, it’s easy and it’s cost-efficient,” says Petra.

Journey AI is Agile

Journey AI will be a simple, powerful tool made to solve marketplace-specific problems. Consumer profiles vary from industry to industry: people looking for an airline ticket, for example, behave differently from people looking for a new car, or a new insurance policy. 

Traditional development methods are time-consuming and far from nimble. Journey AI, on the other hand, will be flexible and agile, so you can incorporate the latest marketplace trends.

When you use Journey AI to craft an AI-enhanced model, you’ll get a machine learning algorithm designed specifically for your business and your industry.

“Because of our generic trainer approach, the potential use cases for Journey AI are virtually unlimited,” says Karlo, “No other marketing platforms use this approach — no other marketing solutions use automated machine learning to create industry-specific models.”

Building a Real-Time Customer Journey with Journey AI

Let’s imagine you want to develop a machine learning model to predict the best ads for a specific consumer demographic. Here’s how that process will work:

• Set your target: Define your model target — conversion, for example, or churn rate.
• Select features: Pick the data streams (web, demographic, conversion etc.) you want to use to create your model.
• Train and deploy: Journey AI creates and trains your machine learning model in a matter of hours. If you’re happy with its accuracy rate, deploy your model.
• Analyze: With the AI module you can see the potential success of the model before deploying it on production.
• Activate: Use your custom model’s predictions to activate audiences and intelligent journeys.

Journey AI: Intelligent Customer Journey Orchestration from Relay42

“Predicting consumer behavior and honing personalization strategy will be typical use cases for Journey AI,” says Petra, “but behavioral clustering is also interesting. People who look for city trips to Amsterdam might also look for trips to Brussels, for example.” 

"Here at Relay42, we are very excited about this new module as it brings our Journey Orchestration solution to a future-proof next level. In the next few months, we will work with a select group of customers to optimize and tweak it, ensuring that our AI models deliver the maximum result in all possible markets and use-cases," adds Petra.

Models that we now focus on are:

• Next best product: What’s the next product we should offer? Which product will re-activate a particular consumer segment?
• Next best channel: Which next channel is likely to be most relevant for this customer?
• Likeness to convert Target visitors or existing customers most likely to convert over a set period of time.
• Search recommendations: Target consumers who are most likely to convert based on behaviors displayed by other consumers.
• Psychographic models: Target customers who exhibit a specific attitude with a specific dynamic message.
• Behavioral clustering: Target visitors or existing customers based on behavioral similarities. 

You’ll be able to use Journey AI to enhance hyper-personalized marketing strategy, too. “What Journey AI will do is make sure that existing hyper-personalized messages are as effective as possible,” says Petra.

“I think there’s real gold in AI. The tricky part is picking the right model-building solution. In a market saturated with buzzwords, Journey AI represents a breakthrough for marketers across the board,” says Karlo.

The new JAI module is in the last stages of development and will shortly be released to a select group of customers.

Get in touch to find out more about Journey AI in advance of its release, and to learn how Relay42 can help you take customer journey orchestration to the next level.

Get in touch