“How do we shorten the space between a signal that we get, say in behavioral data that we see show up either in an app or on a website, and then churn through all of the possibilities of what we could present, apply algorithms to determine what is the next best offer and next best experience?” asks Adam Justis, Director of Marketing at Adobe Experience Cloud. “Then how do we present that in a way that actually feels if not real-time pretty close to it? That would not be possible without artificial intelligence.”

Adam Justis, Director of Marketing at Adobe Experience Cloud, discusses how AI and machine learning are enabling near real-time shopping personalization in an interview with theCUBE at Adobe Imagine 2019 in Las Vegas:

Role of AI in Offering a Personalized Shopping Experience is Core

You definitely have the data piece and then the content piece. I would also add how the complexity of all that has certainly exceeded the capacity to manage this in a singular sort of engagement with a customer, let alone at scale millions of times a day. So the role of artificial intelligence and machine learning now is so core. It’s sort of the gearbox that’s turning at the center of the data on one hand and the content and elements, the assets, the offers, on the other that allows for ultimately the coalescing of those things and then the delivery of an experience worth having.

That’s the component pieces that we’re seeing at play and Adobe’s motivation in going into that space. At Adobe when we announced our intent to acquire Magento, we were talking about how does Adobe facilitate or help every experience become shoppable and every moment personal? Really that was a claim we couldn’t make without the Magento piece. It is absolutely a hand in glove relationship especially as we’ve all evolved as consumers.

Advancements in AI Are Going From the Absurd to the Very Real

To imagine that we would be subscribing to socks or that we could one-click purchase just about anything, you need the technology that can keep pace with the expectations. That’s what it’s all about. So many of those experiences that Adobe is intent on enabling our customers to present culminate in a transaction of some sort. Magento is absolutely not only the icing on the cake but it’s also so integral. It’s becoming a fundamental or elemental part of what we’re trying to accomplish.

That (personalized experience) is one of the things that I absolutely love about customer experience management or CXM. In a way I kind of love the absurdity of it. When you think of the scale, to say something like we’re going to make every experience shoppable and every moment personal, to imagine that that’s possible is almost absurd. But when you introduce the advancements that we’re seeing in artificial intelligence and machine learning now it’s literally going from the absurd or the realm of science fiction into very real. That’s what Adobe is looking at.

Without AI Real-Time Personalization Would Not Be Possible

How can we literally take some sort of statement like we’re going to personalize experiences across the customer journey and we’re going to do it at scale and in real-time? Really, unless you’re considering how we’re going to meet the needs of the customer in the moment that they’re expressing that need then it’s really moot. It is absolutely artificial intelligence and machine learning that we’re seeing expressed now across the Adobe Experience Cloud that is making that happen in multiple ways. One of the ways would be simply by shortening that span between the latent genius that marketers are walking around in their heads and actual execution. How can we take some of the friction out of the workflows that allow them to translate their ideas into offers?

How do we shorten the space between a signal that we get, say in behavioral data that we see show up either in an app or on a website, and then churn through all of the possibilities of what we could present, apply algorithms to determine what is the next best offer and next best experience? Then how do we present that in a way that actually feels if not real-time pretty close to it? That would not be possible without artificial intelligence. At Adobe we do that through a product called Adobe Sensei.