What is IBM’s Watson

This entry will review the state of the art in AI, with a particular focus on applications in marketing. Based on the current capabilities of AI in marketing, the author's explore the new rules of engagement. Rather than simply targeting consumers, the marketing effort will also be directed at the algorithms controlling the consumers' virtual personal assistants (VPAs). Rather than exploiting human desires and weakness, marketing will need to focus on meeting the user's actual needs. The level of customer satisfaction will be even more critical as marketing will need to focus on establishing and maintaining a reputation in competition with those of similar offerings in the marketplace. This entry concludes with thoughts on the long-term implications, exploring the role of customer trust in the adoption of AI agents, the security requirements for agents and the ethical implications of access to such agents.