The outbreak of Novel Coronavirus in China has resulted in a halt to any and all the outdoor activities worldwide. This year has been challenging for marketers all over the world, and as a result, working from home has become the new normal. The lockdown has played a debilitating role in our psychological as well as physiological well-being due to the lack of socializing and daily office routine. As a result, people across the globe are using social media sites as a way to promote positivity, including many celebrities.
Speaking of positivity, amidst the scary situation all over the world due to the pandemic, innovations in the field of Artificial Intelligence are bringing us a ray of hope.
What is Artificial Intelligence?
Artificial Intelligence is a branch of computer science that is capable of performing tasks that require human intelligence typically. AI has strongly shaped our daily lives in many ways and helped shape our lifestyles without us even realizing it.
How Social Media is Getting Benefitted From AI During COVID?
Even before the pandemic, social media has been a part of our lives which was overflowing with engagement from users all over the world. During the lockdown, social media had become the only source of entertainment and a means of keeping in touch with each other. While the social media influencers have always kept us entertained through their content, companies have decided on making the most out of this engagement with the help of AI.
Expanding Social Media Networks Through Recommendation Engines
After following someone on social media, you may have noticed a list of suggested people to connect with. This customized list is created by recommendation engines, which filters information based on the user’s preference with the help of Machine Learning. When you engage with other social media accounts and posts, the recommendation engine records your past activity and interprets them in the form of data to predict a list of accounts you may be interested in connecting to. It also works in professional network sites like LinkedIn, Meetup, and Handshake.
Entertainment and Efficiency through Image Recognition
If you have posted group photos on social media platforms like Facebook, you must have noticed that the faces get automatically recognized and could be tagged with one tap. This happens with the help of facial recognition technology. It works on multiple layers of neural networks that use machine learning to identify the components of an object. Fun apps like Snapchat uses this technology to offer animated filters and lenses, which changes the appearance of the user to provide entertainment to them during the quarantine.
Streamline of Communication with Chatbots
Lockdown has resulted in the new normal of working from home where even the customer service executives are working from home. Due to less bandwidth, you may have faced the trouble of waiting in the queue and ended up not getting attended by them. To solve this problem, many companies are coming up with Chatbots. Chatbots are pieces of software that facilitates conversations between consumers and businesses via auditory or textual methods. They are programmed to respond to immediate queries so that it saves time and enhances overall customer experience. Spotify, Sephora, and Wall Street Journal have already implemented chatbots for their customers.
User Recommendation Based on Their Preference
The only source of entertainment during lockdown has been binge-watching shows, and if you have watched Netflix or YouTube, you must have found many eye-catching recommendations on your feed that belonged to the genre of your choice. Apart from helping to build networks, these recommendation engines also work to suggest personalized content based on your watch history. The recommendation engine collects data based on the types of shows that you have previously watched or searched on the Internet to suggest similar shows that you are likely to enjoy.
Sentiment Analysis
If you have ever been dissatisfied with the products or services of renowned brands, you have most likely taken Twitter’s or Facebook’s resort to express your anguish. But have you ever wondered what happens when the popular brands receive complaints from their customers? With the help of sentiment analysis, their social media software detects the negative words in your tweets that enable the brand owners to understand how their customers feel about their brands. With the help of Natural Language Processing (NLP), sentiment analysis identifies positive and negative words in the comments and posts on social media. During the pandemic, when the customers are unable to fill out feedback forms physically, this process helps to speed up the process and accurately respond to the customer complaints.
AI for Recruitment
Due to COVID, the hiring process has become increasingly difficult as workplaces have mostly been temporarily shut down. With the help of AI, top companies have resumed their hiring process even during the lockdown. From looking through a huge number of resumes to sorting them according to the best matches for the job vacancy, AI has made recruitment during this tough time possible. It is also efficient in assessing the individuals by their skills and predict how to fit they can be to adapt to the company culture.
Social Media + AI = Success!
The main aim of AI technology is to provide useful data and insights to help the brands understand what’s working in the market currently. It helps marketers to understand and predict which kind of content works and how they should be served through social media to be successful. It is very likely that companies will continue to work throughout the rest of the year, and it is safe to say that with the help of AI, they will be able to achieve new heights like never before
Oishee Mukherjee is a blogger, published author of 2 books, and a full-time content writer. She has worked for various industries like entertainment, technology, finance, sports, social, and digital media to name a few. Her educational background includes graduation in English Literature and an MBA in Media & Communications, which has taught her the power of storytelling that she implements to bring out the voice of the brands she works for.