AI and Account Management
Gina Meador
Account Manager
I recently saw this news segment on Artificial Intelligence (a.k.a. AI) and how it is infiltrating the marketing world. I am still wrapping my head around the concept of AI, but if you have yet to notice, AI is emerging everywhere, most popularly Chat-GPT.
This got me thinking from the perspective of an account manager. What are the pros and cons of utilizing AI?
First, let’s identify what an account manager does. In a nutshell, the role of an account manager is to serve as the liaison between their company and the client. Account management is vital for building and maintaining long-term relationships with your clients. It requires an understanding of their needs, expectations and goals, as well as providing them with solutions that add value and satisfaction.
Additionally, let’s identify how AI is being used in marketing. AI appears to commonly be used in digital marketing where speed is essential. AI tools use data and customer profiles to learn how to best communicate with customers, then provide canned responses at the right time without intervention from marketing team members, ensuring maximum efficiency. AI marketing technology includes, but is not limited to, data analysis, natural language processing, media buying, automated decision-making, content generation and real-time personalization.
The Pros of AI for Account Management
AI can benefit account management in multiple ways, such as enhancing customer understanding and engagement by analyzing customer data and personalizing communication. It can improve efficiency and productivity by automating tasks and streamlining workflows. AI can increase customer loyalty by anticipating customers’ needs, identifying opportunities and monitoring customer satisfaction. Additionally, AI can provide human-like capabilities, such as logic and reasoning, by giving suggestions, feedback, and support. All of these can assist account managers in saving time and resources, better understanding their customers and providing solutions that add value.
The Cons of AI for Account Management
This may be obvious, but a potential drawback is job displacement. AI is not a one-stop solution for account management problems. Some challenges may include data quality and security and ethical and social implications. Additionally, the data can be incomplete, inaccurate and/or outdated. AI can be vulnerable to breaches, theft or misuse. As the technology is still evolving, it comes with ongoing security/privacy concerns. Furthermore, this may take away the communication aspect, the personalization and humanity of the account manager role, which may overall affect the authenticity of the client relationship.
The Takeaway
As AI continues to evolve and improve, creating new trends and opportunities for account management, it is important to leverage it effectively and responsibly. The account manager/marketing company should continue to do their research because what may make sense for one client may not work for another. Transparency is key if/when AI is being used.
Whatever your stance on AI technology platforms, it appears it’s here to stay and continues to grow in popularity, and marketers may want to learn to adapt. In the end, this can be a potentially useful tool to have in your toolkit.
