.png)
Integrating AI into our daily digital lives can cut through the online noise and help to deliver both brand and performance marketing objectives. That’s according to Carly Morris, head of media and ad tech solutions at Microsoft Advertising, who was delivering a keynote speech about reimagining the customer connection at Campaign’s Media360.
Morris noted that technological developments such as AI have often been seen in terms of a competition between humans and machines. However, she made the case for reframing this as “humans plus machines”.
The power of getting personal
Morris highlighted the potential of AI in today’s media landscape, in which the lines between levels of the traditional marketing funnel are becoming increasingly blurred. “The consumer decision journey is no longer linear, and involves many touch points with brands,” she said.
Morris shared a preview of recent research by Retail Economics and Microsoft Advertising, to be launched publicly in June, that found that UK consumers spend more time on digital platforms than ever, with high-income earners and 25–34-year-olds spending three hours or more online every day. “We’re switching between search engines, social media channels, entertainment channels, and, now, AI-powered assistants,” said Morris. “And we’re all averaging 6.1 touch points with brands before ever making a purchase.”
The path to purchase also spans multiple devices, with 37% of shoppers switching between devices on a single shopping journey (with that figure jumping to 50% of 18–35-year-olds).
In the noisy digital world, getting personal is hugely powerful, said Morris. As research by McKinsey has shown, when companies get personalisation right, it can generate 40% more revenue. “When I’m online, I don’t want a brand to talk at me, I want it to get to know me,” Morris said. “And this is exactly where Gen AI can help us to humanise the online experience.”
As an example, Morris suggested how a content platform that includes AI recommendations curated for a busy working mum can help streamline her day by providing hyper-personalised content such as traffic alerts, weather updates, reminders of her to-do list, suggested podcasts about what’s important in her world, and fun local titbits, such as a promotion at a nearby ice cream store. Additionally, the more an AI assistant is used, the more it learns the behaviours of the person talking to it. The result? Advertisers can become an authentic part of their audience’s day.
By engaging and sharing data with such AI-powered platforms, users can ultimately feel more in control, said Morris, as the platforms “get to know” them and anticipate their needs and interests. “In this environment, [she] doesn’t need to dig through endless tabs, scroll aimlessly, or put all the pieces together herself. Everything found her intelligently, seamlessly, effortlessly, so she can focus on the human things that matter.”
Accelerating the funnel
For marketers, these platforms provide plenty of potential moments for personalised engagement, or, as Morris put it, “for your brands to become part of the consumer’s day”.
Microsoft’s own Gen AI chatbot, Copilot, which integrates relevant advertising into its conversations with users, has already seen 69% higher click-through rates, on average, across all ad formats. And, according to Microsoft internal data, it has also seen increased user satisfaction with ad quality and landing pages, with 69% fewer click-backs.
Ads integrated into a chat with an AI assistant can also accelerate the traditional marketing funnel: “Forty per cent of consumers have said that when an ad is placed thoughtfully within that conversational context, it’s actually enhancing the experience,” said Morris. “That’s because AI allows you to integrate the discovery phase, engagement and conversions into one continuous flow.”
Meanwhile, the chatty, interactive format of today’s AI assistants is changing how we behave online: less transactional, more conversational. That in turn leads to greater engagement and trust, said Morris. “The future of our industry is all about making meaningful connections – and what’s more meaningful than a really good conversation?”
Discover more about the future of chatbots and agents in Microsoft Advertising's latest playbook.