Mention the name Tom Brady at any sports bar in America, and every last person will know just who he is. And patrons on every stool will have an opinion about whether he’s the greatest ever or overrated. The same thing happens when you mention Artificial Intelligence (AI) in a room full of enterprise technology executives. A recent survey of C-level executives from Rage Frameworks found that “eighty-two percent of research participants stated that their organizations would be using AI in 2017 and 11 percent of participants are strongly considering it.” Just like Brady, the past, present (and future?) Super Bowl MVP, it’s pretty safe to assume that AI is trending – big time.

With so many business leaders looking to AI technology to stay competitive and transform their enterprise business strategy, it’s crucial that companies with AI capabilities follow trending topics and integrate them into their communications plans. Below are three topics our team at PAN is following and some ideas on how to integrate them into your PR and marketing strategy this year.

Source: pexels.com used under CC license.

Learn more about integrated marketing and PR, read: Defining Your B2B Tech Integrated Communications Strategy.

Enterprises targeting AI startups for acquisitions

CBI Insights recently reported that “nearly 140 private companies working to advance artificial intelligence technologies have been acquired since 2011, with over 40 acquisitions taking place in 2016 alone.” Regardless of whether you are an enterprise considering AI investments or a startup with AI capabilities, this trend presents an opportunity for your executives to demonstrate thought leadership about AI’s market value. When an M&A deal takes place, develop commentary on what this deal means for the future of AI technology and relate it back to your own product offerings. Trend jacking news stories on deals is a great way to engage journalists at venture publications. Additionally, authoring blogs for Medium and LinkedIn is a way to get in front of targeted investment and customer communities.

A rise in industry-specific AI technologies

Ben Lorica of O’Reilly Media suggests that industries such as security, retail, healthcare and finance will see focused AI technologies that directly benefit their customer base. For AI technology providers, this presents an opportunity for a vertical communications campaign. Surveying your customers in a specific industry allows you to collect hard data on vertical pain points and demonstrate how your technology is helping them solve these problems. Once the data is collected, create a press campaign targeting media outlets in that customer vertical. Creating a piece of gated content such as an e-book or whitepaper with the survey results is another great way to capture leads and get prospects into your sales funnel.

The onset of AI Supervisors

AI experts are predicting that humans will be able to step into more strategic roles as AI assists with automated tasks, leading to the creation of “AI Supervisors.” These professionals will be in charge of overseeing the transition from manual to automated processes through AI technology. The evolution of this role presents an opportunity to trend jack topics about new jobs emerging in the digital economy and demonstrate how your company is developing this new career path. To increase your social media engagement, create a social media GIF campaign of “me and my AI co-worker” showing positive machine and human interactions. Initiatives like these educate your audience about the benefits of AI in the workplace and demonstrate your products’ value proposition.

AI momentum will only continue to grow, so check back with our team as we share client stories and news trends throughout the year.

How are you leveraging AI trends? Share your story with our team.