Many Marketers Consider AI to Be Overhyped

And many think big data is more fantasy than reality

While artificial intelligence (AI) and big data may be some of the biggest buzzwords in 2017, they are also marketing concepts that many marketers consider to be overhyped.

And for many, these concepts are more of a fantasy than a reality, according to a study from marketing automation provider Resulticks, which surveyed 318 US senior-level marketers.

Almost half (47%) of respondents said they think AI is overhyped, and another 31% said the same of big data. It doesn't stop there: Nearly a quarter considered omnichannel to be more of a fantasy than a reality, and 14% felt the same way about personalization.

More than half of marketers polled said marketing technology vendors are to blame for these overhyped concepts—and for the fact that they've been overused to the point of creating confusion.

When asked how well they think marketing technology vendors deliver on their product claims with regard to these buzzwords, few of those surveyed felt vendors deliver exactly what they promise.

That's not to say everyone thinks this way. Overall, many marketers said that vendors deliver some of what they promise in terms of concepts like big data and personalization.

But still, few felt they delivered exactly what they said they would. In fact, 18% of marketers said martech vendors deliver on their AI product claims. In contrast, 43% felt they overpromise and underdeliver.

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