The Robots Are Coming!

One of the more fascinating stories emerging this week was Wimbledon, the world’s oldest and most traditional tennis event, launching Fred, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistant as an option within the official app for the 2017 tournament.

Fred is kind of like a mini Siri or Cortana in that it answers visitor’s questions and can guide them to the various restaurants and places of interest. Future plans involve getting Fred to detail individual player’s stats and histories, as well as rain predictions and the like.

Additional AI implementation at Wimbledon is to get AI to select TV highlights based on crowd reactions and player movement (allowing it to pick out the key moments in the match), and distribute these via the various social media channels in real-time, while it is also introducing more 360 videos as well as Augmented Reality (AR) features. Even the practice courts are included, where the app allows users not only 360 degrees views of the courts while players are practising, but also through AR allows them to overlay information on the players, like career stats and the like.

The move comes after Wimbledon saw a threefold growth (21 Million individual devices) in its mobile app usage and they are keen to add to the user experience via the mobile app, as this will allow them the freedom to create their own experience during matches.

This innovative use of AI is part of a growing trend where marketers are increasingly making use of AI for their content marketing. For 2017, a survey showed that only a small majority (57.1%) said that they would NOT be making use of AI for the content marketing this year. As there has been a steady growth in the use of “mainstream” AI (from Siri and Cortana to Alexa and Google assistant) the perception is that the public is ready to accept AI. Likewise, AR was seen as a priority for 2017 by 24% of marketers asked, with the Internet of Things (IoT) identified as a priority for 35%.

These trends not only indicate that some content marketing specialists may be made redundant, but further highlights significant changes in how information is disseminated and presented, as well as consumer behaviour, their adoption of technology and how audiences can and should be reached in the future.

As the digital revolution is gathering pace, is your company keeping up with the latest trends?