Using AI for market opportunity identification
The most important thing to remember about market opportunity identification with AI is that it is not about creating a magic wand that will instantly identify all of the major new market opportunities. That would be a data scientist's or software developer's dream. But in the world of marketing, where success depends on being fast, efficient, and smart, those are the characteristics of an outright nightmare.
Marketing and product development professionals are constantly under pressure to deliver new products and services to market – and be first to market with them. They need to do so in a cost-effective manner, without sacrificing quality, and often with limited resources.
AI offers speed, efficiency, and smartness. With models deployed on scalable servers, AI can scan a huge amount of data and identify patterns that humans wouldn't see. This means that millions of data points can be analyzed within hours or even minutes.
AI is being used in a number of verticals, such as autonomous vehicles, facial recognition, and fraud detection.
By using AI for market opportunity identification, marketers can free themselves from the burdens of manually reviewing and analyzing information on countless possible markets or new product categories. They can offload tasks such as data collection and the creation of new product ideas to machines.
The best way to use AI for market opportunity identification is by focusing on real problems that need real solutions. For example, marketers may want to analyze their existing customer base for potential new product categories they could enter into – or specific products they could create for those existing customers.
Another example is using AI to identify new geographic markets for existing brands – or even entirely new brands – by looking at various combinations of customer demographics, buying habits, lifestyle choices, and other criteria in each region of the world.
In either case, AI can assist marketers by helping them use data already in their possession more effectively than they could otherwise (by automating some data collection tasks and streamlining others). It can also help overcome some key barriers, including assessing whether any given potential market or product category is truly scalable.
An additional benefit of using AI for market opportunity identification is that you can also use it as a tool for demonstrating your commitment to innovation and differentiating your brand(s) from competitors' offerings – which can also boost your brand awareness, reputation, and overall value.
As we've explored, AI has a number of broad benefits for product teams. Let's dive into a specific use case: AI-powered market reports.