With today’s increased access to quality technology, businesses are constantly searching for ways to improve and tailor their marketing efforts. One development that’s taking the industry by storm is artificial intelligence (AI). Many brands are beginning to incorporate AI into their marketing strategies for more personalized, data-driven outreach.

But are you ready to start using AI in your marketing efforts? Eight members of Ad Age Collective shared some practical approaches to making this technology impactful for your own business campaigns.

1. Start small and simple.

The scary aspect of AI is that most marketers don’t know where to start. Rather than thinking you need to implement AI in every facet of your job, think of some quick wins that would make your life easier as a marketer. Phrasee and Automizy are two examples of AI tools that analyze your email subject lines before you send out a campaign to help optimize your subject line, leading to increased open rates. – Patrick Ward, Rootstrap

2. Find the balance between ‘artificial’ and ‘human’ intelligence.

The same question that is being asked today was asked several years ago with the emergence of “big data.” The reality is that artificial intelligence is a wonderful thing, a tool that helps you to process, predict and project your marketing. However those that default to the “answers” that AI provides are often missing the point; AI can enable stronger human thinking, not replace it. – Rich Honiball, Navy Exchange Service Command

3. Aim to find something that solves your problems.

Over the years, I’ve discussed AI with dozens of experts who influence which AI solutions and companies are selected by large enterprises and/or partners. In one case, I asked, “Out of the thousands of companies you could recommend, why this one?” The answer was beautiful. “It works.” The expert’s point was: Many “sell” AI, but very few offer AI that solves something important. – Lana McGilvray, Purpose Worldwide

4. Use AI to support your human marketing staff.

AI will be a critical component for data collection and analytics to streamline efforts and minimize potential expensive errors. After the data is scrubbed clean of errors, centralized and uniformed, AI can be implemented to support the marketing team to quickly and effectively analyze results and determine the best campaign strategies that would not be possible for a human to compute. – Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, Hawthorne Advertising

5. Think beyond your usual KPIs.

Optimizing digital spend with AI brings marketing back to real business by putting data to work. AI that optimizes directly toward true business outcomes — with client-specific data, audiences and creative inputs at the core — offers a competitive advantage beyond stale KPI metrics. The Xaxis proprietary AI technology, Copilot, delivers beyond traditional media metrics using customized algorithms. – Kerry Curran, Catalyst

6. Shift from predictive to prescriptive solutions.

There are interesting AI solutions that have evolved from predicting what is going to happen based on prior occurrences to now, where they can prescribe solutions. For example, in SEO, if a tool observes positive results from a competitor’s tactics, it recommends similar tactics that will either blunt the competitive force or offer ways to apply the learning more broadly. – Reid Carr, Red Door Interactive

7. Find out what people are saying about you.

AI is powerful enough to read all the content published about your company and products globally and understand or categorize it more consistently than humans. AI can predict how exposure to that media drives various business outcomes. Use those AI-driven insights about what the world is saying about your company to produce better, more engaging content. – Dan Beltramo, Onclusive (formerly AirPR)

8. Apply AI to account-based marketing.

There’s no time for thumb-twiddling in the dynamic world of B2B marketing. AI in ABM tells you what personas matter most to your opportunities and what they care about in real-time. But, to truly harness the power of AI-driven insights and orchestration, AI must be baked into the core of your marketing solution. Only then can you uncover valuable insights and deliver targeted messages at scale. – Latane Conant, 6sense