Gartner Research: 2 Types of Emerging AI Near the Peak of the Hype Cycle

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According to a new study from Gartner, two types of emerging artificial intelligence (AI): emotional AI and generative AI, are both reaching the top of the digital advertising hype cycle. This is thanks to the expansion of AI in targeting, measurement, identity resolution and even creative content generation.

"I think one of the key things is that the options for marketers have accelerated," Mike Froggatt, senior analyst director of Gartner's marketing practice, told VentureBeat. “When you think about the fragmentation of digital media, ten years ago there was display, search, video, rich media, but now there are podcasts, over-the-top platforms , blockchain and NFTs. AI helps marketers target, measure and identify consumers, even generating the content that can appear in these channels, creating all new artifacts to give marketers a voice in these channels. »

Traditional methods of targeting customers are depreciating, noted the Gartner report, Hype Cycle for Digital Advertising 2022, evolving from a supposed quid pro quo to a media and advertising economy focused on opt-in consent.

As Google continues to delay the date it will stop supporting third-party cookies, which digital advertisers have historically relied on for ad tracking, digital marketers will need to learn to adapt to as customer data becomes scarce and the difficulty of targeting increases.

Emotion AI: Privacy Opportunities and Challenges

According to an analysis by Gartner analyst Andrew Frank, emotional AI technologies "use AI techniques to analyze a user's emotional state... [and] can initiate responses by performing specific and personalized actions to adapt to the customer's mood".

Frank says it's part of a larger trend called "influencer AI" that "seeks to automate elements of the digital experience that guide user choices at scale by learning and applying behavioral science techniques.

With public criticism surrounding the use, or even potential use, of emotional AI tools, privacy and trust will be critical to the success of emotional AI, Froggatt said.

"It's going to have to be transparent in how it's used and we're going to have to stop bundling it into tracking types within apps that collect things implicitly," he explained.

But emotional AI will create exciting opportunities for brands if tied to trust and explicit consent, he added. According to the Gartner report, access to emotional data “provides insight into motivational factors that help test and refine content, personalize digital experiences, and build deeper connections between people and brands.”

The Gartner report warned that emotional AI would likely take another decade to become firmly established. For now, organizations need to carefully consider vendor capabilities because the emotional AI market is immature and companies can only support limited use cases and industries.

Generative AI: soon to be adopted by the general public

The Gartner report also revealed that generative AI covers a wide range of tools that "learn existing artifacts to generate new realistic artifacts such as video, narration, speech,