Over the years, artificial intelligence technology has become so advanced that we now use it in many of our everyday tasks without even realising it. As affiliate marketers, a lot of the tools that we use to gather insights and create strategies use AI and they are very advanced. While there are some areas where AI can easily replace a human, affiliate management isn’t quite one of those yet. Below, we look at why we can’t really rely on AI to do an affiliate managers job in 2021.
A perfect example of when AI doesn’t work…
For any brand, automating tasks can not only help to save time but it can also drastically reduce the amount of money that is spent on certain areas. However, AI isn’t quite perfect yet and there have been some great examples recently, where some larger brands, like Facebook, have fallen victim to AI errors – a PR disaster!
A recent story involved Facebook’s ad approval system which usually detects whether an ad meets their guidelines or not. According to reports, an ad that featured a person in a wheelchair, advertising pants, was not approved. The reasoning behind this was that Facebook’s AI denies ads that promote medical devices. However, in this case, a medical device was simply being used by someone who requires it!
This may have been a PR disaster for Facebook, but it teaches us a lesson on how effective AI can really be and what the repercussions can be when things go wrong.
Affiliate managers must focus on human interaction
The fact that AI can make mistakes sometimes isn’t the only reason why we believe that we can’t rely on AI to do an affiliate manager’s job in 2021. No – affiliate managers need to be personable and engage in human interaction with affiliates. A huge part of an affiliate managers role is to build relationships with affiliates and nurture them.
While you could easily automate tasks such as email marketing and more, that personal relationship cannot be made with an AI system just yet. Of course, if an affiliate manager isn’t going to put in the time and effort it takes to build those relationships, they may as well be using an AI!
How could AI help?
There are tons of great uses of AI in affiliate marketing outside of simply replacing affiliate managers and the jobs that they do. We use AI every day in our ads, targeting and many iGaming operations rely heavily on it.
Marketing has come on leaps and bounds ever since the invention of AI and this is something to shout about. In 2021, you can even use AI to detect problem gamblers from chats on casinos! Check out this article to learn more about this.
As an affiliate manager, you should always be on the lookout for new AI tools that can help to build your program and make your life easier. As long as you are using the tools in the right way and maintaining those personal relationships with affiliates, you can really help to grow the brand and achieve your goals at the end of the year.
For now – we don’t believe that artificial intelligence will be replacing affiliate managers any time soon!
