Telco marketing managers may want to consider a career change, after Malaysia’s Celcom Axiata detailed its plans to use algorithms to automate its direct marketing processes.
"We’ve got 300 marketers. That’s way too many people," said George Chua, senior vice president and head of commercial analytics at Celcom, at CommunicAsia on Thursday. He explained t hat algorithmic marketing could free marketers to focus on more creative projects, rather than mundane administrative tasks.
He stopped short of suggesting they pursue interests outside of the company, but most of the room was doubtless thinking just that.
Chua has since been in contact with Total Telecom to clarify that Celcom Axiata’s motivation for algorithmic marketing lies in business process and customer experience innovation, not eliminating marketing jobs.
Celcom is currently testing a prototype algorithmic marketing engine that designs and executes campaigns and special offers that are tailored to different segments of its customer base.
Factors it takes into consideration include the customer’s churn risk, current price plan, and how receptive they have been to Celcom’s direct marketing in the past, among others. The engine tweaks its settings based upon the success or otherwise of a direct marketing message.
All with no human intervention.
"We are moving towards fully automated campaign design and execution," said Chua in his presentation.
"I don’t know if it works or if it will take over the world – I’m testing it out," he said.
Regardless of whether or not Celcom’s algorithmic marketing engine works, the company has placed "a big, five-year bet" on machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), Chua said, because he believes it will give Celcom a competitive advantage.
AI "is not meant to be a common capability, that’s why it’s a competitive advantage," he continued, urging industry players to invest time and capital into automating parts of their core business processes using algorithms.
However, Celcom’s rivals in Malaysia are seemingly unconvinced.
"I do believe our competitors in general are very sceptical," Chua said.
"That’s good. I’m not trying to sell anything; I’m not a vendor," he continued, adding that Celcom’s decision to pursue AI will give it a first-mover advantage.
