AMENIA, NY — For agencies like Quigley-Simpson, adopting artificial intelligence is a roadmap and a work in progress – but human analysis is still critical, says CEO Carl Fremont in this video interview with Beet.TV.
Fremont’s agency is getting to grips with AI by partnering with tech vendors. Rather than simply taking AI for granted, Quigley-Simpson goes “deep” on exactly how partners are using machine learning.
But the agency aims to understand where it can layer human intelligence on top. “You do need to look at it,” Fremont says. “Nothing should ever be 100% AI. Nothing should be ever 100% relying on artificial intelligence.”
A Four-Stage AI Adoption Path
Quigley-Simpson is following a four-stage path to AI deployment:
1. Ad hoc – Understanding how existing partners are using AI.
2. Experiential – Pushing the envelope on efficiency, personalization and analytics.
3. Specialization – Deploying AI for specific use cases.
4. Complete deployment – Fully operationalizing AI use.
But the process is not strictly linear. “It’s not one or the other – it’s all of that together,” Fremont explains. “Some of the things we do with AI and tools and partners is still ad hoc. Some of it is moved into more of the experiential stage and some into the specialization and then into the complete deployment.”
Linear TV is Evolving, Not Dead
Despite the rise of streaming, Fremont thinks linear TV is not dead. “I don’t think it’s dead at all,” he says. “We are shifting behavior, and this is not new.”
Fremont expects viewers to vacillate between appointment-to-view live programming and on-demand streaming: “It’s evolving and I think we need to think about it in that evolution rather than is it dead or is it alive? It’s not one or the other. It’s (about) how we’re going to be using the two together synergistically.”
Retail Needs to Up Its Experience
In an omni-channel world, Fremont thinks retail environments need to radically improve to keep pace with ecommerce.
“The retail experience is just not engaging,” he says. “It’s not an exciting experience anymore. So retail has to change the most.
“It used to (compete) with online, because it was, you can touch and feel and the retail experience was all about being there and touching and feeling products, and that was it. And that was satisfying enough. But digital has so further advanced that shopping experience that it’s no longer just good enough to be able to go and see and touch and feel the products.”
You’re watching coverage of Beet Retreat Berkshires, presented by Magnite, Mastercard and TransUnion. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
