Every day, new strategies are being developed to increase social media’s role in helping business performance levels. Whether social media is utilized to better employee engagement within a company, or as a tool to market products to consumers, its facets are continually updated to provide seamless integration in business structure to improve its functioning. However, if we look ahead to the future of social media and business performance, it appears that it may not be people at all who monitor and produce the different levels of communication across various social media platforms. Who would be responsible for these specific roles then? The answer lies in one simple acronym: AI. If you don’t already know, AI stands for artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence may be defined as a type of computer or machine that possesses the capability of mimicking intelligent human behaviour (hence the word artificial). In fact, we have already had such a glimpse into the future from various businesses who have already started to implement AI across their social media channels to better their own customer engagement/service practices. One such company includes ecommerce super giant eBay, who has developed their own “ShopBot,” which uses AI technology in combination with the Facebook messenger app to assist customers in finding the items they are searching for within their price range.

Major U.S. auto insurance provider Progressive may be best known for Flo, its iconic spokesperson. Flo is the funny, friendly face of Progressive Insurance and one of the best known commercial spokespersons. Her official Facebook page has 4.5 million followers and she has appeared in Progressive ads since 2008,  https://www.facebook.com/flotheprogressivegirl/ The company wanted to take advantage of customers increasing use of mobile channels to interact with its brand. So Progressive used Microsoft Azure Bot Service and Cognitive Services to build the Flo Chatbot, currently featured on Facebook Messenger, which answers customer questions, provides quotes and even offers a bit of banter in Flo’s well-known style.

Fashion company Tommy Hilfiger is one of the most recognizable and iconic fashion brands in the world. Founded in 1985 by the titular designer, the company has grown to encompass 1400 free-standing retail stores in 90 countries. Of course, like nearly all other consumer fashion brands in this day and age, Tommy Hilfiger relies heavily on online shopping to drive sales — and they’re on the forefront of social media technology to help them move forward.