🌮Quiero Mas, Taco Bell... Can’t Just Claim AI Leadership

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I saw the headline for this article from early November (https://www.marketingdive.com/news/taco-bell-kfc-yum-brands-Q3-2024-earnings-AI-powered-marketing/732122/) telling us that “𝘠𝘶𝘮 𝘉𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘴𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘈𝘐-𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴” and was excited to learn what exactly they have accomplished with AI. Unfortunately, there are no specifics. In these still early days of developing applications with AI, that’s not good enough, we need more detail if you’re going to publicly claim leadership in this space.

“𝘠𝘶𝘮 𝘉𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘸𝘯𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘒𝘍𝘊, 𝘛𝘢𝘤𝘰 𝘉𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘗𝘪𝘻𝘻𝘢 𝘏𝘶𝘵, 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 (𝘈𝘐), 𝘦𝘹𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘺’𝘴 𝘘3 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘴. “

That intro sounded promising, and made me want to read on, because it is still rare to hear about how a consumer company delivered “…increased marketing performance thanks to new bets on artificial intelligence”.

“’𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘳, 𝘸𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘭𝘢𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘥 𝘈𝘐-𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵, 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘴, 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘮𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘮𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘯,’ 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘠𝘶𝘮 𝘊𝘍𝘖 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴 𝘛𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘳”.

There is a lot to unpack there. The CFO uses one of those phrases, “AI-driven”, that requires some explanation, and that many consider to be different from “AI-powered” that the article’s author used (see here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-does-ai-driven-ai-powered-etc-really-mean-john-c-keenan-asgle/). And personalized campaigns that led to “increased purchases and a reduction in consumer churn” is also opaque. The complexity of their own marketing initiatives, combined with competitive activities, would make it difficult to truly isolate the impact of the personalization in such a short timeframe. How did they do it - increased purchases and reduction in consumer churn, for which there is no industry-standard definition, over what period and against what benchmarks? I understand that in the interests of not sharing trade secrets, they offer no specifics, but they’ve got to be able to share a little more detail.

So what exactly did they do? One could speculate widely - it could be as simple as personalizing subject lines and measuring email opens as proxies for consumer engagement, or they may have taken a much more sophisticated approach. Reading further, we find:

“𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦, 𝘛𝘢𝘤𝘰 𝘉𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘳𝘶𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘢 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘶 𝘣𝘰𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘴, 𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘪𝘯’𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘱𝘱. 𝘓𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘭 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘯𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘐 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘴. ”

This may be less cutting-edge than it seems at first glance - the essence of data-driven marketing has long had us “Linking … sources of intel together” to drive personalization, which companies were working on even before widespread introduction of AI into the consciousness, and it is unclear what it even means to be “enhancing (sources) with AI” or for what other marketing purposes.

I’m sure there is some really interesting work going on behind the scenes. This article left me wanting to know more about it, especially in the interests of learning from what others are doing, when they are claiming leadership in the space.

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