Data holds incredible power; but are we the victims of our own success with how this data is put to use? ExchangeWire speak with Chris Pitt (pictured below), head of marketing, Vertical Leap, who argues that we are in the middle of a data evolution, and intelligent technology holds the key to success.

We are in an age of information and connectivity. The amount of available data that a marketer can access is incalculable. With enough dedication, data, and creativity, marketers can drill down into the minutiae of a person’s online behaviour and send highly targeted marketing messages. One of my favourite data + marketing stories is of the guy who pranked his flatmate by placing highly targeted adverts in his Facebook feed that only his flatmate would see.

A recent IBM study revealed that “every day, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data — so much, that 90% of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone”. So, consider this: if we already create that volume of data today (just by being online), what happens when the Internet of Things becomes as much a part of normal life as the internet has become? What happens when everything we do anywhere, becomes an available part of the data set? What happens when we can see that, not only does our prospect like watching Doctor Who and outdoor sports, but that they make a cup of coffee at 5:30am every week day; they run the same three-mile route every Wednesday morning; and they get their shopping delivered at 7pm on the first Monday of each month?

Stalky ads aside, there is a fast approaching problem that promises to overwhelm marketers – and it’s not data, as such. It’s what the data provides us with – insights. Lots and lots of insights.

Can we know too much?

I am sure that, like me, you have suffered from analysis paralysis; the act of over-analysing information to such a depth that you become unable to reach an outcome. It is both overwhelming and demoralising when it happens. You think you are making progress, before realising that correlation does not imply causation and that it is unlikely that Nicholas Cage is responsible for swimming pool deaths.

The marketing industry, specifically the digital marketing industry, is going through huge disruption – in part, to deal with this problem. The data is fantastic to have; but there is too much of it for us humans to get any real value from it. We either can’t use all of it, or we can’t analyse all of it properly. So, technology and data are combining to create software platforms that can make sense of large volumes of data and turn them into actionable insights. In fact, the savvier and more forward-thinking agencies are creating proprietary platforms in order to continue providing their services; I know because I work for one of them. But these platforms risk causing a new and unique problem.

If we have access to an unending flow of data – and we also have software that’s capable of turning that data into insights – do we risk the situation that, instead of drowning in data, we drown in insights instead?

If you could do but one thing today…

Imagine this. Every day when you get to work you are provided with a list of every single task that needs to be done in order for your role to be successful. Now imagine that each day that list grows based on what you ticked off from yesterday’s list, changes to the environment and changes made by competitors or third parties. What is the first task you are going to do?

If you are anything like me, your first task would be to prioritise your list, but of course that is impossible. To have to prioritise your growing list each and every day, means that you are going to have to spend a growing amount of time prioritising rather than doing. And so nothing will get done. Or, some things will get done, but they might not be the right things for that time. So, as good as nothing.

It may sound ludicrous, but the reality is that this is almost upon us. Technology, specifically AI, is advancing so fast that instead of drowning under too much data, we may in fact be drowning under too many insights. Instead of suffering from analysis paralysis, we are suffering paralysis from over-exposure. We know so much that we risk not knowing where to start!

Who watches the watchman?

Technology has come so far that the age of robots and artificial intelligence is upon us. For the marketing industry, this means that those with the right software platforms are able to provide their services with a degree of efficacy that has never before been realised.

But, in doing so, a new problem has been created. Those software platforms are providing so much valuable insight that we need new functionality to make sense of it all. We arrive at a point where we need intelligent algorithms, whose sole job is to manage other algorithms. It’s a hierarchy of algorithms, that probably needs to match existing human management hierarchies.

Really, when you think about it, there is a kind of delicious irony to it all. Technology has come so far that it has swung past being useful to being another unmanageable noise. On the one hand, we are liberated from the daily drudgery and free to take our lead from software and get the job done. But which job? There are too many. Technology works faster than even the best person on their best day – and we can't cope.

It’s a form of evolution, and I am certain that survival of the fittest is as relevant today as it's always been. However, in this case, the fittest are those who not only realise the need for intelligent technology, but also further development of algorithmic layers.