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How SAS and The Nature Conservancy Leverage AI to Drive Revenue
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AI adoption and understanding in marketing: A significant gap exists between planned AI investments and marketers’ understanding of the technology’s potential impact on business processes.

  • A global market survey by SAS and Coleman Park revealed that while 9% of organizations plan to invest in generative AI by 2025, 90% of CMOs admit they don’t fully understand the technology or its implications.
  • This knowledge gap raises concerns amid the ongoing AI hype, highlighting the need for marketers to deepen their understanding of generative AI.

Practical applications of generative AI: The Nature Conservancy and SAS are demonstrating revenue-generating applications of generative AI in various areas of marketing and business operations.

  • The Nature Conservancy, an environmental nonprofit, is using generative AI to optimize marketing fundraising decisions and craft digestible messaging from scientific papers.
  • SAS is leveraging AI for branding, lead scoring, and tailoring customer journeys, as discussed at ADWEEK’s Brandweek event in Phoenix, Arizona.

The Nature Conservancy’s AI-driven success: Generative AI has helped the nonprofit organization scale its environmental efforts and achieve significant fundraising growth.

  • The organization is using AI to optimize marketing decisions, such as identifying which lapsed donors to reach out to.
  • The Nature Conservancy has grown its revenue by 8% annually, outperforming peers in the sector who have experienced an 8% drop in donations year over year.
  • The nonprofit is now raising about twice as much as similar organizations compared to five years ago.

Innovative AI strategies: Both The Nature Conservancy and SAS are implementing cutting-edge AI techniques to enhance their operations and decision-making processes.

  • The Nature Conservancy is using synthetic data to supplement its limited pool of high-dollar donors, allowing for the creation of predictive models to identify potential major donors from smaller contributions.
  • SAS is exploring the use of digital twins, or virtual simulations, to test and refine event strategies in real-time.

AI-driven customer engagement: SAS is leveraging predictive modeling and generative AI to automate and enhance customer interactions at scale.

  • The company is using AI for lead scoring and creating next-best offers to drive its customer engagement strategy.
  • These AI applications have helped SAS maintain a competitive edge in the market.

Ethical considerations and guidelines: As generative AI use accelerates, both organizations are addressing ethical concerns and implementing guidelines to ensure responsible AI usage.

  • SAS has established guidelines to uphold ethical standards, prioritizing privacy, incorporating a human-in-the-loop approach, and ensuring transparency in all AI applications.
  • The company has implemented a “nutritional label” that discloses how AI is used in decision-making processes, which has proven effective in maintaining client trust.
  • The Nature Conservancy acknowledges environmental concerns surrounding generative AI and has redirected cost savings from reduced direct mail marketing towards environmental initiatives.

The importance of data foundation: Both organizations emphasize the critical role of a strong data foundation in successfully implementing AI strategies.

  • John Blackwell, director of strategic analytics at The Nature Conservancy, stressed that none of their AI initiatives would work without a robust data foundation.
  • This underscores the importance of data quality and management in driving successful AI implementations.

Balancing AI hype and practical applications: As the AI landscape evolves, organizations must navigate the line between hype and practical, revenue-generating applications.

  • The experiences of The Nature Conservancy and SAS demonstrate that generative AI can drive tangible business results when applied strategically.
  • However, the knowledge gap among marketers highlights the need for continued education and careful consideration of AI’s potential impacts and limitations.
How The Nature Conservancy and SAS Use AI to Drive Revenue

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