Overview

Winning digital marketing strategies are driven by innovative marketing leaders who relentlessly pursue new ways to connect with their markets using the latest digital tools, from AI to machine learning and more.

The AI Marketing Certificate from the Darden School Foundation is designed to provide managers with the framework to advance their marketing strategies to deliver dynamic and personalized customer experiences.

Throughout this program, you will address every facet of the marketing journey—from product development, to channel management and pricing, to advertising and point of sale promotions, and more. You’ll gain real-world insights from cutting-edge industry leaders at Netflix, Disney, Instacart and Starbucks while benefiting from live sessions, personalized feedback from expert faculty. With simulated exercises, you try out new tools and tackle various business problems while collaborating with a cohort of peers.

In just six months, you will develop the working knowledge needed to create superior personalized value and deliver amazing customer experiences for your future company or clients.

Syllabus

Course 1: AI and Marketing Strategy
- As AI-powered strategies transform the world of marketing, it’s important to understand the basics of AI and how it enables cutting edge marketing applications. In this course, we’ll explore the history of artificial intelligence, common processes of AI algorithms, and the key differences between machine learning and deep learning. We will understand the networked business models that allow firms to better leverage AI. The AI technology and business model innovations combine to form the AI Marketing Canvas, a tool to develop an action plan for leveraging AI in marketing strategy.

Course 2: Data Foundations and Metrics
- By harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence, businesses and marketers have amazing growth potential, and the opportunities to enhance marketing with AI are always expanding. But where do businesses begin for developing an AI marketing capability and how do they know if they are on track? This course will cover the first stage of the AI Marketing Canvas – data foundations. You will explore an important frontier of digital transformation in marketing by learning how data, and AI provide a sustainable strategic advantage. You will understand the process to develop a digital data foundation for the AI marketing strategies. We will also present the customer engagement metrics that are critical for assessing the returns on the investments related to developing this AI capability.

Course 3: Personalizing Customer Engagement
- Personalizing customer engagement is the key to AI marketing strategy. In this course, we explore different strategies available to marketing leaders to personalize customer engagement, the goals of stages 2-4 of the AI Marketing Canvas. You will understand the components of customer engagement, learn to use structured and unstructured data to generate consumer insights, and connect these insights to develop personalized customer engagement strategies. You will use the customer journey mapping framework to understand the status-quo customer experience, identify pain points, and use your knowledge about AI technology to personalize the customer experience, thereby improving the customer engagement metrics.

Course 4: Implementing AI Marketing Strategy
- This course is all about implementation and preparing for the future. As AI technologies keep changing, managers also need to develop the necessary skills to understand and monetize new technologies; the fifth stage of the AI Marketing Canvas. You will apply your knowledge about the AI marketing canvas, and personalizing customer engagement in a simulation game about acquiring and retaining customers by personalizing campaigns and media channels. Developing an AI capability requires an entire organization to move towards to new goals and develop new processes. You will explore the chasms in the AI Marketing canvas that managers need to jump through using effective change management.