SAS puts machine learning in marketers’ hands

SAS, a global analytics software company, has launched a platform with guided workflows and customisable templates for common marketing tasks. The product, 360 Marketing AI, can operate as a standalone modelling and scoring engine or within SAS Customer Intelligence 360.

Marketing teams can prepare data, assess data quality and train machine-learning models through guided steps. Models can then generate scores for use within customer journeys. The platform monitors performance and can automatically retrain models when required.

SAS says data preparation can account for up to 80% of model-development work. SAS 360 Marketing AI automates parts of data preparation, feature engineering and model training to reduce that workload.

“For the longest time, ownership of analytical intelligence has lived outside of marketing,” says Roger Beharry Lall, IDC research director. “As such, this predictive intelligence was hard to procure, often being costly, complex, and time consuming. Offerings like SAS 360 Marketing AI solution help democratise the skills, knowledge, and trust needed to put predictive AI in the hands of marketers.”

The platform targets several common marketing applications. These include predicting which customers are most likely to convert, identifying potential customer churn and determining next-best offers.

Marketers can apply the technology to cross-selling, customer-lifetime-value analysis and segmentation.

360 Marketing AI can train models using data where the information already resides. This approach can reduce the amount of data movement and preparation required before analysis.

The platform includes visibility into data inputs and model outcomes, alongside bias detection and mitigation. Automated monitoring and governance tools support ongoing model management.

Within the broader SAS Customer Intelligence 360 ecosystem, the software supports journey orchestration, decision-making and personalisation. The deployment model allows organisations to begin with individual marketing applications before expanding usage as their analytics capabilities develop.

Mike Blanchard, SAS head of customer intelligence solutions, says: “Marketers don’t lack data – they lack the ability to act on it at speed. SAS 360 Marketing AI removes the barriers between insight and execution, giving teams the tools to operationalise AI where it matters most: real customer decisions.”

* Visit the SAS 360 Marketing AI website here.