With the growing popularity of AI, it is not uncommon to see its use in business and marketing. Almost all major platforms in the industry these days are leveraging its power to automate mundane tasks, pull insights, make predictions, and whatnot. Also, there are platforms that rely on AI more than others, for example, Evolv AI, which we are reviewing today for you.
If you have never heard of this tool, don't worry. We will try to give you a full picture. For those who have been flirting with the idea of using it for their business, we are here to help you make a decision.
So, shall we begin?
What is Evolv AI?
It is a Customer Experience (CX) optimization platform that is designed to change how businesses and customers interact with each other. The platform uses AI-driven experimentation and personalization.
Evolv AI's inception goes back to 2019 when artificial intelligence and machine learning technology were not as prominent as they are today. And thanks to the power of this novel innovation, Evolv AI offers real-time optimization and analytics across multiple channels. Let's take a quick look at the components and features that make this platform stand out.
AI-Driven Experimentation
This is what Evolv AI was fundamentally designed to do - A/B and multivariate testing with AI. It gives you deeper insights into which ideas work better with customers. To further understand how this platform functions, you need to know about a variable and a variant.
A variable is something that you are trying to test. For example, you may think that your 'Add to Cart' button is not easily visible to your website visitors. And you figure that increasing the contrast between the button and text color might solve the problem. So, here you can create a variable, "Add to Cart Button Contrast."
Now, variants are the versions that you are trying to test for it. Within the "Add to Cart Button Contrast" you can create a number of variants, such as 'blue button with yellow text" or "white button with blue text.''
Once you have created variables and variants in the Web Editor, the Evolve AI algorithm combines these into combinations to figure out the best-performing ones.
Omnichannel Personalization
Personalization is an essential part of customer interactions. A personalized experience makes your customer feel cared for and Evolv AI helps you deliver that - through audience targeting (manual as well as automatic).
In manual targeting, you create and include variables that are relevant to part of your audience. It is a process that is controlled by rules that you set. When you have a targeted variable, variants within it are only visible to users that fit the targeting criteria. For example, if you include a variable targeting mobile users, then users on other forms of devices won't be able to see it.
In auto-targeting, Evolv AI's advanced algorithm does all the heavy lifting. The best part about this automated process is that it can help you discover segments that did not occur to you otherwise. Also, Evolv AI can pull in audience attributes from a number of data sources such as CDPs (customer data platforms) to help you deliver an intelligent personalized user experience.
Real-Time Optimization
Now there is no point in testing out ideas if you can not implement the successful ones immediately. Thankfully, Evolv AI offers support for real-time optimization. Based on how the targeted customers interact with different variants, the platform can optimize your website or application on the go. Its machine learning algorithm learns over time what works and what does not. So cool, right?
You have the flexibility to optimize multiple experiences at the same time without having to worry about all the management. The Evolv AI data model further allows ideas to be dynamically added, removed, or changed without any interruption to your optimization flow.
For optimization to work, you have to add events to your project in the Web Editor. In case you don't know, events are certain activities or behaviors that are triggered during the optimization process. They are basically linked with the KPIs to be measured. There are four types of scenarios that trigger events during an optimization - Selector Engagement (interaction with a page element, for example, a button click), Page Load (loading a page, for example, a 'thank you' page), A Sequence of Events (a certain behavior is recorded, for example, scrolling halfway down the page), and Page Flows (navigating a certain sequence of pages).
Analytics
The Evolv AI platform comes equipped with some advanced analytics capabilities that can help you measure and understand how your website or application is performing in terms of customer engagement, sales, etc. You can track KPIs like conversion rates, bounce rates, engagement rates, average order value, or customer lifetime value.
The platform gives you insights into how your customers' behavior changes over time and the impact of your optimization program on your business. And if that is not enough to meet your needs, you can dig deeper by further extending Evolv AI's analytics capabilities. That's right. You can integrate it with Google Analytics 4 or even better, Adobe Analytics.
Integrations
Speaking of integrations, we have already mentioned Google and Adobe Analytics. But that is not the end of it. Evolv AI has some powerful built-in integrations. For example, you can bring in data from a number of customer data platforms (CDPs), audience managers, digital experience platforms (DXPs), ad managers, web and call tracking analytics platforms, and content management systems (CMS).
Integrating the insights generated by Evolv AI into third-party platforms is just as easy. Some salient integrations include AWS, Oracle, and Salesforce.
Pros and Cons
With the features and functionalities out of the way, let's take a quick look at the pros and cons.
Pros-
Automated AI-driven A/B testing
Real-time AI-powered optimization
Advanced analytics
Useful integrations
Automated audience targeting
Cons-
Requires technical expertise
Expensive (if on a budget)
Relies heavily on automation
Pricing
Evolv AI does not offer any fixed pricing plans. There is no free trial either. However, the company does offer a demo that you can schedule to see how the platform will work for your business. If you like the product, you can talk to their sales team for custom pricing.
Final Thoughts
Evolv AI is one of those tools that are built to do most of the work while you sit back and relax. And at some point, if you feel like you need some control, you can switch to the manual mode. The platform has some outstanding features that we can not ignore.
The only catch here is the learning curve because it does require some coding skills. For small businesses the platform has been known to be kind of expensive - so there's that. Besides, it would have been nice if there was a free trial.
Anyway, if you think your business needs Evolv AI's touch, don't hesitate to go on their official website and book a demo.