OCTOBER 2022CIOAPPLICATIONSEUROPE.COM8IN MYOPINIONFrom Prediction to Foreseeing and Shaping the Future: The Required Evolutions in Machine Learning CSUNANDO DAS, GLOBAL DIRECTOR - PREDICTIVE MARKETING AND SHOPPING ANALYTICS, CONSUMER AND MARKET INSIGHTS, UNILEVEROVID has driven fundamental shifts in consumer behaviours resulting in more polarised consumer segments driven by different drivers and responsiveness to marketing/sales levers. Given the changing dynamics, the marketing questions are where the future growth will come from, how to sweat the investments more, how to predict the future consumer behaviours to drive sales. Machine Learning (ML)can be instrumental in addressing these challenges helping to bring certainty to uncertainty which I have spoken about earlier. The impact of these applications will be enhanced further with much-needed evolutions at scale in ML. This article outlines my take on nine such likely ML evolutions in the industry in the next 12months. Beyond Prediction1. From Predicting the Future of a Known Past to that of an Unknown Past: Whilst the uncertainties imposed by COVID in predicting the future consumer demand has been addressed by leveraging ML, what remains unresolved is the prediction by consumer segments where sales data does not exist. Solving this challenge will help to move from predicting the consumer demand to shaping the future consumer demand. Evolutions in neural networks and game theory applications are helping address this challenge.2. From Prediction to Shaping Future Sales: Consumer Lifetime Value of categories has reduced significantly in FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) since the onset of COVID. There are categories with significantly increased consumption in 2020 but the rate of increase will decelerate in 2021. The focus will be on
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