If there are roughly 400,000 journalists, bloggers, and other potential influencers publishing in the English-speaking world, wouldn't it be great if you could send that press release about your lovingly brewed craft beer only to those who actually cared? Last week, I learned of a U.K. start-up using AI machine learning technology to solve this problem. Trimaldi Ltd., just shy of nine months old, recently announced an AI-backed press release distribution service that uses machine learning algorithms to send a marketer's release only to relevant influencers.

The use of chatbots is in an early stage of marketing experimentation. Some brands are just starting to dip their toes in the water, while others are merely eyeing the water's edge.

The current generation of AI-powered chatbots exciting brand marketers today are not blowing my mind. The problem is, what they do is mundane. It's a big important step in the right direction that Twitter, Facebook, Google and a host of other companies and start-ups make AI-powered chatbots available for marketers to engage audiences. But so far, they're not really doing anything that you couldn't do - probably better - with old-fashioned software, a database and some business rules.

Artificial intelligence and its machine learning branch, in particular, are still rapidly ascending the steep slope of Gartner's infamous Hype Cycle. AI/ML promises to provide marketers with tools to meet potential buyers wherever they are hiding, deduce their intent, serve them content ideally suited to their momentary needs, incite their action and achieve desired business outcomes.

Since Siri first stepped into our lives in 2011, we're being introduced to more and more digital assistants. We've met Amazon's Alexa, Microsoft's Cortana and Google's Google Now. We know them, but do we love them?

There's no arguing that programmatic audience targeting has resulted in chunky returns for advertisers and agencies across the industry. And there's another jump in results when AI is part of the programmatic technology used.

It happened again when I was on the phone with an emerging technology analyst. He asked, "When you say AI, what exactly do you mean?" AI is a term that is bandied about without strict adherence to one meaning.

Not long ago, I sat in the audience of the FutureM conference in Boston listening to Tim Berners-Lee talk about all that has come to pass from his original efforts in establishing the World Wide Web, and all that is to come with AI and machine learning. One of the most interesting questions posed was, "How will we look back at this moment in time when it comes to how technology has impacted our lives?" He answered that, of course, we would think of this as a time when technology had progressed very quickly, and we had discovered many things ...