In May, Rakuten hosted its annual Optimism event in Carlsbad, California, attracting 1,000 marketers from diverse sectors like retail, finance, and travel. Ben Cox, VP of AI Strategy and Operations at Rakuten Advertising, discussed three new AI tools: Detect, Storefronts, and Prompt. Detect boosts visibility by identifying compliance issues and monitoring partner behavior, essential for optimizing affiliate relationships. Storefronts enhance creator engagement, streamlining customer pathways to purchase. Prompt simplifies report generation through AI, offering actionable insights rapidly. Cox emphasizes Detect’s reliability, rooted in extensive industry knowledge, enabling confident decision-making. Rakuten’s AI differentiates itself through deep affiliate expertise, leveraging proprietary data instead of generic models. The company plans to enhance audience insights and drive smarter personalization through AI, thereby positioning affiliate marketing as a full-funnel channel. With significant investments in AI infrastructure, Rakuten aims to redefine digital marketing, offering real-time intelligence and proactive campaign management, ultimately transforming advertiser and affiliate collaboration.
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