Question

A show takes a "commercial break," and the sound gets louder. Catchy music and emotional images appear, and the viewer's attention is immediately drawn to the screen. Once the viewer's attention is captured, it becomes apparent that this ad is for the latest mobile phone. The narrator begins touting the features: higher-quality pictures and a faster connection to Wi-Fi than other brands. The commercial uses heavy persuasion to convince viewers to buy the new phone.

2
Commercials such as this one have been a large part of the media since the twentieth century. The first television commercial debuted in 1941 before the start of a baseball game. It advertised a brand of watches. The first radio advertisement, by a real estate agency, debuted more than 20 years earlier on a New York radio station. Advertisements such as these, as well as ones in newspapers, on billboards, and in the mail, are all common in mainstream media. They are a way for companies to promote brands, services, and products. They are also a way for media companies to make money.

3
While such advertisements are still part of everyday media, they have limitations. Ads are made to target a wide audience, and businesses use them in the hopes of finding someone who needs a service or a product. However, the audience can often be so large that customers lose the message. After all, people might change the TV station, turn the newspaper page, or flip the dial on the radio.

4
Recent years have given rise to a newer and perhaps "smarter" form of advertising. This is known as advertising using artificial intelligence, or AI. In its simplest terms, AI is the use of machines such as computers to duplicate human intelligence. They are made to think like a person. People currently use AI for a variety of reasons. Some companies use AI to assist their businesses by creating materials for presentations. Various websites employ AI chatbots—a form of AI—to answer visitors’ questions. AI can also be used for planning, such as an ideal workout or a backyard vegetable garden.

5
Incorporating AI for marketing purposes allows advertising to reach a new level. Imagine the end of blanketed campaigns designed to get everyone in an audience to buy the same product or the end of impersonal commercial mailings that read, "To the Residents of 12 Elm Street." By using AI, companies can track plentiful data about who buys their products, what time of year customers are most likely to purchase a product, and even what time of day customers typically buy a product. These data can then be used by computers to pinpoint individual advertising. This means that businesses can use computers to send text messages or emails about new products to individuals or groups of customers. This targeted advertising saves money for businesses by narrowing the advertising to true customers. Similarly, many businesses, particularly those in telecommunication fields, employ chatbots. Such chatbots often appear to resemble humans and allow for quicker response times to service calls. These chatbots can be programmed to speak in virtually any language.

6
Companies are already putting such AI marketing to good use. One popular coffee company uses data from its customers' loyalty cards and mobile apps to make decisions. About 90 million transactions each week provide information about the types of drinks people order, as well as the location and time of day when purchases are made. The company then uses the data to create personalized advertising based on each customer’s buying trends. It can offer incentives or deals to customers, enticing them to add on to their orders. Aside from personalized advertising, these data can be helpful to the companies in making other decisions. For example, the information can help the company determine where to put a new store or whether new products should be offered in existing stores.

7
Clearly, the AI revolution is taking the world by storm in new and exciting ways. It is revolutionizing not only the way we work but the way we purchase as well.

Which sentence belongs in a summary of AI in Advertising?

A.
AI can gather data about what types of drinks customers buy.

B.
Advertisements that use AI will make their customers more loyal.

C.
People can use AI to have their questions answered on a website.

D.
AI is being used to make advertisements reflect individual preferences.

Answer 1

D. AI is being used to make advertisements reflect individual preferences.

Reason: This captures the main idea of the passage about AI-driven targeted, personalized advertising; the other choices are either specific examples or not central to advertising.