Soci Raises $120 Million In Funding To Enhance AI In Digital Marketing

Omnichannel marketing has caused significant disruption for global and national brands. Customers can now access localized search engine and social media results, transforming the marketing landscape.

According to Soci’s founder and CEO, Afif Khoury, brands must now maintain consistent localized marketing while catering to the unique local audience. Marketers also need to streamline workflows and optimize local channels.

Soci has secured $120 million in its latest financing round to strengthen its efforts. This funding will support the development of AI and ML technologies, such as ChatGPT’s natural language models. This enhances the digital marketing software provider’s marketing platform for multi-location brands.

Soci intends to double down on AI investments and venture into new markets using the funding it has received. The financing round will support these initiatives. led by JMI Equity and featuring Vertical Venture Partners, Blossom Street Ventures, and Renew Group Private.

Soci currently provides services to over 700 multi-location and enterprise businesses in the food and beverage industries, with over three million locations. Kumon, Ace Hardware, and Ford are among their clients.

AI Wave Sweeping Through Digital Marketing

SOCi’s “Genius” product line is central to the company’s efforts, with its launch beginning this year. Soci aims to set itself apart by offering advanced data science, AI, and automation tools. Their platform delivers local data analysis and marketing automation. This provides brands with recommendations to free up time for other business areas.

According to Khoury, SOCi’s AI models serve the dual purpose of informing and automating. The AI collects data from various marketing channels across numerous locations and then automates it. The SOCi team created advanced data science models that analyze data and its connection to customer engagements, calls, foot traffic, clicks, and other metrics related to loyalty, lead generation, and revenue.

As a component of its Genius line, SOCi has launched a review response management tool incorporating OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The platform can gather reviews and analytics from various sites and automatically provide intelligent and customizable responses.

Khoury stated that using the review response management tool could reduce the burden and cost of responding to reviews across 5,000 locations. Instead of having 5,000 individuals respond, only five or fewer corporate employees would be responsible for reviewing the list of automated responses.

Featured image from PRNewswire