Real-Time, Data-Based Insights: Reimagining the Braze Intelligence Suite

Over the past decade or so, the mobile revolution put a phone in every pocket, a major shift that helped to kick off the big data revolution and the focus on data-driven decision making. That, in turn, triggered a wave of advancement in applied machine learning (ML), allowing more and more manual processes to be improved and automated by brands.

When we began building out the Braze platform’s intelligent functionality five years ago, we aimed to capitalize on these larger trends to help our customers provide better, smarter, more scalable brand experiences to their customers. And while the Intelligence Suite has grown and become more impactful over the years, that focus hasn’t changed. At its core, the Braze Intelligence Suite uses machines to augment and automate human capabilities. By reducing the number of manual decisions that need to be made, it makes space for growth and scale.

What has changed is the way we talk about the Intelligence Suite. As the Braze platform’s ML and smart business logic tools continue to expand in number and sophistication, it no longer makes sense to bucket all AI-related features under a single, comprehensive suite. Instead, we’re going to be sharpening the focus of the Intelligence Suite to the kinds of functionalities it was built around: Namely, helping marketers automate their decision-making with real-time, data-based insights.

The very first product to be included in the Intelligence Suite was Intelligent Delivery, now known as Intelligent Timing. This feature optimizes the timing of when messages are sent to users based on their individual engagement patterns. We prioritized it back then because it was deeply relevant to the Braze platform’s orchestration and message-sending functionality. It allowed us to add more intelligence to the product in a way that would immediately create a positive impact on our customers’ ROI.

That’s the kind of focus we’re going to bring to new Intelligence Suite features as they’re developed. There’s long been significant hype around artificial intelligence (AI) and ML, leading to inflated promises and unrealistic expectations. At Braze, we always aim to build products with integrity, and we’ll continue to focus on conducting good science and running thoughtful experiments to ensure the intelligent features we develop are meaningfully improving ROI for our customers.

In the coming months, we’ll be launching a new suite of features—starting with our advanced churn prediction algorithms—using modern machine learning techniques. Personally, I’m excited that our customers have been so receptive to working closely with us as we develop advanced techniques. Intelligence and predictions are largely uncharted territory for growth marketing and customer engagement, and it’s humbling to get the chance to explore this exciting new frontier with such great partners.

Check our our Intelligence Suite overview to learn more about the history of the suite. To explore the newest addition to the suite, read our Intelligent Channel announcement article.