At SnailWorks we create and manage a lot of Informed Delivery campaigns – a LOT. And then, during the promotion, we submit our customers’ campaigns for approval for the promotion. In fact, according to the Postal Service, SnailWorks submits more campaigns for approval than any other entity. We’re pretty good at it.
Recently, we were approached by the Postal Service to help them prototype a new promotion approval process driven by artificial intelligence (AI).
Currently, creating Informed Delivery campaigns and submitting them for approval is a fairly straightforward process, but there are a number of steps involved, so organization and internal automation are essential when managing the number of campaigns we handle. One of our skilled team members will review the campaign and make any necessary adjustments so that it meets requirements in terms of image size, proper URLs, and a million other details. Once we’re satisfied with it, we will submit it to the USPS Promotion Portal for approval. The current process USPS has established entails submitting campaign elements to a Mail Piece Design Analyst (MDA) for review and approval. This can take anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days, depending on which MDA was selected to review, and what their workload may be. It can be a challenging process, but it works well for us – we have an excellent relationship with the promotions team at USPS.
The new process USPS is developing with artificial intelligence will remove the burden of a human MDA reviewing campaign elements. The AI agent will review the campaign and determine if it meets all of the requirements to qualify for the promotion discount. Typically, it returns an answer in seconds. Because this is still a prototype, there are occasions when a human needs to review results, but overall, it has been very successful. AI makes managing the approval process much easier for a high-volume user like SnailWorks, and we like to think we are helping to make the process better for everyone through sharing our experience.
Say what you will about the Postal Service, their promotions are sophisticated and work well, and they are not afraid to innovate. I would expect to see AI take a bigger role in approving and managing promotions in the future.