Dive Brief:

• Amazon Web Services has released AWS Entity Resolution, a machine-learning-powered analytics service that analyzes, matches and links related records across applications, channels and data stores, in several markets, according to a company release.
• The service is designed to help marketers develop deeper customer insights and more relevant marketing campaigns. Companies such as Best Western Hotels and Merkle have already tested the product and received positive results, per the release.
• As the fragmentation of customer data continues, AWS is planning additional integrations to boost Entity Resolution, including with LiveRamp and TransUnion, as well as interoperability with the Unified ID 2.0 open-source framework. Amazon Ads is also integrated.

Dive Insight:

Creating an integrated view of customers is imperative for marketers but has become more difficult as privacy concerns drive the need for changes like Google’s upcoming deprecation of third-party cookies, which in turn has led to a proliferation of digital marketing walled gardens and identity solutions. In the environment, Amazon Web Services is looking to leverage machine learning to shore up a leading spot in helping marketers manage and optimize their multitudes of data and identity solutions. 

As marketers face increasing difficulties reconciling their disparate data pipelines, which often include incomplete information, AWS Entity Resolution promises to enable them to create flexible and configurable workflows to match and link related records across varying data sources. 

“Understanding our hotel guests and their preferences is incredibly important to delivering exceptional traveler experiences,” said Joseph Landucci, director of technology management at Best Western Hotels, in a statement. “To enable this, we must consolidate our data into a unified view of each guest, such that we can more effectively communicate, personalize, and provide support around the guest journey. However, consolidating disparate sets of data is challenging, as customer information is fragmented and lives across multiple repositories.”

AWS Entity Resolution saves companies the investment of time and financial resources in building their own models, training analysts and others on machine learning and continually updating data pipelines, according to AWS. The dashboard will enable individuals to create rule-based workflows for record-matching and accuracy and set thresholds based on their needs.

AWS Entity Resolution’s planned integrations with LiveRamp, TransUnion and Unified ID 2.0 will enable users to translate or enrich their records with common industry identifiers with minimal movement of data outside of AWS, without the need to write new, custom code. In addition, users will be able to collaborate with partners in data clean rooms (including AWS Clean Rooms) to identify common data IDs across sets and easily connect records. 

AWS Entity Resolution will be available in a number of markets including in the U.S. (Ohio, N. Virginia, Oregon), Asia Pacific (Seoul, Singapore, Sydney and Toyko) and European markets (Frankfurt, Ireland and London). Additional regions will be added in the coming months.