GUEST POST from Shep Hyken
What if AI started making buying decisions for your customers?
Breaking news! It already is! And that means your marketing, sales and customer experience strategy may be in need of a major overhaul.
One of my favorite business authors is Mark Schaefer. His books are always thought-provoking, relevant and accurate. His most recent book, How AI Changes Your Customer: The Marketing Guide to Humanity’s Next Chapter, may even be a little disturbing. His message is clear.
Schaefer makes the point that AI is thinking on behalf of your customers, and when AI becomes your customer’s brain, AI becomes your customer.
Reread that last sentence, maybe more than once or twice, and let it sink in.
Schaefer’s book makes the case that people increasingly delegate their thinking and decision-making to AI. He illustrates this point with a simple yet powerful analogy: If you’re in the diaper business, babies are the end users, but they are not the decision-makers. Decision-makers are the caregivers responsible for the end users. Therefore, diaper companies know to market to the caregiver responsible for the baby, not the baby.
In business, AI is becoming the decision-maker. Customers aren’t Googling to look at different websites. They are using ChatGPT-type platforms to engage in discussions about the pros and cons of various products, brands and other topics.
As I’m writing this article, I realize that I’m one of those customers. Just yesterday, I researched my choices for a new barbecue pit using ChatGPT. I used Athena to help me make my decision. Yes, I named my voice version of ChatGPT Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom and knowledge. (By the way, Athena appreciated that. She told me so!)
That conversation with Athena changed my mind about the original barbecue pit I had planned to buy. It also changed which store I was going to buy it from. Athena did my thinking for me. It wasn’t a salesperson. It wasn’t a friend’s suggestion. It was AI.
So what happened here? Schaefer’s point that AI is thinking on behalf of customers is what happened.
The most important mantra in marketing has been “know your customer.” Yet AI changes that when it begins to “rewire the customer’s brain.” The book draws insights from a study by 300 global experts that reveals how AI is transforming not just what people do, but also how they do it. It’s changing who they are. We’re watching the psychology of marketing changing in real time.
Before I go further, I’m not an expert on how technology works. My focus is on how technology impacts customers. So, as I write a summary of what I think are the most important points in the book, I’m doing so with the customer in mind. Here is my summary of five of Shaefer’s most important points that every leader must understand if they want their company to stay relevant and survive:
1. The Death of Deep Thinking #
AI-driven “cognitive off” is eroding our ability for critical thinking. MIT and University of Pennsylvania studies reveal that frequent AI users show diminished capability for analytical reasoning. The implication for businesses is that you are now selling to both humans and the AI apps that make decisions on their behalf. AI is removing emotional decision-making from the equation. Schaefer’s point is that thinking can become optional when we allow AI to help us make—or completely make—decisions for us.
2. When Artificial Empathy Wins #
Schaefer makes the case in the early part of this chapter that, “if a machine makes you feel seen, heard and understood, does it matter if it’s a machine?” It’s now reported that AI chatbots outperform licensed therapists on empathy. Customers are forming strong bonds with technology that guides them through decision-making. However, when a company relies on AI for customer support and care, while it is efficient, it is removing the emotional conversation that live agents have with customers from the relationship equation—at least for now.
3. The Confidence Crisis #
This chapter starts with these words: “Once upon a time we trusted ourselves. … Now we outsource our confidence (to AI).” AI can handle everything from dinner reservations to career advice. People are developing learned helplessness and doubting their own judgment. According to Stanford psychology professor Russell Poldrack, “When people can easily use AI to perform tasks they used to struggle with, it’s likely to lead to a lack of confidence in one’s own reasoning and ability to solve problems.”
4. Purpose, Meaning and Values are Changing #
Schaefer says, “Of all the ways AI will reshape humanity, the theft of purpose may be the cruelest.” He used the example of how he toils over writing an article, let alone a book. Now, he can ask AI to write an essay on a marketing topic, and in seconds, it will return a decent draft. When AI can operate at this level, we must be aware of how people will start thinking, acting and doing. This will have a huge impact on how we design a customer experience.
5. When the Algorithm Becomes Your Customer #
Back to my example of how AI changed my mind about the barbecue pit I was going to buy. AI helped me make my decision. A recurring theme throughout the book is the growing trust we have in AI. That means that as leaders, we must learn how to influence the influencer. To do that, Schaefer says you must learn to write for the algorithm, not just the customer. “Today, AI sits between your brand and your buyer.”
Final Words #
Schaefer’s book combines warning and opportunity. We’ve barely scratched the surface of how customers’ buying decisions are changing. The brands that will survive, according to Schaefer, are the ones that aren’t resisting this change, are embracing it, and at the same time, realizing they still need to find the balance between AI and the heart. In the end, it’s a human that is paying for what you sell, using what you sell and enjoying it enough to (hopefully) come back and buy more of what you sell.
This article was originally published on Forbes.com. Image Credit: Shep Hyken
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