There’s a possibility of winning big – or losing sight of what matters most to your customers when building GenAI-empowered customer experiences, claims Kuudes Senior Service Designer Katariina Tikkala.
In this blog series we delve into the common pitfalls associated with integrating generative AI into customer service. We also offer some strategic insights for overcoming these challenges and leveraging AI to create outstanding and memorable customer experiences.
If you missed it, click here for part I of this blog series.
Part II: The Pitfall of Irrelevance
Customers in the “experience market” currently feel like they are faced with a bounty of blandness. According to Wunderman Thompson, up to 70% of consumers in US, UK and China cannot remember the last time a brand did something that excited them. And 20% feel that brands should do more to maintain their loyalty.
In fact, a rising worry related to the spread of GenAI is that it could in fact contribute to making the world more boring. AI’s main strengths lie in the ability to crunch huge amounts of data about the past and make predictions based on it, which is impressive and useful, but tends to lead us more often towards averages than extremes. While predicting the most likely results can serve users momentarily, there is a risk of homogenisation (of ideas, visual worlds, and choices) on the long run. Especially when generic AI-produced content gets used as training data for the future AI applications – producing ever more generic results. (Image: generated with Dall-E by the author)
Interactions with GenAI can also be frustrating experiences for users. According to a recent study up to 80% of surveyed customers said using chatbots increased their frustration level (UJET). This frustration is not only toxic for the overall brand experience and customer loyalty but can limit the benefits gained from these systems. As the training of AI models depend on the sustained feedback loop with users, it is vital that users indeed want to continue engaging with them. The user benefits of AI-powered systems simply need to outnumber the potential frustrations for users to continue using these services.
Strategy: Highly Personalised Services
To counteract the trend towards genericism, businesses should discover meaningful ways to employ AI in providing highly personalised experiences. Gartner estimates that by 2026 30% of new apps will use AI to drive personalised adaptive user interfaces (compared to merely 5% in 2023). And studies show that 73% of global consumers indeed expect better personalisation in the future. Users are much more willing to use their time training systems that promise them customised products and services as the result.
In early 2024 L’Oréal introduced BeautyGenius, a beauty expert that provides personalised beauty tips, tutorials and product recommendations based on individual assessment. The system combines the benefits of learning from a wide user base with the ability to add value through personalisation. (Image: L’Oréal by GettyImages)
BAIgrapher is a tool that uses AI to dive deep into the personal experiences and life stories of Alzheimer’s patients. The conversional experience helps slow the progression of the patients condition, as well as turns recorded stories into virtual biographies for loved ones. Through the ability to create such deeply personal experiences, GenAI becomes more than just a tool for efficiency, and a means to genuinely enrich their users lives. (Image: BAIGrapher)
Text-to-video models such as Sora by OpenAI will likely boost companies wanting to create richer experiences for their users. Imagine getting for example a personal video trailer for your newly booked vacation, or visiting the Ikea kitchen you just designed with VR glasses on. It is likely that such video generation will also transform the fields of education and training through highly advanced abilities of demonstrating and adding layers of information. (Image: future medical students practicing upcoming operations, generated with Sora by Capsule Sight)
However, one obvious risk for companies is that extreme personalisation will leave brands with less control over the experience delivered to their customers. Every customer having their customised experience could indeed erode the carefully cultivated associations that brands have worked so hard to establish. Thus brands need to understand how personalisation can help strengthen their selected position in the market. They will also need to work hard to ensure that the essence of their desired customer experience drives the development and training of their AI systems.
We at Kuudes are designers of impactful services and customer experiences. If you want to dive deeper into the experiences your customers are after and how to win them over in the future, let’s talk more!
Click here for more of this blog series:
Part 3: The Pitfall of Losing Trust
