“Never be the same again” is 100% a term we would use for brand-customer relationships in the age of AI. New operational models, new types of buyer’s journeys, simplified visual search, and brands being cut out of their own marketing funnels are just some of the fundamental ways Gen AI, voice assistants, chatbots, and AI agents have changed the game forever.
In this article, we’ll dive into 5 significant changes brought on by AI, how they add to the overall customer experience, and whether or not you should rethink your marketing strategy and daily behind-the-scenes operations. Spoiler alert: You definitely should.
Plus, if you’d like some loyalty industry-specific AI insights, make sure to download our free Global Customer Loyalty Report.
1. Alleviating Operation-Based Friction
Let’s start from the operational level. Embedding AI into behind-the-scenes operations, like end-to-end supply chain optimization, plus delivery, and inventory management, provides immense benefits both for brands and customers. On one side, it can save 20 to 30 percent in inventory and 5 to 20 percent in logistics costs for companies.
On the other hand, it resolves one of the most crucial pain points for customers: not being able to buy what they want, how, and when they want it. Thanks to AI-optimized supply chains and daily operating models, companies are already able to serve their customers in a much more precise way, due to:
- Enhanced supply and demand forecasting.
- Analyzing inventory in real time.
- Identifying issues and out-of-norm patterns early on.
- Optimizing warehouse capacity and placement of inventory for easier sorting and faster delivery.
- Refining delivery routes.
- Interactive Agentic AI tools help employees to gain a better understanding of current inventory, upcoming shipments, etc.
Streamlining supply chain operations through AI integration provides a more elevated, more convenient, and overall more satisfactory shopping experience for customers, ceasing friction points due to out-of-stock goods, faulty, damaged, or late deliveries.
2. Buyer’s Journey Reimagined Vol 1: Image Search, Voice Summaries, AI Guides
Remember Trevor Noah’s recurring segment on The Daily Show: “Ain’t Nobody Got Time For That?”. Well, turns out humans neither have the time nor the attention span for things nowadays. In fact, the average human attention span decreased to 8.25 seconds. Which naturally has consequences in terms of product discovery as well.
Enters AI. Instead of requiring you to try to guess the name or brand of a product you glimpsed on the street, now you’re able to simply visual search it. Companies like Google enabled this function a long time ago, but now even retailers like Amazon, or social media sites (with retail functionalities) like Pinterest, are catching up. Additionally, retail giants like Amazon also offer voice highlights on products, plus AI summary guides, all in the name of convenience.
Adapting to new ways customers discover your products (audio, visual, written), diversifying the ways they’re able to gain information about certain items is a must for brands. Turbocharging the way you enable accessibility and convenience through AI should be at the forefront of your marketing strategy.
3. Buyer’s Journey Reimagined Vol 2: ChatGPT and Perplexity as Your New Frenemies
Let’s say a customer requires a more in-depth, conversational search. Put yourself in their shoes for a minute (pun will soon follow, don’t worry). Imagine you’re invited to a wedding in two weeks. You already have the perfect dress, but no shoes to match. So, you do what anybody would: ask ChatGPT to recommend you options based on the location and climate of the wedding, your shoe size, the color of your dress, and your preferred heel style. This is where the magic happens!
Instead of simply listing out potential shoe options, using Perplexity Pro – and soon ChatGPT too (or Gemini, Cloud, any of your go-to AI solutions), people are able to purchase straight from a chat conversation, without leaving the AI platform. Which means, while the AI models will offer your products for purchase (good), customers will have barely any connection with your brand, not even when they hit “add to cart”(not-so-good).
In fact, this is kind of terrible for 2 reasons: One, you won’t have an opportunity to build brand affinity pre-purchase, and two, you will have barely any data on them. This new structure to the marketing funnel, and partially losing control over customer acquisition, will prompt brands to invest more heavily into retention instead.
AI tools, while recommending your products, also take away part of your power. Customer care, loyalty programs, and after-purchase retargeting are becoming more important than ever. The emphasis will go from money poured into the discovery and acquisition phase to money poured into the retention phase.
4. The Multiverse of Customer Data
As we all know, AI tools are capable of catching and sifting through massive amounts of customer data. From website interactions, purchase history, in-store visits, browser analytics, chatbot conversations, loyalty program data, etc, now marketers are able to make sense of this data, turning it into real, actionable insights.
This is leading to a hyper-personalized journey for shoppers and a truly symbiotic relationship between brands and customers. AI-powered tools empower marketers to:
- Identifying customer behavioral patterns.
- Effectively retarget customers before churn.
- Conversing with analytics tools, as if they were coworkers, saves time in resolving issues and roadblocks.
- Reimagine product innovations based on recurring customer needs and search queries from their on-page AI chatbots.
- Using said chatbots to reengage customers while still on the website, reducing high cart abandonment rates.
While AI tools enable more precise marketing actions than ever, unless you actually use them to put a customer-centric strategy in place, they mean nothing. Utilize every touchpoint for engagement, and every morsel of information for innovation; that’s where the power of AI-powered data analytics truly lies.
5. Human Assistance and Experiences Becoming the New Luxury
While most aspects of AI integration into the buying process bring convenience, speed, and ease of access to shoppers, it will also, at some point, fade into an everyday expectation. AI-powered customer service, virtual product try-ons, photo-based product recs, buying books from DMs, and Chat windows will be accessible to everyone. Comfortable? Yes. Memorable, experiential, and personal? Not so much.
Just look at the luxury goods market. Premium customers (a.k.a the 1%) are seeking much more than just products. Anybody with enough money can buy a Chanel bag, but not everybody gets invited to special retreats, exclusive launch events, gets priority customer service with an actual human at the end of the line, or has several personal stylists on call day and night. We believe that access to in-person, human experiences and interactions will not only retain but grow its value in time.
Chatbots and agents will retain mass market appeal and provide general speed and convenience, while human assistants will represent a higher form of engagement and experiential value for customers, especially regarding luxury retailers.
The Takeaway on AI’s Influence on Brand-Customer Relationships
AI tools and system-wide operational AI integrations are already changing the brand-customer relationship forever. Bringing in speed and convenience, providing marketers with the tools to truly elevate their personalization strategies. At the same time, Gen AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity take partial control of sales, decreasing on-page visitors and brand affinity.
In the age of AI, every interaction and every touchpoint counts. Data is the ultimate prize, while data privacy and transparency could be the keys to the kingdom.
Ready to see how Antavo’s AI Loyalty Cloud takes data and turns it into real, actionable insights? Book a demo with our experts!
Don’t forget to check out our Global Customer Loyalty Report for fresh insights on AI-driven loyalty:
Zsuzsanna is a Loyalty Specialist and Certified Loyalty Expert™ with years of experience in digital marketing and e-commerce. Zsuzsanna is known for having an analytic approach and high-level communication skills, helping her deliver engaging content. In her free time, she enjoys watching Formula 1 and listening to endless Taylor Swift playlists.
