The Role of AI in Consumerism: A Game Changer
We are living in a world where automation and incessant growth are a new reality. The jump in the application of Artificial Intelligence in recent times has opened doors for numerous opportunities that were once implausible. With AI being deployed across most of the major industries, it has followed to show a significant impact on the end consumer. Retail has always been a hotbed for data analysis and with AI in place, consumers are within the target range for most marketers. Retailers find a natural association between AI and consumer behaviour.
How often do you notice an advertisement on your feed when you haven’t even searched Google for it but only vaguely recall mentioning it to someone? Are you also amazed when Spotify releases a new playlist just for you, with all your favourite songs? With more and more data about you, these recommendation systems are able to fine-tune their weights of several variables to acquire an almost perfect replica of you. Recommendation systems are everywhere — subscription-based services (Netflix, Spotify, Medium, etc), e-commerce websites, social media and more. These systems are perfect examples of perpetuating consumerism. By simply applying the concept of visual stimulation, they encourage consumers to get things they might need, earlier than they usually would. By availing the customer’s psychometrics and demographics when they browse the internet, AI accumulates details related to their online behaviour. Statistics such as buying frequency and brand preferences of the user is revealed by the data obtained through AI. Consumer habits and behaviour would continue to be impacted by AI as the mass interaction between brands and customers across the buyers’ journey will bring about a lot of transformations.
AI has also changed the way marketing was apprehended. AI is an asset considering the advantages it offers and will continue to render, provided we use it wisely. The paramount benefit is the positive influence it has made on allowing marketers to examine consumer buying behaviour. The collection of data including browsing patterns, search history, etc. has enabled marketers to understand the preferences of the targeted audience. Nowadays, AI is continuously increasing its presence in a wide range of ways: from Google Alexa to Chatbots, the list is quite long. With new AI features like personalised offer messages, customers are compelled to check out the offers proposed by the brand. AI assists to predict the purchasing behaviour of the target customer in the simplest way possible. All of this is the result of behavioural insights and marketing. Marketers need to understand consumer behaviour and their expectations to serve them with relevant services. Companies can now gain an insight into their consumers spending patterns and use that knowledge to design intelligent solutions. By combining data and knowledge in algorithms and tools, they can develop cognitive solutions that generate real value. A business strategy equipped to deal with the technological disruption brought by AI is key to success, both today and in the future. Brands that put the consumer first across every section are undeniably minimising risk while benefiting from the commercial opportunities. Moreover, it is believed that AI can uncover some customer acumen that can highly motivate their loyalty towards a particular brand. Digital customers have a huge outflow of choices around them; so much so that there is a choice overload. AI can not only cut down on these options but give customers the best option, according to their customisations. Thus, organisations really need to acknowledge and embrace AI in order to still be competitive and relevant in a couple of years.
Artificial intelligence is going to exist for a long time and the speed at which its implementation is adopted by the consumer will only escalate. Cognitive websites are drastically changing the buying behaviour and selection process. These sites take consumers through a much more intelligent funnel, allowing them to make the purchase before ‘user fatigue’ starts to kick in or the user gets distracted. The average spending of a buyer per session is significantly increasing with cognitive websites. Thus, with a union of AI and consumerism, the consumers splash more cash than ever before. The age of consumerism will soon reach unprecedented heights with AI in full flow.
