To watch it as a 7-min video
To listen to it as a 7-min podcast.
A friend told me recently that he called a company’s customer support, and was misled into believing that he was talking to a real human. Some time into the conversation, he realized the “person” he was conversing with was AI. “I don’t like it at all.” He said.
I, too, was almost fooled by a so-called “hyper personalization” email message generated by AI. Now, I invite you, the audience, to read this email – can you tell if it came from a real person or AI?
(Title:) “hey Joanne, about your (my city) community work”: (How did they know where I live?)
“You’ve built something really incredible with 10 Plus Brand, especially how you’re transforming more than just businesses—you’re creating platforms where their voices and vision genuinely resonate. That’s no small feat—it’s clear you’ve made branding into an art form while rooting it in strategy, which is a blend not everyone gets right.
I’m Bryan __(so and so)_, founder of _(so and so) _ — we’re working on a local-first shopping feed to help physical shops and small businesses get in front of locals (and visitors) right when they’re deciding where to go or what to buy. Think of it as geo-tagged storytelling for brick-and-mortar spaces—kind of like what you’re already doing with branding, but hyper-focused on sparking immediate foot traffic.
We just launched this locally and started partnering with businesses around SF neighborhoods—it’s been exciting to see quick traction. If this ties into the rebranding or storytelling work you’re doing for physical spaces, I’d love to brainstorm how we might collaborate.
How are ____(my city)-area businesses navigating customer habits right now? Anything creative they’re doing that’s grabbed your attention?
Cheers,
Bryan __(so and so)___
Founder @ __(so and so)__.com”
On closer look, I found that the email address was not under the name “Bryan_(so and so)_”, and was not sent from the company he claimed to have. It was sent from brooke@wavebrandwave.org
I Googled the suspicious email address, but it does not exist. I Googled wavebrandwave.org, but it does not exist either. “His” and “his team members” headshots on the website were AI generated. This “Bryan”’s LinkedIn profile seemed legit, but I have no reason to trust that the hyper personalized message came from a real person. Even if this “Bryan” is a real person, he is shooting himself in the foot by using a fake email address, just to be marked as spam.
Often out of FOMO, companies are blindly adopting AI tools to make their customer support “hyper personalized” to their detriment.
Whether your business is B2B or B2C, your products and services rest on credibility, trustworthiness, and authenticity. When customers expect to interact with real humans, however “real” the AI tools may sound, it is a slippery slope to fool customers with real-sounding conversations and emails which can lead to feelings of being manipulated, played with, and distrustful of your brand.
“Hyper-personalization is a form of marketing that uses artificial intelligence (AI) in conjunction with real-time data to create products, services, or content that is customer-specific and highly granular. Often the process is automated; however, there is scope for in-person hyper-personalization as well. Hyper-personalization is also referred to as one-to-one marketing.” https://www.tibco.com/glossary/what-is-hyper-personalization
Using AI hyper personalization is not a substitute for human-to-human interaction. Customers prefer personalized, individualized, one-on-one service support from humans, because it is rooted deeply in our human nature: we are social beings.
If you place trust and credibility as the most important value in customer relationships, if you respect your customers’ feelings and their loyalty, it is paramount that you make it clear when you are using AI generated messaging, with a simple disclaimer: “This message is generated by AI”.
This day in age, customers have already adapted to the ubiquitous use of automated voice messaging as introductory greetings and for preliminary navigation. But when AI generated messaging is getting into the zone of human-to-human interaction, misleading customers by presenting AI as “real” humans will undermine trust. Your hyper personalization AI strategy is actually doing a disservice to your customers and the bottom line of your business.
The secret for success is to view every relationship as more than a transaction. One of the promises of the AI Age is to liberate humans from machine-like routines, so humans can be more connected to each other.
Understanding human psychology and emotional needs should come BEFORE AI hyper personalization. The real challenge is not how fast you are running with herd followers, driven by AI FOMO, but how you meet your customers’ needs for connection, support, and care.
More than an algorithm-driven “personalization”, companies need to consider a multidisciplinary approach to build relationships of trust with their customers, based on various aspects of humanity – how people feel, what moves their hearts, and human needs for connection with each other. (my next article will focus on multidisciplinary approach, stay tuned.)
Let AI lead to human to human personalization, but not substitute for it.
To further discuss how to customize your brand messages and train your workforce to truly personalize in every human interaction with your customers, please contact us through 10PlusBrand.com. Thank you.
©Joanne Z. Tan all rights reserved.
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