Attracting and retaining consumer attention has never been more challenging. Technology has changed rapidly over the last few decades, giving rise to new communication methods and consumer expectations for instant gratification. As AI becomes more business-critical and digital fatigue heightens among consumers, retailers’ AI roadmaps must present value to shoppers, address their priorities and foster loyalty long-term.
The good news: Retailers do not need to reinvent their digital strategies to reap value from AI investments. To create meaningful AI-driven experiences for customers, retailers must understand how AI and their existing digital communications channels can work together. Not only does this ensure retailers progress in AI maturity, but this ensures a modern, personalized shopping experience that resonates with consumers, making them feel seen and heard.
Consumer Behaviors Drive Channel Effectiveness
Effective consumer engagement requires more than promoting new deals and promotions through existing channels – it means meeting consumers where they are, understanding what drives their behaviors and taking their priorities into account.
In addition to knowing which communications platforms are most preferred, driving meaningful customer interactions and valuable messages depend on multiple other factors:
- Tech impact on consumer behaviors: Ongoing technology advancements, such as the rise of smartphones and social media or the influx of AI shopping agents launched last holiday season, have transformed the way people communicate, absorb information and shop. Understanding tech’s impact on consumers gives retailers guidance on where to expand their digital presence and the audiences they can reach on new platforms.
- Platform effectiveness throughout the shopping journey: Individual communications platforms can be most effective at different parts of the customer journey, underscoring the need to ensure messages match both the channel style and the touch point at which the customer is in their shopping journey. For example, RCS messaging enables real-time delivery tracking, social media can attract new customers through interactive content and influencer reviews, AI agents can accelerate deal discoveries and in-app chatbots are valuable in providing real-time support.
- Macro-environmental awareness: Consumer priorities are often influenced by macro-environmental factors, from tariffs driving cost consciousness to people refusing to pick up their phones due to a spike in spam calls and texts. By keeping a pulse on the macro environment, retailers can get a better understanding of what matters most to shoppers and be more informed about how and what to communicate with them.
People want to do business with brands they trust. In today’s hyper-digital world, retailers need to demonstrate that they actually know their customers, from their preferred messaging platform (WhatsApp, iMessage, RCS text, etc.) to the types of personalized communication they want to get from retailers (flash sales, delivery updates, product restocks, etc.).
Making the Most of Mobile and Omnichannel
Communications platforms are more than promotional avenues – they allow retailers to create meaningful one-on-one interactions with customers through real-time service, checkout reminders and other interactive functions that can translate into loyalty and retention.
We have a plethora of communications channels available today, from SMS, RCS messaging and WhatsApp to social media apps, email, mobile apps and AI chatbots. All of these platforms, especially mobile messaging platforms, have evolved to match widespread consumer usage of smartphones and, more importantly, offer multi-faceted functions that bring depth to one-on-one conversations. These interactive features pave the way for more customer engagement opportunities and deeper relationships.
The proof is in the pudding: adoption of RCS messaging (a.k.a. texting 2.0) has dramatically increased within the last few years by businesses and consumers alike. To keep pace with consumers, businesses leverage its interactive features—appointment booking, customer service, delivery updates, hi-res images—to bring shoppers to purchase and retail loyalty even after checkout.
Meanwhile, WhatsApp also has seen a 30% increase globally just last year, with more brands using the platform to orchestrate conversational marketing interactions with customers around the world. Moreover, both channels boast brand verification and security capabilities, addressing consumers’ top concerns around security and boosting customer confidence through branded messaging.
Maintaining a holistic digital presence is crucial to reaching various consumer audiences, and AI investments should not take away from that. In fact, AI can amplify the effectiveness of existing communications channels by enhancing conversational interactions for loyalty building, personalized journeys and intuitive support.
AI After Discovery
AI innovation skyrocketed in the last few years, proving the technology to be more valuable beyond FAQ automation. As seen in the momentum of shopping agents, AI is valuable for cost comparison as well as product and deal discovery.
Retailers are progressing beyond initial AI adoption and into maturity. In fact, we can expect further AI evolution to the point where they’re managing up to 95% of customer engagements through instant and personalized support, as well as increased ability to perform more business- and industry-specific functions.
For instance, healthcare and finance may use AI solutions to enhance patient care and security capabilities; AI chatbots can be used for handling routing banking inquiries and order tracking; and increased use of advanced voice bots can unlock new automation opportunities and humanlike responses to customer queries.
Looking at retail specifically, AI advancements are ushering in a major industry transformation. Agentic AI and conversational AI are actively reshaping the customer journey, giving retailers new tools to deliver the personalization people want and ensuring always-on support. Agentic AI uses first-party customer data to deliver hyper-personalization, evolve loyalty programs and enable intuitive customer interactions that proactively anticipate individual customer needs. Meanwhile, conversational AI redefines the end-to-end customer experience in and out of physical storefronts, from product discovery and recommendations to custom deals and personalized shopping.
As retailers fine-tune their AI capabilities, they uncover more opportunities to create targeted conversations that resonate with an array of customers, furthering the notion that AI is a critical tool to improve customer interactions on various digital communications platforms.
Why AI and Omnichannel Need Each Other
We’re at a point in the AI age when retailers must reevaluate their omnichannel communications strategies in order to progress in AI maturity. Understanding how AI and omnichannel can work together helps brands reap the most value from their AI investments without neglecting their existing digital tools.
By combining conversational AI’s intuitiveness and power of mimicking human conversations with messaging platforms’ interactive features, retailers deliver an unmatched digital customer journey that encourages engagement at every touch point. From carousel displays of upcoming events and in-app purchases and functions to real-time support and fun games and quizzes, customer engagement becomes more than sharing a promotion and hoping they take advantage of the deal. It helps customers build trust and loyalty in a brand, keeping them engaged even without an active purchase in progress.
Implementing AI in omnichannel and digital communications platforms allows these channels to harness more strategic advantages, from increased customer loyalty to a more accessible in-app end-to-end shopping experience. This ensures customers that brands understand what’s most important to them, where they want to be reached and the most critical tech advancements that will undoubtedly impact the rest of society.
Ethan Gustav is the Group President of North America at Infobip and a member of the Executive Leadership Team. In this role, he is responsible for all go-to-market functions, including Product, Operations and Operator Partnerships (such as Carrier Relations and Compliance), within the largest Total Addressable Market (TAM) for CPaaS and SaaS-based Conversational AI. In addition, he oversees Infobip’s global customers with headquarters in North America. Prior to joining Infobip, he served as Chief Revenue Officer at OpenMarket. He is principled in building high-trust working cultures and is a champion of both the customer and employee experience.
