AI has already raised consumer expectations across the board. People expect hyper-personalization, and they expect things to happen faster. What used to take a day should take an hour, and what took an hour should take a minute.
When it comes to purchasing decisions, CPG brands and retailers still rely heavily on visuals, shelf presence and advertising to stand out. With AI-driven decision-making reshaping consumer-brand relationships, that won’t be enough.
There’s a lot on the line: New research from Cognizant and Oxford Economics predicts that by 2030, AI-driven consumers could influence up to 46% of U.S. spending. Brands and retail companies don’t have a choice but to get ready for AI.
The customers of tomorrow will expect AI-powered experiences. Brands struggling to integrate AI should start small, test, pilot, learn and refine the AI integration, leveraging existing models to build AI agents. There are fewer technological hurdles to having a pilot or two so that you are ready for it when it becomes a mass adopted tool.
Advertisement
The Road to Brand Relevance
Consumers already are using AI to discover products and services. Over the next two years, the impact of agent-based consumer AI will become even more pronounced, as leading technology companies embed AI into their consumer platforms.
It is becoming common for consumers to prompt ChatGPT for recommendations. Already, a query for something like “best Manuka honey at an affordable price” might lead to a chat conversation about top brands and where to find them based on the specific health benefits desired.
Over the next five years, AI will shake up how we shop, but letting it hit the “buy” button is less of a sure thing – especially for big purchases. Our research shows that 47% of consumers are using AI-powered search tools, personalized recommendations and virtual assistants to gather info and shortlist options.
But when it comes to the decision-making phase – buying – we’re more hesitant. Security and trust issues pop up, with 75% of consumers not keen on letting AI automatically reorder or pay for high-value items without our say-so. As AI buying evolves, businesses must balance convenience with control and trust.
Leveraging transparency can be a competitive advantage. Consumers trust AI recommendations but they also value transparency and ethical AI use. To build trust in an AI-driven world, businesses should clearly communicate how their brand uses AI ethically and protects consumer data.
How will you stay in the conversation? Following are five additional recommendations for CPG and retail leaders.
What to do when AI is the new consumer interface.
As AI-driven agents replace traditional search and browsing, the customer journey is becoming more conversational. As home appliances get smarter, instructing a smart home agent to buy something based on certain values – organic, fair trade or local – will happen in a dialogue that isn’t about brand. Prioritize building direct consumer-AI relationships. As conversational commerce evolves, brands must integrate into AI-driven interfaces like chatbots, voice assistants and recommendation engines. Companies should develop a branded AI experience that allows consumers to interact directly with the brand’s agent. For retailers, partnerships with smart manufacturers will be important to avoid missing out.
Optimize for high-quality matches.
As AI agents refine consumer preferences and introduce them to new brands, emotional storytelling alone won’t suffice to stand out. Brand relevance will depend on the ability to integrate with AI-driven decision-making. Optimize for AI discovery; AI agents prioritize relevance and attributes, not brand names or advertising. Implement rich, AI-readable metadata in product descriptions – for example, “no sugar” or “non-GMO” for food brands. Brands need to focus on structured product data, attributes and performance metrics to ensure AI can recognize their products as high-quality matches.
Develop your new brand voice.
One common mistake is failing to figure out how your brand voice insinuates itself into your AI voice. The result is increasingly generic AI experiences that miss the opportunity to leverage what consumers love about doing business with you. Train models on your brand’s strengths. AI agents recommend products based on patterns, reviews and data, not traditional branding efforts. Brands must work to ensure that first-party data, customer reviews and other user-generated content feed into AI models used by the major AI platforms and that brand voice comes through.
Build loyalty that transcends AI.
A sustained focus on post-purchase engagement will be very important. AI may influence purchase decisions, but human experience keeps customers coming back. To remain top-of-mind, brands and retailers should strengthen their customer loyalty programs, drive personalized post-purchase engagement and maintain AI-powered communication channels.
Rethink advertising.
AI doesn’t care about traditional brand messaging. Traditional brand-building efforts like TV ads and influencer marketing may not reach AI-driven consumers the same way. Invest in SEO for AI-driven search, optimize for conversational AI queries and ensure your brand appears in AI-recommended lists.
Marketing in an AI-driven world will take just as much creativity as it does today. What we like about the best customer service experiences is that human connection. While we can’t replace the experience of meeting someone’s eyes or hearing their voice, the more that AI can meet us as emotional beings, not just people looking to consummate a transaction, the better off we’re going to be.
Ben Wiener is the Global Head of Cognizant Moment, the company’s new experience unit. Passionate about creating the experiences that shape tomorrow, Wiener and his team are focused on creating more personalized and user-centric digital experiences and platforms for Fortune 500 companies. Prior to this he was the CEO of WongDoody, where he helped lead the company’s growth and evolution from a scrappy creative upstart to one of the world’s leading brand and digital experience firms, serving some of the largest and most innovative clients.
