Using artificial intelligence (AI) tools to humanize your brand and product messaging? It seems like an oxymoron.
With the right approach, however, companies can leverage AI tools for the foundation of brand content, then tap human experts to help finesse brand messaging efforts.
Here’s a look at the growing role of authentic content in customers’ purchasing decisions and how AI can help set the stage for success.
Voice, Values, and Veracity: The Customer Conversion Trifecta
Engaging, converting, and keeping customers coming back requires an understanding of what they want from brands and retailers.
It’s no longer enough to have the best product or the most effective service on the market — customers want to connect with brands in ways that make them feel heard, understood, and important.
Three components are critical to connection in practice: voice, values, and veracity.
Voice
Customers want brands that speak to them like they’re human beings rather than simply sales statistics. This means creating a corporate voice that prioritizes personalized interactions and remembers consumer preferences. As noted by Insider Intelligence, 73% of customers expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations.
Values
A recent Harris Poll commissioned by Google Cloud found that 82% of customers want a brand’s values to align with their own, and 75% said they switched brands after a conflict in values. Top values include eco-friendliness (66%) and sustainability (72%).
Veracity
Truth in messaging matters. As noted by digital media and analyst outlet Diginomica, 77% of customers say they trust companies that make honest claims about products. Exaggerate or misdirect, however, and this same 77% may take their business elsewhere.
The Growing Impact of AI Tools
Research firm McKinsey found that 50% of companies used AI for functions like process automation, deep learning, and conversational interfaces like chatbots in 2022. In 2021, however, this number stood at 56%, which suggested a potential “leveling off” of AI adoption.
And then came ChatGPT.
As reported by Reuters, ChatGPT reached 100 million monthly active users just two months after its November 2022 launch, making it the fastest-growing consumer app ever. The tool can generate multiple content types in response to user prompts, opening the door to a new wave of AI adoption for brand messaging.
Partnering With AI: Put ‘Er There, Partner!
When it comes to adopting AI, brands are best served thinking in terms of partnership rather than replacement. While worries persist around tools such as GPT-3 or DALL-E supplanting human writers and artists, they’re just that: tools. Tools that can be used to improve brand messaging, enhance ecommerce stores, and better connect with customers.
This is because while AI tools excel at content, they struggle with connection.
Consider this blog post created by an AI bot, which details the potential benefits of using AI tools for product descriptions. Although the message is clear, the writing is repetitive — phrases such as “there are many benefits” and “it will likely … ” appear again and again throughout the piece. The eyes of a human reviewer could help smooth out the rough edges.
This creates a “best of both worlds” situation, where companies can use AI to generate blog copy or outlines, marketing content, and product descriptions — and then leverage human expertise to fine-tune the messaging.
Top Benefits of AI Partnerships for Ecommerce
There are many benefits to AI partnerships in cultivating voice, values, and veracity.
1. Give Time Back to Your Team
First is improved use of employee time and effort. By using AI to enhance search engine optimization (SEO) or write product descriptions based on provided templates, your teams have more time to ensure brand voice aligns with customer expectations.
Your team can add personalized messages to marketing or sales emails that make it easy for customers to get in touch or leverage AI solutions to add personalized offers based on customer purchasing history.
2. Improve Consistency and Reduce Error
Next up is consistency. Given specific parameters and data, AI tools can generate consistent, accurate content that helps engender customer trust. As products and services evolve, companies simply add new data points and remove outdated information.
3. Evolve With Customer Values
Finally, AI can help companies stay ahead of the curve when it comes to customer values. For example, while sustainability and environmental efforts remain top priorities for customers, changing geopolitical conditions also play a role in purchasing decisions — buyers may want assurances that companies do (or do not) purchase materials or operate manufacturing facilities in specific countries. AI tools make it possible for brands to keep pace with evolving customer values.
Staking Your Claim on the Digital Shelf
The digital shelf now extends into the physical world. With buyers researching brands and products before they set foot in brick-and-mortar businesses — and even while they’re shopping in-store — companies must ensure that marketing content, product descriptions, and sales data are consistent, accurate, and aligned with customer preferences.
AI tools can help brands stake their claim on digital shelves by providing a reliable foundation for brand messaging. With AI handling the heavy lifting of content generation, staff can focus on finetuning AI output with creative adjustments that speak directly to customer needs.
