Should You Share AI-Driven Customer Insights with Your Customers?

The essence of AI is a prediction machine, which consists of algorithms capable of (1) finding patterns in large datasets and (2) training themselves to get “smarter” (increase their predictive accuracy). There are clear reasons to expect AI to improve our ability to understand things, including ourselves. 

The widespread adoption provides compelling evidence for the value of AI to consumers; their AI engines do little to improve our self-knowledge. So, is there any problem? 

1. Our choices become more data-driven, the consumer sophistication decreases. This is a missed opportunity in the face of growing product supply. 
2. When the algorithms do work, their work may sound “creepy”; like how did they know what I wanted even I didn’t know

Perhaps, to avoid the dystopian scenario predicted by Yuval Harari, we must democratize the algorithms' knowledge of us, at least by ensuring that companies have to share the personal insights they’re gathered with us. 

Every trivial choice we make every day reveals central aspects of our identity. Marketers have known this secret for years, so the fundamental choice between Pepsi and Coke, Nike, and Adidas is not based on rational reasons but on identification with the brand, which rests on our interpretation of that brand’s personality. 

 The opportunity for AI would be to make us aware of the gaps between how we want to be seen and what are brand and product choices convey to us. As Nathalie Nahai says in her late book, consumers are highly committed to adjusting their preferences based on the reputation of brands, including their moral and political orientation. 

Consider a few examples: your choice of movies reveals the degree to which you are intelligent, conscientious, and agreeable, and your Facebook data reveals whether you are friendly or introverted. There are few exceptions to this rule, and the list of correlations between human personality traits and product preferences needs to be revised even to summarize.

AI could be a real-time coach, giving us regular feedback on our daily behavior. Wearables can translate physiological signals into actionable feedback on our fitness, energy, sleepiness, or stress levels. 

Brands and consumers have a mutual interest in understanding consumers’ personalities. In the 1950s, marketing campaigns were grounded in focus groups and telephone surveys to segment customers “psychographically” to improve the product.

With AI, we can get a much more personalized version updated in real-time, enhancing the connection between brands and consumers. A brand is a promise to deliver what people want or need. 

This process only needs extensive data on consumers’ behaviors and AI capabilities to translate that data into insights. If a brand wants to share its understanding with the consumer, it will enhance its ethical reputation and trustworthiness.