Personalisation is a popular subject at the moment and often misunderstood or misused. There is mention of recommendation engines, or greeting a customer in a way that continues the relationship, or supporting people when it appears that are having some difficulty interacting, or countless other tactical ways in which the customer experience can be improved. Of course, all of these are vital elements but are effectively just smoothing down the rough corners of the existing business model. What would true personalisation look like if we could reinvent the term from an artificial intelligence perspective?
Firstly, how about the experience? Let’s take shopping as an example; in the flesh, it’s a complex, social, exciting, habitual experience. Online, it’s typically reduced to scrolling down through products arranged two by two or else a search. Imagine instead a personalised experience – not just content making recommendations – whereby matching items are shown together or where navigation is not linear allowing you to explore and discover. Imagine the words being written on the fly with the key messages about what you’re looking for being highlighted. Or even the images being adapted to show the products in the setting(s) that you intend to use them for. Imagine being able to ask an assistant for more details or their opinion. For example, you’re buying a short for a wedding; the image shows what it will look like in a formal setting, the words are written so that you feel good about attending the wedding wearing it, you can ask the online if it goes with your formal shoes and, if not, what would go. That would be truly a personalised experience and one easily achieved with AI.