Consumers have quickly become more adjusted to coming into contact with AI during their shopping journeys, though some implementations are still more accepted than others.
To help companies determine exactly what is working (and what’s not) Intellias, the software engineering and digital consultancy company, polled more than 1,000 U.S. consumers to gauge sentiments of AI’s various uses. Key findings from the company’s research found AI chatbots to be the standout in consumer’s minds.
Across all AI uses, nearly 20 percent of consumers agreed that chatbots are the area where AI most disrupts their shopping experiences. And though 44 percent of respondents said they feel that AI has helped retailers and brands “create a more personalized shopping experience” another 20 percent cited interactions with AI chatbots as the most likely stage in the online buying journeys where they were most tempted to abandon a purchase.
Notably, the authors of Intellias’ report pointed to a similar study from Talkdesk, an AI contact center vendor, which found that almost 70 percent of U.S. shoppers claim they “would lose trust in a brand if it gave them poor recommendations by AI chatbots,” with more than half also reporting that poor AI chatbot experiences would prevent them from shopping with that retailer again.
“There’s little doubt that AI — and in particular Gen AI — have had its watershed moment, as the intersection between rapid consumer and business adoption really came to the fore last year,” said Alexander Goncharuk, vice president of global retail at Intellias. “While there’s no denying the hype curve, AI mustn’t become a go-to catchall for plugging gaps in shopping experiences.”
According to Intellias’ poll, 46 percent of survey respondents don’t mind that retailers use AI as long as the experience isn’t “clunky.” And 66 percent said they don’t mind when retailers use AI if it is to automate repetitive or monotonous tasks as long as it does not replace human interaction.
“Each application of the technology needs to be considered in the context of the entire value chain and only deployed where it can deliver value in a friction-free manner,” said Goncharuk. “And that requires both orchestrating the tech stack in the right way to extract value, as well as looking at the application of AI in the shopper journey as a whole — only then will it deliver both the business benefits to the retailer while enhancing experiences for consumers.”
When asked about the future of AI technology in the shopping experience, more than 70 percent of consumers said that even as AI becomes better, a blended experience of AI-delivered automation and human interaction “would always be needed in retail.”
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