Latest / Retail Media Breakfast Club / 55% of consumers say they don't trust AI shopping chatbots & recommendations
Transcript
- consumers dont like ai chatbots === [00:00:00] In yesterday's episode when talking about how retailers should be considering how consumer AI agents will be interacting with their website in the future, I stuck a bold flag in the sand. I said The experience of many AI assistants on retailer websites is underwhelming , in a rather typical crisis of confidence after posting that I wondered if I'd been a little too harsh on the poor chatbots on these retailer dot coms. Maybe had painted too broad a brush based on my own n of one experience, but a recent cruise through my. Rather terrifying email inbox surface some new research that actually validates this Akeneo. [00:00:46] A product experience and product information company recently surveyed a thousand US consumers on how they are. Navigating AI in their shopping journeys, and this survey [00:01:00] found that while 75% of consumers have encountered AI recommendations or chatbots online, only 44% actually engaged with them. [00:01:12] Yikes, that is a significant gap between exposure and adoption. In this episode today, I'm going to dig into why consumers say they don't trust ai shopping chatbots and AI recommendations, and where the opportunities really might be. Let's dive in. [00:01:33] Good morning and welcome to the Retail Media Breakfast Club. I'm your host, Kerry Masters, and every weekday at 6:00 AM Eastern, I bring you candid and real discussions in the world of retail, media and marketplaces in just 10 minutes. So bring your own cup of coffee and we'll get smarter about retail media together. [00:01:54] So consumers say they don't like ai. Akeneo's survey [00:02:00] says that only 45% of consumers have some level of trust in AI powered recommendations and chat bots. I can't say I'm shocked by this, but let me argue the other side for a second. Here's the issue with self-reported preference surveys. [00:02:18] We are abysmal predictors of our own future behavior. We're only slightly better at recalling our past behavior, especially when it comes to technology we don't fully understand. When Amazon introduced AI generated customer review highlights in August, 2023, they didn't announce it with a ton of fanfare. [00:02:40] They just kind of quietly rolled it out in a beta to a subset of US consumers across a small subset of products and only in the mobile app. But today these review summaries are one of the most popular features on Amazon's product pages. [00:02:59] Here's [00:03:00] the thing. Most consumers using these summaries. Just see helpful bullet points telling them what 847 reviewers said about battery life or build quality. They think this is useful, not this is AI and I don't like it. [00:03:16] In the Akeneo survey, participants noted areas where they feel AI has already improved their experience. Such areas are noticing AI being used to improve product recommendations with 37% of consumers agreeing to that faster customer support with 33%. Agreeing to that. improved or more accurate search results with 31% agreeing to seeing that better product information and descriptions and improved AI summaries of customer reviews. [00:03:52] These are all things that consumes out there are noticing have been improvements to the sort of quality of life on [00:04:00] retail websites and the past to purchase. [00:04:03] So when asked, do you trust AI shopping assistance, many consumers likely picture these obvious chat bots of varying levels of sophistication and answered no , while simultaneously appreciating dozens of AI powered improvements that they don't even recognize as artificial intelligence. [00:04:25] Consumers benefit from AI daily without recognizing it as such. [00:04:30] [00:04:32] Just don't come at me with your chatbot. As I argued in yesterday's edition, retailers are building chatbots that consumers appear to be avoiding even as the same consumers. Increasingly become codependent on chat GPT as their work sidekick, life coach [00:04:53] and best friend. They won't trust your retailer.com chat bot to help pick an [00:05:00] outfit out for their first game of paddle, but they will certainly ask chat GPT for styling advice. It seems that despite the early numbers showing positive experiences with ai, retailers and brands still need to proceed with caution using AI to summarize search results and reviews. [00:05:19] Yes, please. Using AI to build out woefully inadequate product page info across across all buying channels. No brainer. Foisting an annoying AI chat bot on me. No thanks. [00:05:34] [00:05:36] Now before you go, I wanna tell you about a webinar this Wednesday at 2:00 PM Eastern Time, brought to you by Future Commerce and Keen Decision Systems. [00:05:48] It's called the Retail Media Halo Effect. Retail media isn't just a channel. Or a tactic. It's an enabler for immersive commerce. With [00:06:00] retail media networks now extending into social media, connected TV advertising, and even into stores, brands have the chance to rewrite their advertising playbooks to fully capitalize on its omnichannel halo effect. [00:06:16] While Retail media's evolution presents new opportunities for brands to grow, strateg leaders must determine how they can cut through an increasingly complex market and develop a strategy that helps 'em stand out, get notice, and drive revenue results. Join me, Sarah Aala a VP. E-commerce at the wonderful company and Bradley Keefer, chief Revenue Officer at Keen Decision Systems for this webinar brought to you by Future Commerce. [00:06:46] I'll add the registration link in the show notes and see you there.