Connecting with the future consumer
21st november 2024
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Speech Summary
As Generation Beta are born next year, we prepare ourselves for an ever-deepening digital reality.
While the millennial generation grew up in the digital world, their Gen Z counterparts were the app generation. Gen Alpha and Beta will come of age in the AI generation, as will all of society.
In a way, the previous 20 years have only been the warm-up, the support act if you will. Society as we know it, every industry and every channel will change based on the perfect storm that is the maturing of robotics, AI, metaverse and the consumer generations themselves.
The Hospitality industry has always been a people and human centred business at its core. But today, genuine Customer Experience (CX) runs across not just the customer service elements but also across the product and every aspect of the customer journey.
This speech took us through some key social aspects of AI and how this may impact the Hospitality industry.
Take your eye off what customers value and you run the risk of becoming irrelevant. We discussed four key values on the day
Leading Through AI Transformation
AI required us to ‘swim off in a new direction’. This takes courage and vulnerability as a business owner but we know that success lies in not being crushed by the pace of change.
Nobody has the answer today in terms of the most effective use of AI in a business. The technology is developing fast and every month brings new capabilities, new applications and new customer connection potential.
You are not expected to know everything about how AI works but as a leader, you are expected to think about how best to apply AI to improve your customer experience.
Q1. How do you use AI in the business today?
Fears around AI
The fear around AI is very real. There will certainly be places where AI and robotics can perform better than humans in our industry and we need to be realistic about that. Do I care if a human pizza chef or a robot version prepares my pizza in a high-street casual quick serve restaurant? Probably not, as long as it tastes the same.
AI and robotics are unlikely to leave any part of our business untouched and so it is important that we start to see where it can add the most value today.
Some initial use will be novelty focused, designed to drive conversation amongst the peer network. Other applications will need to show some ROI in terms of CX effect
Q2. How can AI enhance your business today and in the future?
The future is Scale & Depth of connection
Connection is everything, as we learned from The Good Life book, the Jumo loneliness checkout and Tokyo’s Restaurant of Mistaken Orders. Humans crave connection and ultimately that is what the hospitality industry is, a place of connection.
Any technology you enable in your business needs to improve connections. Remember that AI speech-to-charting system implemented by that hospital in the US, enabling clinicians to have full-eye contact patient consultations.
Robotics and AI are trendy but we need to push past novelty and see if we can find a way to engage these technologies in a way where we can truly make a difference to a customer. The future is Scale & Depth of connection.
Q3. Where do you think you could hyper-personalise the CX at scale using AI?
Is your customer ready for virtual assistants?
How consumers search is changing and has been for some time now. As TikTok search replaces Google for younger generations, search is also set for a complete overhaul with the launch of virtual assistants.
Already most use ChatGPT regularly instead of a traditional Google search. Clearly it is important for us to master SEO in terms of visibility, but are we ready for the virtual assistants? Is anybody?
As the consumer themselves steps out of the consumer decision making process, the most exciting thing to happen in hundreds of years of consumerism, we face new challenges. How will it all work when our AI assistants are choosing the restaurant and hotel?
Q4. Are you ready for a change in search?
Beyond Efficiency: Technology Can Foster Human Connections
As AI personal assistants bed down across all aspects of our lives, we will become so used to tech interfaces, that the line between human and machine may finally blur and fade.
Your maths tutor will be one-to-one, so too will your AI therapist. Consumers are already used to chatting daily with AI based personalities (character AI) and as grief bots and AI partners become more normal in our everyday lives, the fear around ‘relating to tech’ finally fades away.
As soon as you are sharing intimate aspects of your life with the machine and you feel heard and valued in response, then as humans we accept tech+, technology with empathy and care. This is an important moment to watch for hospitality, as the technology starts to allow us to build relationships and not just deliver more efficiently.
Q5. How can you leverage AI to show empathy?
A CX Masterclass by Taylor Swift
Lastly, we spoke about Taylor Swift and connection. Regardless of the technology, be it robotics or AI, the point is better connections with our customers.
Taylor Swift is a magnificent example of CX investment over time. Her success today is built on 20 years of CX investment, inviting her fans into her life and stepping into theirs. The tribal brand following (Swifties) that she has is a direct result of optimising the customer connection, something we can all learn from in hospitality.
Seek to connect with your customer at an emotional and relational level. AI offers significant opportunities to do this at scale, but it is not the only way.
Q6. How can you build your own loyal brand following?
More content from Ken
To get a more detailed feel for Ken Hughes content, check out his Blog – The Blue Dot Consumer. Widely read by those in the marketing, customer experience and retail worlds, it is full of in-depth discussion and content relating to all things consumer.
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For those too lazy to read blogs, and to view further visual content and past performances from Ken Hughes, check out the YouTube channel where he discusses all things consumer and customer experience related.
