Personalized recommendations, tracking, cookies…a whole slew of new terms came into being with the 2.0 user experience. So much so that they turned into a new standard for almost all online navigation experiences: that of the data collection process that provides useful information for algorithms that are more and more powerful and accurate.

This data provides information to many different artificial intelligences in order, it is said, to enhance our customer experience.

Eytan Hattem, Corporate Vice President Products and Services Offer at Prodware shares his thoughts on both UX and AI. Torn between the excitement of an ever-smoother, more personalized experience, and the fear of losing control, we feel more and more conflicted while machines keep getting more and more transparent. Yet, all it takes is being able to read between the lines (of code).

You are not only a number

“We respect your privacy. By checking this box, you authorize our partners to use cookies or similar technologies to access personal data regarding your browsing and to store it to provide you with the best possible experience…” The sentence is fictional, and any resemblance to an existing or former banner is purely coincidental, but the keywords are clearly present: privacy, browsing tracking, personal data, user experience.

It’s when visitors automatically check all the boxes without reading the consent form, and like magic they’re in. Since the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) law, it’s become a must, requiring every data collection process to be approved by the user. It’s a kind of safety net, but its effectiveness varies.

Behind these somewhat cryptic notions lie tons of data, algorithms that together are hard at work culling information to find out more and more about potential or existing customers. In Sales, this boils down to the RFM model of Recency, Frequency and Monetary respectively meaning, how long ago they made a purchase, how often they make purchases over a given period, and how much money they spend. It’s the Holy Grail of Marketing: knowing your customer from every angle to be able to provide the best offering at the best time. The considerable amount of data accessible turns each click, each second spent on a page, into valuable insights for the brand leveraging that click.

The user isn’t simply a number but a whole set of digits. But behind that user is an actual human being. And this human being is a much deeper being, more complex, more complete than whatever their website navigation says about them.

Commonplace and/or Diversity?

This observation is not specific to digital platforms. Marketing operates on a global scale just like that. Customer knowledge has always been the fundamental lever of success for any sales channel. It is the tool that has changed. It has become more accurate and powerful, but it is the same “business as usual” at work.

It starts with appreciating the behavior of customers, understanding why and when they decide to purchase and then collecting their usage data to gain deeper insights.

The next step is to set up customer segmentation based on specific characteristics, also known as personas or buyer profiles. It is to be noted that this segmentation approach is commonly used in sociology and demographics, clearly highlighting that it is not unique to marketing, let alone Artificial Intelligence.

So why all the suspicion? Maybe it’s because humans don’t really appreciate being constantly pictured as a bland representation of themselves. And it could probably also be that we tend to narrow down a person to a boring statistic instead of appreciating their cultural diversity. And yet, even when it’s only about consumption, we all behave very differently depending on the sales channels we use.

Also, as the physical and digital worlds intertwine, a person’s behavior may vary significantly depending on whether they are in a physical or digital context, even with the same brand.

AI’s secret dealings

Concerns about AI often arise from not fully understanding how it works. No, AI hasn’t been spying on you to find out if you have just become a parent. It doesn’t have a legal right to do so, nor does it need to do so; you put the information out there yourself with your search for baby strollers. And this is what is puzzling about how people feel about AI. Like with any new technological advancement it’s all about progress and the excitement about how technology will make our lives that much better and simpler. Looking up something on Google and comparing prices is much more easier than actually going to a brick-and-mortar store to compare baby strollers…

Yet, the comfort of online shopping and searches comes with a price: surveillance. They go hand in hand because they are closely connected. If a brand can suggest a product you are looking for exactly when you need it, it’s because they have listened to you and in a way, have even gotten to know you.

Artificial Intelligence reflects human behavior, a sort of mirror – sometimes a distorting mirror – of who we are. Believing that AI can influence our behavior is not understanding the concept and missing the point. AI is driven and controlled by human beings and lacks any kind of moral intent. When questioning the potential uniformity AI inadvertently induces, it actually underscores the stereotypes we all carry.

Our website navigation is all about behavioral patterns. Algorithms are simply accelerators. So we shouldn’t be worrying about any kind of threat AI may pose but rather reflect on one’s digital identity, what we are all about, what we like. This new boundary we need to explore may be more deeply rooted than expected.

Eytan Hattem is the Corporate Vice President of Products and Services Offer at Prodware. He is a CCXP specialist and serves as a Business Lead at Cemantica, a consulting firm offering a customer journey management platform to businesses. As a mentor to other CCXP professionals, he advises companies across various industries on evangelizing customer experience.