AI Poised to Overhaul the Customer Journey

AI is poised to take over the customer journey for a wide range of products in the next five years. CIOs who ignore the trend risk losing major ground to competitors, AI and marketing experts suggest.

AI-driven product recommendations are already a common component of customer buying journeys, but AI tools coming soon will act as personal concierges, providing hyper-customized recommendations, after-sale add-on suggestions, and post-purchase support, says Naveen Sharma, senior vice president and global head of AI and analytics at Cognizant, an IT consulting firm.

These AI concierges will anticipate customer needs, recommend new purchases, and, where enabled, automatically buy products — kind of an Amazon subscribe-and-save service on steroids. AI concierges will follow the buyer, instead of being linked to a specific seller, enabling them to learn and develop a deep understanding of the customer’s preferences and lifestyle.