Humans Still Needed Despite Young Wizards’ Best Efforts and Confidence
July 9, 2020
It was already true, though many failed to realize it—a company cannot effectively market by AI alone. The Next Web observes, “We Can’t Build Customer Strategies Solely on Algorithms—and the Pandemic Proves it.” Writer Andy MacMillan opens by relating a Covid-era marketing faux pas: a Facebook clothing ad featured Ipanema Beach crowded with young people cavorting, with nary a care in the world. The tagline was “Unique vision of effortless lifestyle.” Oof! During the lockdown, the beach actually looks more like this. That algorithm had not gotten the memo.
“For the last decade, businesses have embraced a belief that ‘the data will tell us what to do.’ But guess what? Data models don’t even exist to properly capture the extent to which the pandemic has altered customers’ emotional landscape. Don’t get me wrong. Analyzing clicks, email response rates, behavioral actions, etc. indeed can be helpful, combing through more information than a human ever could to identify and target customers and provide clues on ways to optimize the buying experience. But even in normal times, an overly data-driven approach leaves out too many nuances around customer experience and often leaves big blind spots that can hurt the business. Now, as COVID-19 heightens consumers’ sensitivities both positively and negatively, these human insights matter more than ever. Businesses that fill a need or show that they care about the safety and well-being of their customers and workers see their brands soar. (Companies like Zoom and Instacart have become virtual heroes, literally.) Those that appear to be taking advantage of the crisis, give customers runarounds, or simply fail to communicate clearly, concisely, and helpfully suffer perhaps irreparable damage.”
And that is why businesses still need human discernment as well as person-to-person discussions with customers. Doing modern business during a pandemic is new to everyone, so there is no appropriate data on which to train AI. It takes human sensitivity to ask the right questions and determine appropriate responses to feedback. Even when and if the world returns to normal, companies would do well to remember this lesson.
Cynthia Murrell, July 9, 2020
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