If you could guess what customers want most from AI, what would you say?

If you answered “for it to be more human,” then you win the prize. (I mean, I basically gave it away in the title.)

It is a bit ironic when Computer Weekly promotes the humanization of AI, but that is exactly the message of this article: Human-centric AI drives customer experience loyalty.

The research study cited by the article “uncovered five critical trends that will shape the future of customer service.”

• Autonomous service accelerates with AI copilots
• Consumer confidence rises with human-like AI agents
• Personal AI assistants will shape the future of customer interactions
• Voice AI gains ground as the preferred channel for complex issues
• Personalisation will redefine customer loyalty.

So, what can we, readers of The Human Experience, take away from thIs?

It’s simple: Being more human, providing more human experiences, is always a competitive advantage.

For companies, using AI to serve customers, your blueprint is clear, though the execution may be less so. Start with the optimal end experience. How can you use personalization to wow a customer? How can you create an emotionally resonant experience? How can you create connections with your customers?

AI (currently) does not excel at any of those objectives, creating an opportunity for us to create better human connections. 

What our goal should be (whether we use AI to facilitate it or not) is creating experiences that are so good that AI can’t even begin to compete.

So, here are two quick tips for how to make your experiences more human than AI ever could.

Maximize In-Person Interactions. If your business model allows for it, in-person interactions is an area where AI really has no way to compete. In-person, human interactions are still the great differentiator. 

Use Video and Phone. While AI voices are incredible and avatars are on the way there, they still can’t have human conversations. Most people can tell they are talking with a robot after a few exchanges. How long will this continue? It’s hard to say, but it’s that way now. Use it to your advantage. Use phone and, even better, video chats with customers when the situation allows for or necessitates deeper communication.

Want to ramp it up a notch? Use familiar people or multiple people from your team on occasion. It shows extra attention and is virtually impossible for AI to mimic at this point in time.

Want to ramp it up two notches? Use multiple people. For video and audio, using multiple team members is inherently more human. Why? Because while AI can execute multi-person conversations, in corporate and customer service settings it isn’t even close to replacing flesh-and-bone humans yet. 

The pace of AI improvement is incredible, and I wonder if I’ll be able to write this same email in a year’s time. 

Yet, regardless of how much AI advances in the next year, being more human isn’t just about the experience, it’s about the relationships created by all of your more human experiences.

And solid relationships are not something that AI can easily replace, so take advantage of building them while the opportunities are there.