The Drum’s founder Gordon Young sits down for a candid conversation with CoreMedia’s co-founder and CEO Sören Stamer to find out how marketers can keep a human steer on an increasingly automated sector. Elevate Your Customer Experience with AI and Human Touch Machine-powered marketing needs to be human-led, to create the personal experiences demanded by today’s consumers, says Sören Stamer, the co-founder and chief executive officer of CoreMedia. “You use AI to make the life of marketers so much more efficient and faster.
.. You create better experiences empowered by technology, but enriched by human connection,” he says, speaking with Gordon Young for the launch episode of The Drum’s Founders Files new podcast series, where media and marketing industry owners reveal the secrets behind successful businesses.
Stamer’s call for a human hand to lead AI-powered experiences is in line with other industry leaders. But two-thirds (64%) of consumers feel that companies neglect the human aspect of the online customer experience, according to CoreMedia’s recent The Three Pillars of Customer Experience report . In this age of personalization, how did we get so impersonal? And how can marketers navigate a more human course ahead, while reaping the benefits of AI’s superpowers? Catch the highlights from the conversation in the video above and read on for more insights.
Now it’s personal Nearly half (48%) of all consumers expect companies to use personal knowledge of their shopping preferences and behavior to serve them tailored suggestions online, reveals the CoreMedia research. And 94% get frustrated when they don’t receive seamless, personalized customer support. AI enables marketers to meet these needs at scale.
But there’s clearly also a need for more balance between digital efficiency and human interaction. AI's promise lies not in replacing that human interaction but in boosting its capability, by keeping human to human communication at the heart of customer outreach. Stamer says: “Don’t stay in the abstract; talk to a real customer and understand the problem well.
This connection with the customer is crucial because so many ideas sound great in theory but need validation in reality.” AI for efficiency, humans for ingenuity When it comes to customer service, AI can efficiently manage queries and transactions, but the nuanced understanding people get from a human agent is irreplaceable, to build meaningful consumer interactions. “The goal is to create a seamless, integrated experience where technology and human interaction complement each other,” says Stamer, with human creativity and empathy leading the ideation and then AI creating 10 variants of it.
He points to the luxury market, where personalized, human-driven experiences lead the way, citing Apple’s example of opening genius bars in stores, to help consumers really experience their products. “Now all the luxury brands aim for having an experience that you can visit,” he notes. Advertisement Looking ahead: the future of AI and human synergy The juggernaut pace of technological change means that AI is getting closer than ever to passing the Turing Test – a machine’s ability to replicate human-like responses and intelligence – in a way which would have seemed impossible just a few years ago.
This exponential growth, Stamer says, will similarly apply to self-driving cars and other AI applications, fundamentally altering industries and everyday life. The course of AI’s future will repeat the patterns of past technological revolutions. But businesses wanting to harness its power need to invest in and integrate human potential into their digital customer experience to thrive in an increasingly competitive market.
Stamer points to the massive working changes brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic as an example of how efficiency and sustainability can coexist without sacrificing productivity. He believes this lesson can be applied to future customer experiences, where digital accessibility is blended with human interactions. And businesses should also adopt a mindset of constant exploration and adaptation, says Stamer: the industry needs to develop more of a culture where we “embrace new ideas”.
Leaders should get under the skin of diverse fields and maintain a forward-thinking perspective, to anticipate and shape the future. Ultimately, Stamer says: “Create something. Who’s stopping you? It’s so much easier now than in the past.
Take the freedom to innovate.” To watch the full episode of the Founders Files with CoreMedia’s Sören Stamer, click here , and to uncover more insights on how businesses can enhance their digital customer experiences, read CoreMedia’s CX 2024 Consumer Study Report here . Advertisement Catch up on the most important stories of the day, curated by our editorial team.
See the best ads of the last week - all in one place. Learn how to pitch to our editors and get published on The Drum..
