The first rule of AI is don’t talk about AI

The business world is eagerly embracing AI, but that isn’t necessarily the case for consumers.  Or, to be precise, consumers might embrace AI if you don’t call it “AI.”

Research in the Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management suggests that using the term “AI” in product descriptions reduces trust and, in turn, purchase intent. For example, in one study, two groups of consumers read a description of a new TV.  The descriptions were the same, except that one description used the term “AI” and the other did not.  The people who saw the description that included “AI” were less likely to want to buy the TV. 

(This aligns with other research that revealed that 84 percent of PC users say they would not pay more for AI features.)

The trend seems especially pronounced in products where people inherently feel more anxiety about the purchase – medical devices, high-end electronics, financial services. The authors say this may be because failure in these categories carries risk and AI seems to amplify that risk.

One of the authors, Dogan Gursoy from Washington State University, suggests two reasons for this.  One is the popular portrayal of “robots” in movies and pop culture.  There is a whiff of dark, dystopian menace that is associated with technology that gets too advanced.

His other theory is a lack of transparency. People don’t really understand what AI is or how it works, and we tend to fear what we don’t understand.  (Although where this phenomenon starts and ends is unclear.  Most of us don’t understand exactly how TVs work at all, even older TVs, but we have never been afraid to watch TV.)

The authors’ conclusion is that brands should not fall prey to using buzzwords or just slapping the term “AI” onto a product. It is probably wiser to talk about the benefits the products provide consumers and less on the AI aspect inside.

We have been using AI for years – Netflix recommendations, autocorrect features, etc.  But most consumers are not driven by a desire to use AI for the sake of using AI.  They are driven, however, to use stuff that makes their lives better and easier in some way.