AI’s uses within digital customer experiences has become a growing point of interest for companies and consumers alike. Pew Research notes that already 27% of Americans report interacting with AI multiple times a day. Accordingly, common examples of AI like chatbots scored highly in terms of consumer awareness. Still, many American were unaware of, or interacted much less with, with other types of AI tools now appearing on digital platforms. While less flashy than LLM chatbots, other AI tools can help firms with other aspects of the digital experience, including personalization.
Personalization, ranging from targeted cross-selling to customized homepages that offer access to a user’s most-visited pages, creates experiences that are more appealing to the user. StoryGraph presents an interesting point of AI-based personalization that seeks to improve digital customer experiences.
StoryGraph is a digital platform that revolves around the reading and the purchasing of books. Notably StoryGraph leverages machine learning to personalize book recommendations. Instead of asking customers a lengthy list of questions, StoryGraph allows the user to tell their system exactly what the user is or is not interested in. By using AI, StoryGraph can allow the customer an opportunity to better define what they want, and thereby create more personalized recommendations to the customer.
In the two screenshots below, the top image shows Storygraph’s machine learning-based text response box targeting what the client wants to see within their book recommendations. The lower image shows a Beta machine-learning based question targeting what the client does not want to read. This type of AI-based personalization can be used within different fields and sectors that are also looking to provide personalized purchase and information-based recommendations inside digital platforms. Brokerage firms or retirement platforms, for example, could use similar AI technology to help users create a portfolio that aligns with their investing goals.
Current personalization options within financial services shows both the current limits of non-AI technology as well as the potential value. For example, a recent Retirement Plan Monitor report found that 69% of firms personalize educational content based on the results of a financial wellness assessment—promoting content about budgeting to users who need more help with creating a budget, for example. AI incorporation could allow users to input their financial goals, as with Storygraph, rather than take a lengthy financial wellness quiz.
Our UX surveys also demonstrate that users appreciate even comparatively low-tech personalization options. The personal finance and banking firm SoFi, upon login to the app or website, offers a personalized greeting that appears atop the page, as seen below, a feature that users like. About half of respondents to a recent CI survey rated personalization as “very” or “extremely important.” Many banks and other financial services firms offer similar basic personalization, with customized greetings or the ability for users to select a homepage for the app or website upon login. AI offers the opportunity to build more elaborate personalization, with entirely personalized homepages that offer users content and capabilities that are most important to them, improving the digital experience for users and firms.
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