Paula: Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty, an industry podcast for loyalty marketing professionals. I’m your host, Paula Thomas, and if you work in loyalty marketing, join me every week to learn the latest ideas from loyalty specialists around the world.
Hello and welcome to today’s episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV. Today we’re talking about AI. Not the technical complicated stuff of course, but the practical business side that we all know is increasingly important to understand. From my perspective, I’d say that I’m really curious about AI, but so far I actually haven’t started using it in my work. I know there’s loads of you listening who are also excited about the potential of the technology, but you might not be sure where to start. If so, our conversation today is just for you.
Maria Wróblewska is the AI product owner at Comarch and she comes to this role with already many years as the product owner for their loyalty platform. Maria’s message is that using AI is easy. And she joins me today to explain the main use cases and hopefully eliminate anything you’ve been worrying about that might have been holding you back from starting to use AI in your loyalty program. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Maria Wróblewska, Director of AI product at Comarch.
So, Maria Wróblewska, I hope I pronounced your name correctly. Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV.
Maria: Thank you for having me and that was perfect.
Paula: Oh, hallelujah. Honestly I haven’t spent enough time in Poland to get all of the names correctly. So that’s a relief. We’re off to a great start. And I think our loyalty friendship actually goes back quite to the very beginning of when we started working actually on this podcast. I do remember we reached out to you and and invited you to listen. So I know you’ve been listening. So thank you for being a fan of the show first and foremost, Maria.
Maria: Yeah, that is great show. I know I love it. And every time we have someone new in Comarch, I always say you have to listen to Paula. You have to know that.
Paula: Honestly, that honestly makes my day. So very kind of you to say so. But listen, we’re here to talk about you. You have an extraordinary career, both in loyalty and in Comarch. And of course, most recently in AI, I think is such a hot topic. And there’s. so much confusion out there. And here we are to simplify and reassure everybody, I guess, in terms of what’s possible and and how can they can really leverage this. So we have an extraordinary conversation coming up.
And of course we have to start with our usual opening question. And I know what’s no surprise to you, Maria, and you’ve thought about it long and hard. So for our global audience that’s listening, please do tell us what is your personal favorite loyalty program?
Maria: For sure, that’s Sephora Beauty Insider. Yeah, that’s quite obvious, I think and I love it because of the, you know, the wide range of incentive I can get. So these points, it is like freebies special events for me. And also I love the convenience of, like, using it or this is not like I’m going extra mile. This is like Sephora is going extra mile for me. Yeah.
Paula: It’s the perfect answer, Maria. And honestly I think I said to you all fair, we actually haven’t had Sephora on the show just yet. So if anybody from Sephora is listening, please do reach out and let us know. We’d love to chat with you. But you’re not the first person to answer that Maria. I think every woman who’s ever made a purchase in a Sephora store has been blown away by that execution. I think like, honestly, there’s so many programs in retail, particularly where like, like the frontline staff can’t always articulate like the value. But every time you go into a Sephora store, they really nail it. And it’s so easy to engage.
Maria: Yeah, that’s like super easy even for my daughter, you know, so even if she loves it and what I really like is also know and I’m referring to my topic now is AI and recommendation. They are like sending me all the time and engaging me in this program. So that’s also why I choose them as my personal favorite because I really like feel like they know me. Yeah. So, yeah.
Paula: There is so much opportunity and the fact that they’re already delivering that is quite exceptional because I think we’re all talking about AI. I for one you know, watching with curiosity, but honestly, Maria, I haven’t done anything with the jet in our business. So I’m here to learn from your experience.
And before we even get into your current role on the AI side, you’ve done some amazing work with Comarch already. So, Will you take us back to the beginning? Cause I know you’ve spent your whole career there already. So you’ve done some amazing work. Tell us about it.
Maria: It is like almost 15 years now in Comarch. And all the time I’m somewhere around the loyalty program. So I used to be the sales person here, so I know what, you know, how to talk about loit with the clients, with the market. I then I moved to the operations. So I started this team who is responsible for, management of the loyalty products products for our clients. So then I also done some work as a consultant. So this designer of the loyalty programs for commerce clients and then a small small time in the product management, and then I was moved to the AI as a product manager and the director of the team here responsible for the AI development.
Paula: Unbelievable. And tell me, is that a fairly recent promotion then, Maria? Because AI, again, for me, is only really on my mind for about 12 months. So the fact that you’re already a Director of AI in a company the size of Comarch, is this something that’s just happened? Or have you been doing it for a few months? What’s your timeframe so far?
Maria: So, first of all, AI in commerce is known and recognized for 10 years something like that, because we started doing this, our frauds in loyalty. We started some doing some expert systems previously, but yeah, for sure this boom we know we have now started like two years ago. And we had this like the small initiatives of the AI in our products. But this year, early this year, it was decided to fully focus of on AI and to like, have this department responsible only for the AI solutions for our product.
Paula: Incredible. And I know you said to me when we were chatting in advance that you’re having a huge amount of inbound interest from clients. And I guess they want to learn from you guys, especially if you’ve been working in this way for 10 years. I didn’t realize it was quite that long. So it does sound like there’s a lot of demand in terms of I guess understanding first and foremost. And then hopefully starting to test and learn with AI, is that fair to say?
Maria: Yeah, definitely. That’s the trend. We all know that. You know, everyone using an AI now, you use the chats the AI assistance in your, on your daily basis. And this is also the trend we are seeing on the loyalty programs. So marketers wants to use the AI in their programs in different ways.
It can be like for the personalization, it can be for the AI assistance, it can be for frauds, but they are very curious about this AI and in, almost every RFP we receive here, there is a checkbox for the AI, some functionalities for the AI. Yeah. So there is a a need of like developing AI into loyalty products for sure.
Paula: Brilliant. Yeah, I’m definitely hearing that as well, Maria, in terms of the appetite and even if loyalty managers, I guess, are already, you know, incredibly busy and delivering on our programs. Of course, there’s I guess even interest from senior leadership in all of these incredible brands. And that you guys work with in terms of understanding, I suppose, the efficiencies that can be delivered from AI.
And I’m guessing the expectations are sometimes a bit crazy, but what I love when you spoke to me before is that you are coming at this very much from a business perspective, because obviously the tech itself, I mean, to me, it’s not something I’m ever going to really kind of try and understand, and I don’t feel I need to.
But as a business owner, I think there’s specific principles that you’re thinking about. And I know you’ve written an ebook about it as well. And we’re going to talk about that a little bit today, but is it fair to say that the business side is getting the focus in terms of I guess, efficiencies to help the marketers to deliver better programs?
Maria: Yeah, for sure. Yes. So AI is like something that can support you as a marketer, as a person in your professional life. This will not replace you. This is like something I hate to hear that AI will replace all of us. No, it will support you. It will help you, but it will not replace you. And for sure you can do more in the during your work, they work with the AI. Then if you do it by yourself. So AI can like provide you with recommendation can allies analyze data for you can on board you to the new features of the program, of the software. Yeah, so this is like something that is really happening now and all of our clients wants to have it for sure.
Paula: Of course, and I’m guessing there’s plenty of people like me as well, Bria, who are feeling a little overwhelmed a little bit confused and a little bit intimidated, dare I say it. So for somebody who’s listening maybe today, who is, as you said, super curious, probably getting a lot of questions from their leadership team, what do you think is the best kind of starting point in terms of maybe the mindset for AI?
Like, how should loyalty marketers be thinking about it? Because as we alluded to, everybody’s super busy. You’ve worked with them on the consulting side. So everybody’s already running a huge programs. So layering in a new technology can sometimes be like something you might resist. So what’s the best place to start?
Maria: So, you have two options to be, to be honest. First one is to start with the some kind of tools for the data, like data analytic, but based on the AI that will help you with the data, analyze data and do recommendation for you, but this is you who decide what to do with this recommendation.
So, you, because most of all marketers, of course, we need to be like data center with the marketing, but we don’t have time to like to analyze the status and I can do this for you. And this is your decision in the end, so your expertise. And the other way is to start with the like chatbots. Any kind of chatbots, because this is like something really popular now.
No matter if you are the user of the, or the member of the little program, you expect even, yeah, this is how can I say it? You expect to have this chatbot, this assistant on the page, in the front of you. So this is also the, and this is quite easy to develop, to be honest. So, yeah, so start with data or start with chatbot and assistance and you will see how this this improve your work or how this improve the user experience from the side of your members.
Paula: And it’s great actually genuinely to experience that Maria, I think even up to a couple of years ago, if I saw a chatbot popping up on a site, I was probably like unhappy about that. I would have preferred a human, but I’ve definitely noticed they’re getting better and actually I get answers now. So I think that is quite reassuring for loyalty marketers to see that it’s actually making their members happier and please God more loyal when they use these technologies.
Maria: Yeah. So also this is because we have this LLMs or left language models behind the chatbots. This is not the chatbot, chatbot now. Yeah. And this is quite smart thing. Yeah. And this, we have a lot of RFPs talking about these chatbots and very specific requirements about them.
But also some of our clients are dreaming and the sky is the limit for them. They expect to do via chatbots everything. So you can like enroll to the program via chatbot. You can redeem your point via chatbot. You can get like contact with the call center agent via chatbot, of course. So there is a lot of ideas to like implement in the chatbots now and really, they really are good now, as you said.
Paula: Yeah.
Maria: You’re getting the right answers. So maybe next year we’ll all have the chatbots on the loyalty pages.
Paula: Well honestly, like I’ve been absolutely thinking the same thing, you know, if I can enroll, you know, automatically, if everything can be simplified. And automated and in an intelligent way, because again, the chatbots of years gone by just didn’t have these large language models behind them. So they’re catching up and obviously your clients are pushing you, which is absolutely brilliant.
I always think that customer service piece, and it’s a great answer, actually, Maria, to kind of say for the loyalty managers to kind of go, that’s a wonderful starting point. And it’s easy to demonstrate, I guess, those efficiencies. And I know that is something you said to me actually you’re very passionate about is this idea that AI should be easy, rather than a massive, again, you know, extra layer of complication for a loyalty manager.
Maria: Yeah, because we are business person and we don’t deal with the technology. So, also there’s a lot of voices around us that telling that AI is complicated. This is like the magic box. You don’t know how to use it. This is like the, yeah, in Comarch, in the common management, we have the different approach to that. We want to have it easy and configurable. So I want marketers using our CLM system to be confident that this is their decision. They know what they doing and AI is not taking all the all the stuff like on, on themselves.
Paula: Yeah.
Maria: So, yeah. So what I really, we are working on that is to have this configurable AI. So marketer is going to decide how many recommendation he wants for the products for each member. Yeah. If you want five or you want only three what kind of categories of rewards you want to be recommended. So should be coupons or it should be like the merchandise. Yeah. So, or what is the period of the of the prediction in front.
Yeah. So this is something that because we know that businesses are different. We have like this one model, but we want this to be like manageable by the marketers because they know their business. Yeah. So, but everything will be in the same way as we have whole system like the wizard step by step instruction there. So yeah, I only want people to be not afraid to use AI and that they want, I want them to think that I’m still in charge. Yeah. Not just the robot. I’m in charge. I’m a human. I know my business. I’m the expert here. So that’s why. Yeah.
Paula: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no, you’re right. I think in the beginning we all thought that the robots are taking over the world and definitely we’d all be out of jobs. And who knows, I think it was quite a crisis in some people’s minds in the beginning, but I think everybody now is very clear that it is the human expertise, as you said layered on with the the AI functionality because obviously the data at scale and needs that kind of capability.
So I know you’re spending a lot of time, I guess, onboarding people just to kind of train them on the modules to make sure that they’ve got that, I suppose, confidence is the first step in many ways, you know? So I think in a lot of programs, the data is there and maybe the confidence just needs a little bit of support.
Maria: Yeah, so that’s why I always trying to give them the real life examples of how to use AI in their context. Yeah. Because what you get from the ai, from the models, let’s say this is like the number or some kind of product code, whatever you can have in the loyalty system.
But the thing is how you will use it in the system. So, usually during some onboarding processes, we just sit together. We talk about the needs, of course, and the business this person is having. And we’re talking about real life examples like churners, how to find out who is in churn risk, yeah, and how to act with the AI. So how to, like, set this prediction churners in two weeks, let’s say, and also how to connect it with the, okay, so I also want to have this people who has the high value for me, maybe from the highest tier or with the high CLV.
So, okay, let’s find out and let’s connect this to dots together and then build a segment of these people and then ask AI. Recommend any action. Yeah. So now you can in our system, ask our assistant, Oh, what should I do with that? Any action I should take. So yeah, then you can go to the you have the instruction, you’re going to the campaign management to the business rules management and you setting up like the action you want to do with this super risk churners with the high value. Yeah. So we’re trying to do this on the real life examples to show the AI in the program.
Paula: And I’d say that’s quite transformative then Maria, when somebody actually does have that support of a wizard, as you said, because we always kind of know that the business problem we’re trying to solve. And we might not necessarily know the answers. So essentially you can ask for recommendations and ask for that to be built for you. So then it can start to run. And I guess obviously then it’s a test and learn approach.
Maria: Yes, of course. Because that is what my plan is for the loyalty program. We have like loyalty system. We have like, have this your own assistant knowing the way of work your way of work, knowing your program has access to your database.
You can ask it everything. You can ask it about the my enrollment rate, yeah, for today, and how should I do something with that? What is the benchmark? Yeah, so you can ask that, ask the AI. It is like our chat is called Maya. Then you can, together with Maya, you can go to some configuration page, together with, you should, you can ask her about the business cases or business or any other recommendation of the action you should do with, let’s say enrollment rate, yeah?
Paula: Yeah, amazing. So we talked about obviously the customer support side, Maria, and as you said, you know, there’s certain amount that’s being done super well, certain amount that’s probably on the roadmap and the wish list. You referenced fraud as well. I think that’s a big use case that perhaps hasn’t had the visibility as yet.
And I know personalization is the main use case. And we’ll definitely get into talking about that in a minute. But I just wanted to ask you about the fraud side. Are you hearing from clients that they’re finding that the AI is able to support their fraud efforts because I’m hearing that obviously fraud is generally on the increase, of course, as you know, people are getting smarter and loyalty programs are getting more valuable. So we have to protect them even more than ever before.
Maria: Yeah, so AI is super solution here, to be honest, as we have this also covered, especially for the airlines. And this is like our main focus when we are talking about frauds. And no matter if we are talking of the enrollment frauds, so people who enrolls via bots or like different data to get some bonuses.
We also can talk about the transactional fraud. So people, let’s say, redeeming a point or merging accounts in the way that is not approved by the program. And AI is super solution here because it’s see, it can see whatever we as people cannot. Yes. So of course you have the business rules in your program.
So you cannot redeem advance more than 1000 points, whatever. Yeah. But sometimes people are very like smart and they are doing things. They know the programs they doing things that are forbidden. And as a business as an owner of the program, you cannot like predict it in the business rules, you cannot see it on, you know, like some reports.
That’s why like looking for the anomalies via AI is super helpful here. So yeah, we can like put the model to train model, put model to life and we’ll get every week or even if you want to, you can get it like in the real time like alerts. Yeah. So something wrong with this account. Check it.
Paula: Yeah, and I like you use the word train, actually, Maria, and I should have picked up on it earlier because that is one thing that I think you know, we know about the kind of public models, but what I’m hearing from you is that obviously your AI solution, of course, is being trained uniquely to each client, as you said, with their ways of doing business, their ways of working. So it’s literally getting smarter on a week by week, month by month basis.
Maria: Yeah, that’s true. So, we want to do AI in the ethical way, so we are not using like the some private data to train it across our clients for sure. So every time we are checking with our clients what they need, so what’s their requirement, what is their business, and we train models just for them.
Of course, we have like ready to use like the core, yeah? But so algorithms that build this model. But we want to have it like super trained for the, for business to have good results, yeah? To have the good KPIs in the end of of the day. So we’re sitting with the data analyst from the from the our clients and checking what’s there.
So let’s say we have one week to set up this. Then we have put it to the test, like for the, let’s say one month. Then we sit again and check the results and trying to change the parameters to fine tune the model to to meet the expectation of our clients.
What is also important here is that we really like have, let’s say about 12 models for the personalization itself. Yeah, but as I said, they are core and every time we spend a lot of time with the clients to get it done, to like change the models for them, to hear what is their issue and how our AI can resolve it.
Paula: Amazing. Amazing. Yeah, I definitely think fraud is one where, again, with the best will in the world, none of us has the human capacity to understand if somebody is attempting to beat the system and there will always be people who attempt to do that, so we need the algorithms to keep us honest and keep the members honest as well, I guess, huh?
Maria: So, you know, also people are using AI. So the hackers, let’s say, furthers are using AI. So we need to answer the same way.
Paula: We need to be a step ahead. Absolutely. Of course. My goodness. I hadn’t thought about them doing that. But yeah, there’s a whole there’s a whole business clearly there in terms of managing and maintaining that side of the programs.
But listen, the most important piece is personalization, Maria. We talk about it so much and we have been talking about it actually for quite a few years. So personalization is not new. Hyper personalization, I guess as a goal, but I think it’s the first time it’s actually possible. And given that, as you said, the models are being trained now so regularly, so quickly, and so cleverly. So will you talk us through just the opportunity for the audience listening to this show how should they think about personalization if it is something they’re still struggling with? And I’m going to say, anyone I’ve spoken to has admitted they’re still struggling with it. So I don’t think there’s anything to be embarrassed about if people are listening, going, I want to do personalization, but we haven’t managed to deliver it yet. So, so tell us what stage do you think we’re at in terms of achieving this personalization with the AI tools?
Maria: Yeah. So this is the first time we can say that there is a hyper personalization. I even can say that we, this hyper personalization can be understood in two ways.
The first one is like, one to one personalization. So, even in one program, we are, let’s say, Paula, we are in the one on one program, so I can get three different recommendations that you are getting, yeah? So, and the other person’s getting another three. So this is like really personalized experience for the members. But also we can understand hyper personalization in a different way, like hyper personalization because It is like predicts your need. Yeah. So you don’t even know you want something and based on the models and look alike filtering AI is looking for the person like you and it can like give you the recommendation of the product. You didn’t think about, yeah. So we can understand this hyper personalization in these two ways. And so still like personalization is a must in a loyalty program for sure. And it will get, it’s getting like closer to the client and closer. Yeah. So we get into this one to one personalization experience.
And to start with that, of course, you know, you have to gather all the data. Yeah. So this is like the clue of everything to have the data. And this is like the transactional data, the demographical data, geographical data, the more data you have, the more accurate the recommendation and personalization is and loyalty program is perfect here because you have this data.
Yeah. In the one place we have data from many sources so, our models and not only ours but AI models can use all this data to give you the like, really personalized offer, like based on the recommendation of the product and your previous purchases based on the, your value for the for the company based on the churn rate, yeah, so if you are the churner, you will get the better, like, points multiplier for next two weeks to get you back.
So this is also this to this can be done by the only due to AI. Because you got think the data for each member and it’s safe on the profile of the each member separately. So do not stop with getting like your program personalized for sure. Now it’s even easier with the AI, especially as there’s many tools and many of them are embedded already in the solutions. Yeah. So it’s really easy to use them.
Paula: Yeah, and I think what you’re absolutely right about Maria is we’ve been doing the data collection I think very well as loyalty marketers for a very long time now. So I think the the foundations are extremely strong. And maybe one of the frustrations for the industry that I have heard is, you know, maybe not being able to to capitalize on the data, the insights and everything that we had taken from the member and ask them to share with us. So I do feel like it’s the first time that we can actually say, okay, now we can use that data. Now we’ve got the scale, we’ve got the models and as you said, we’ve got the wizards.
We’ve got the, we’ve actually got something where we can just go in and describe what we need. And to me that’s the part that sounds magic actually is just this idea that I don’t have to necessarily figure out the right solution. I can ask for ideas, recommendations, and again it’s learning and changing and improving on a weekly basis.
Maria: Yeah. So, but what you have to still remember is there is a person on the other side, yeah, So if you’re doing this personalization as a marketer, you cannot like think only about the data and only about the, like the setting up this all the dots together, there is a person and still the experience, the real experience with their brand, their experience with the customer service is really important. And this is on what’s the, what is the base of the loyalty. Yeah. So this personalization for sure is really important because most of us really like, when we get the personalized recommendation and we appreciate it and we think, okay, they know me in the program, but if you have like a bad customer experience, if your customer service is not working well, you will not get this loyalty, even if your personalization is hyper.
Paula: Exactly. Absolutely. And when I was reading this this ebook, Maria, that you pulled together which of course we’ll make sure is available for anybody who does want to read it. We’ll link to that in the show notes. And literally the very first thing that you say is to maintain the authenticity and the sincerity.
So, you know, this idea, as you’ve just said, it’s not, you know, just a number, just a database. That human angle is super important to still operate and still as well as love your customers and then do the best thing you can using the latest technology.
Maria: Yeah. So personalization should be the way to show them. Yeah. That you appreciate them. They gave you data, so you gave them the, giving them the personalization. Of course this is like the deal, but do this personalization, you can show them that you know them you care for them. Yeah. So, yeah.
Paula: Yeah. Okay. And what did strike me actually, and again, I’d love your view on this, Maria, it still does feel like the full execution of the personalization feels like it has a way to go. I think the statistic that you were quoting, I think it was a McKinsey one, is that 76 percent of people still say that they’re not quite feeling the personalization, you know, day to day in the reality. So whereas I know I’m feeling the the AI starting to deliver as we talked about in terms of customer service support. I still feel like the personalization it’s quite early in terms of the programs and what we’re actually seeing in the market at this stage.
Maria: This I would say it depends on the data because sometimes even if AI is doing their job, even if data scientists are doing their job, the data is such in the mess that the models or the algorithms were are taking the bet, or incorrect data for the personalization. So what marketers should do is to be to assure that the data is clear and there is a right data to be used on the during the personalization process. Yeah, today I received the some from the one of the big company in Poland. I received the email like your dog needs your your dog needs new pet or some, whatever, something. Yeah. So, but I don’t have the dog.
Paula: Oh dear.
Maria: Yeah. So, I, well, and yeah.
Paula: Honestly, I had a similar experience today, Maria, not with the dog, but literally with one of my favorite hotel programs. And they sent me an email telling me I should go on holidays to Dubai and I live in Dubai.
Maria: So maybe you should go for staycation.
Paula: Well, this is what, I mean, honestly, it was very easy if they had thought about that, there was, it was very easy that the email could have been written, you know, with just a version for all of the members of their program who are resident in the same city. I mean, obviously it’s a global email and I totally get it. I mean, I’m not very good at personalizing our emails, I will definitely confess.
But for global programs, it does seem, you know, now is the time, particularly for a fixed piece of data, like where somebody is resident, or as you said, whether you have a particular pet or not, like this kind of data should be kept clean. So, so as much as we have captured it, maybe your point is that maybe we need to go back and review, what’s the quality of the data that we’ve captured over the years, look back at that and make sure then what we are personalizing, we’re personalizing to the right, to the right requirements.
Maria: Yeah. And also we should not forget to also to always like test everything. Yeah. And I, of course, is testing it and helping with the test as well, but also this is also another proof of having the human in the end of the process to take the decision of something. Yeah, because maybe the AI, it was not programmed to exclude Dubai residents, but if there would be a human in the end, maybe he will catch it.
Paula: A hundred percent that’s exactly why I was like this with a hyper personalization focus and mindset is definitely something that obviously you guys could easily build in so that there’s nobody like me who’s going, that’s not relevant, you know, and just eliminate it and give us a custom campaign because absolutely the tech is there.
And as I always say, the intention is that there. I don’t think anybody listening to this show has any intention of doing anything less than surprising and delighting their clients, but it’s still, I guess, a learning journey for all of us.
Maria: Yeah, for sure. And also, you know, our clients are like, want the AI to like do this magic. I said, our AI is not doing that, but our clients wants our AI to do the magic. So they want to just say, do the uplift and the magic happens. Yeah, but this is not work like that. You have to be more specific with your requirements, with your needs. You have to have the data for all this like magic to be done.
You have to know, from your expertise, the way you want to achieve this goal. So what’s what uplift on what the value of the uplift. Yeah. If you want to have it on the special segment of the people on the special products, so, yeah. So, this is like also for, this is like the case for the personalization for sure, because the all the personalization is to change the customer behavior so to make them buy more, to make them redeem more, whatever the goal is. And the uplift is one of the goals of the personalization for sure. So, but we need to be careful of that. And we need to like, also we can dream of the, this magic to be done, but still, we need to think and we need to like check everything in our systems.
Paula: Yeah, no, it’s good advice, Maria. So thinking, planning, and getting the right training is what I’m hearing. Again, plenty of handholding that you guys are offering, I guess, to all of your clients as much as possible to get them, you know, past the first hurdle of, I guess, early adoption. So it is a journey and I’m pretty sure the next time we have a conversation, Maria, it’s going to be a totally different one where there’s going to be massive growth.
As we said on an ongoing basis the magic wand, no doubt is getting closer day by day, but as you said, the humans still need to do that thinking you know, start doing the testing and learning because obviously it’s not gonna, it’s not gonna do itself. And then as you said, think about all areas of the business and all of those kind of use cases whether it is the hyper personalization, the customer service or the fraud prevention. There’s just so many ways they can use it.
Maria: Yeah. So what you mentioned, the, those three areas, like I, I have the feeling that the whole loyalty world are like talking about them, those three, but we still like thinking about new ones. And we have like we, so as we talked last week, what’s about if you can say to the system to create you a promotion for for next week for the particular product.
Yeah. So maybe this is the future and and we will like discover it together with our clients and together with the market, because there is a, this you need to be so, so creative to think about how and where to use AI. So this, that was just the example of the future use of the AI.
But we are listening to the markets, we are listening to all the consultants, to the, our competitors, of course. And we are trying to figure out what’s next in this loyalty because in the like, next year or two, this hyper personalization, chatbots, and fraud prevention, that won’t be enough, yeah. We need to focus and to think about something new and something more.
Paula: And you’re absolutely right, Maria. And I think I was most excited last week when you did mention that this idea is being, you know, at least requested and who knows how long it’ll take for that to come to market, please God.
But, you know, using verbal prompts like, you know, to me, again, as somebody who gets to talk a lot in my day to day job, the best form of communication to me is still the human voice. You know, it’s got so much power, so much simplicity, and again, has that authenticity and sincerity that you talked about as a key principle.
So to me, the idea that I could verbally ask an AI tool to do something, I can totally see that would be super powerful. So we’re definitely on a journey as you said, lots of progress, and these three use cases are immediately available, but who knows what’s going to be possible in the future.
Maria: Yeah, I’m also like curious.
Paula: It’s so exciting. Yeah. Amazing. So the most important thing is you have written this ebook Maria called how AI personalization drives customer loyalty. And literally this is the future of loyalty marketing. So anyone who is curious about what Comarch is saying, what Comarch is delivering, of course, that’s going to be linked in the show notes today. So that is a brilliant resource for anybody who does want to start thinking and maybe hasn’t gotten on board as yet.
And I think that’s actually all the questions I have now, Maria, from my side. Is there anything else that you wanted to share with our audience before we wrap up?
Maria: Yeah, only one thing. Don’t be afraid to use AI. Really, you need to start using it to learn how to use it and it will like help you and support you during your daily work, I’m sure.
Paula: They are very wise words. AI is easy. You heard it here first. That’s absolutely perfect. Okay. On that note, Maria Wroblewska, Director of the AI Department at Comarch. Thank you so much from Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV.
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