Aaron: Hello everyone.
Aaron: Welcome to the Wiser Loyalty podcast series for Let’s Talk Loyalty.
Aaron: We are here today.
Aaron: I’m Aaron Dauphinee, the CMO of the Wise Marketer Group and my partner in crime, Bill Hanifin, the CEO of Wise Marketer Group is here as well.
Aaron: Bill, how are you today?
Bill: We’re doing great.
Bill: Hello everyone.
Aaron: Great.
Aaron: Let’s hop into the podcast.
Aaron: I think this is going to be one that’s interesting and we may have a bit of a go on and on about it.
Aaron: But for those of you who are joining us for the first time, just to let you know about what this podcast series is about, what we do is we take curriculum content from our Loyalty Academy Certified Loyalty Marketing Professional designation or CLMP designation for short.
Aaron: And each month we tackle a new topic or a new course over the four or five weeks of that particular month.
Aaron: And this month is focusing on Loyalty Technologies, which is course 109 from our curriculum.
Aaron: And we’re really excited.
Aaron: Last week we talked at a high level about some different things that are impacting Loyalty Technologies.
Aaron: And this week we’re going to dive deeper into some of the impacts on Loyalty from artificial intelligence technologies that are emerging.
Aaron: And we’ve touched on this a little bit before in a previous course, our Marketing Communications, which is episode 583, if anyone wants to go back and look at that.
Aaron: We’re going to come at it with a different angle this week, and our different lenses may be a better descriptor for it.
Aaron: But by and large, each and every week, you can expect that we’re going to talk a little bit about the high level.
Aaron: And then for those wanting to do more, you can go and check out our curriculum at loyaltyacademy.org.
Aaron: Sign up for your CLP or take an individual course of interest or you know what you can do, you can also just reach out and contact us as well too.
Aaron: We’d be happy to talk with you.
Aaron: So Bill, maybe I’ll turn it over to you to kick us off for this week’s episode.
Bill: Yeah, absolutely.
Bill: So we’re going to dig a little bit deeper into an exploration of AI’s impact on loyalty marketers in this episode.
Bill: And what’s kind of interesting is that we’re beginning to see the interconnectivity in topics through the two different lenses, really the functional areas and the areas of expertise that are accountable for what you could call the loyalty agenda within an organization or a brand.
Bill: And last week, we talked about why we thought this topic was really germane to loyalty.
Bill: And we’re seeing a lot of application of AI and personalization and analytics, decision processing, all the way through to member care services and support solutions.
Bill: But I think we can dig more into that this week.
Bill: But I also want to note that it was interesting in the previous conversation, you had talked about AI defining what it really meant, and you really can comment that it’s not necessarily something new, it’s been evolving over 70-plus years.
Bill: We had a couple of pretty neat examples that way, talking about Jeopardy and Big Blue being the chess champion and all those things.
Bill: But what’s newer is, I think, these commercial applications that are emerging that are integrating into the workflows, and we’re now starting to see a lot more use cases in the marketplace that makes sense to us.
Bill: So one of the other things we called out in the previous episode, just by the way, was some interesting facts around the adoption rate, the usage rates of AI, both existing and expected.
Bill: We pointed out that there’s a bubbling issue with the data integrity, quality that’s really impacting the effectiveness of AI solutions.
Bill: In other words, if you don’t have the good data, the data you need, you may not get the result no matter how clever your AI application is, and you talked about that and you gave us a super-duper number of statistic on that.
Bill: So we will go and repeat all of that, because we’re going to dig in further here.
Bill: If you want to go back and listen to our episode number 583 on Let’s Talk Loyalty or on our own website, wisemarketer.com, you can find all of that and go deeper.
Bill: But today, we really want to turn towards our view of the technologies, right, Aaron?
Bill: And maybe that’s, you know, did anybody hear the snare drum going off?
Bill: That was a big set up for Aaron because he’s really as current as anybody as I know on this topic right now.
Bill: And that’s a lot in part due to the fact that you did a keynote down in Brazil for the, it’s called the ABEMF, is the acronym of VAMFE, you pronounce the acronym, but it’s the Loyalty Marketing Forum in Brazil.
Bill: And in October, you were down there, did a keynote in front of how many people?
Bill: 600, I think, something like that.
Aaron: About 600 plus.
Bill: Yeah.
Bill: So I know you did a lot of research for that, and I’m just gonna ask you to sort of like share some of what you’ve been learning, because like I say, I think you’re as current as anybody right now.
Aaron: Yeah, like I’m trying my best to keep up it, I think, as everybody is, and that can be challenging because the AI technologies are expanding their use cases, as well as efficiencies and capabilities, you know, at an exponential rate.
Aaron: And so keeping up is a full-time job sometimes, it seems, on this particular topic.
Aaron: But, you know, I did have a lot of fun down in Brazil at a BOMFEE, at the forum there, so thanks for that team for inviting us to come down to talk to their 600-plus attendees, I think it was.
Aaron: And two things I would start with is the first is really is that a question that I was asked directly about the adoption and use of AI technology in terms of how that may impact the morality for marketers.
Aaron: And then the second was that I’ll note is that it’s a part of our point of view, really, around embracing AI technology in our Loyalty workplace, or our workplaces as a whole for that matter.
Aaron: So but let’s focus on the first real quick, which is I really think that the moral use construct is one that marketers have really always been held accountable to create a higher standard for trust, integrity and security, of course.
Aaron: And so have all of us have really kind of lived by this is what we’d like to think.
Aaron: But in fact, the reality is that’s absolutely not the case.
Aaron: There are some quote unquote bad apples amongst us as marketers, but you know, let’s not focus too much on the negative because I feel where loyalty marketers have a heritage is of establishing these principles within the work that we do as elements of the loyalty value proposition, right?
Aaron: Trust, integrity, security are things that are inherent in terms of data principles and designs.
Aaron: And so, to point now where they are table stakes in our industry.
Aaron: And so either you’re adopted by, these table stakes are adopted by loyalty leaders or, you know, sometimes not on our own, but by through the use of legislation and regulation, we adopt them either or the latter is, of course, you know, really the one that we want to drive as a standard.
Aaron: It’s not ideal, but since something is required.
Aaron: But, you know, I feel like we will have a similar experience with AI.
Aaron: And my hope is that we learn from our past to not take the quick and opportunistic paths, but that we truly start to hold on to putting the interests of the customer ahead, or at least alongside our own, to create a beneficial and very reciprocal exchange of value.
Aaron: So this segment is truly too short to get into all of this.
Aaron: So we’ll take a pause at some point.
Aaron: But for now, I just want to build off the examples that you talked about last week, and because we did talk about AI in our last episode as well, too, at a high, high level, and perhaps explore a few more examples, which get us to the impact of AI technology on our loyalty delivery and also onto our loyalty experiences that we create for customers.
Bill: Yeah, and I know you had some real life examples that you shared in Brazil with that group.
Bill: In the workshops, in the curriculum right now, we’ve got many more up-to-date examples, and we’re seeing more and more every day, so we’re cataloging those, and whenever you see us live, those of you that are listening, you’re going to get all those really recent and current examples.
Bill: But I mean, I guess the number one place where we’re seeing AI show up that comes to mind first is in the customer agent support area, so where AI is enabling the listening and capture of a column program member needs, desires, so like what are they really asking?
Bill: What do they want?
Bill: What are they seeking?
Bill: What problem are they trying to solve?
Bill: What recommendations do they need?
Bill: And there are a lot of examples out there.
Bill: I know one of them that you talked about was Best Buy, who launched a General AI powered virtual assistant last summer, where they were able to troubleshoot product issues, reschedule orders, deliveries, manage their Geek Squad subscriptions.
Bill: People can do a lot and do it themselves, as well as the same app, I think, is empowering the customer service associates in the stores.
Bill: So you’ve got the application working with both populations of people, which means you’re bringing both people closer together with more ready-made solutions, recommendations they need.
Bill: The other one that I think of, and I’ve seen this personally, is in the vehicles.
Bill: I think you talked about Volkswagen, I’ve seen it in many, but instead of that light goes on your dashboard, and you start scrambling through your glove box trying to find your manual.
Bill: Now, you can either go on an app and find the owner’s manual there, and literally ask good questions.
Bill: Like, tell me why this light has come on, do I need to change my oil, how do I change my oil, when’s my next service due?
Bill: There are all sorts of things that you might want to ask, but you’re able now to ask the question in plain language while you’re in the vehicle, not driving, of course, but parked, hopefully.
Bill: And you get the information you need, and that’s so much better, can you imagine so much better than trying to dig through a 400-page manual and hopefully find what you’re looking for, like where is that jack so that I can change my tire?
Bill: But that kind of utility we’re seeing all over.
Bill: So those are two customer service opportunities, and you can see the obvious application into the loyalty program questions and answers.
Aaron: 100 percent.
Aaron: And what I liked about the Volkswagen example specifically, and I’m sure they said many and others are doing it as well too, is it’s going to be on just this asking of the actual AI component to go through the owner’s manual, the record agent.
Aaron: But in fact, I can point my picture screen, like take a photo, identify, and it will identify the light indicator that’s on, that’s red or orange or whatever it is that’s giving me concern, and it’ll quickly pull up the solution based upon just that visual.
Aaron: So we’ve moved beyond just language, but also into visual identifications for solving for solutions as well too.
Aaron: So it’s very interesting.
Aaron: And of course, not only customer agents as an archetype is a means for AI integration with your loyalty and customer experience workflows.
Aaron: But we talk about, there’s about five others.
Aaron: And one very close, as you pointed out with your example, which is great, is employee agents.
Aaron: And there’s a lot of similar cases where if you can apply it for a customer agent as a customer agent, you can also apply AI as an employee agent tool as well too.
Aaron: And so I think of real quickly Home Depot, where they’re allowing the optimization of their supply chain to be provided to their associates on the floor while they’re restocking with an optimization which is item and shelf oriented of which to stock first.
Aaron: And so it’s not just a refill of left to right, because that’s how the latter goes and up and down, like I used to do when I worked at Staples in high school way back in the day.
Aaron: But it’s actually supported by information where the inventory, well, when and where the inventory is going to arrive.
Aaron: In inventory management, we don’t want it sitting in stale.
Aaron: So if it’s up high, we can pull that down.
Aaron: So that’s another factor that goes into it.
Aaron: And then also if there’s promotions that are going on in place, that will drive demand.
Aaron: So it’s a really cool tool that they have for their employees to be able to optimize and not create denigrated experiences if a customer is coming in to get a particular set of items.
Aaron: So, and then I know we could go on, like you said, for a number of examples.
Aaron: I won’t go into examples for each, but of course there’s data agents, which I’m thinking about analytical applications of AI.
Aaron: Of course, the IT realm, there’s both security agents, which is how AI detects and recommends solutions faster, quicker, and more accurately.
Aaron: Continuing the IT realm, there’s this developer encoder world that AI is making an impact on, and so who builds and manages our sources of customer truth is this group.
Aaron: But now AI is enabling how we interact with the IT team and very relevant and meaningful customer experience in the transactions from the business side.
Aaron: That’s starting to change the way in the loyalty marketing world, where the business side would just give the idea in terms of what we want to produce for a campaign to the developers and IT team, and they would have to code it and figure out a way to deliver on that as close as they could.
Aaron: Now, the business can use plain language and have it scripted automatically, and so the IT team or reliance on developers is lessening.
Aaron: I won’t go into the pros and cons of that because that can be one of those topics that gets positive and negative real quickly.
Aaron: But the last agent that we talk about is, of course, in the marketing world, an important one, which is the improvements of creative agents, the capacities, reduce time for campaigns from their ideation to their delivery, both for loyalty marketers and in data-driven campaigns.
Aaron: But it’s also blending into mass marketing as well, which now those two were coming together to intersect for a while now.
Aaron: And I think this will be a path for those two to intersect even more going forward.
Aaron: So I just wanted to lay those out as thought starters out there.
Aaron: Again, we don’t have enough time on this episode to go into examples for all of them, but we do have that material in our courseware, but also we’ll be talking about it more and more on thewisemarketer.com and some of the interviews that we have with people, as well as some of the articles that we’ll be writing.
Aaron: So Bill, again, I’ll throw it back to you a little bit.
Bill: Yeah, well, you know, it’s interesting, Aaron, because as I’m listening to you, I’m thinking the theme that runs through all of this goes right back to that quote that you had pulled from the Harvard Business Review article.
Bill: I think it was called Embracing Gen AI at Work.
Bill: And it was that AI won’t replace humans, but humans with AI will replace humans without AI.
Bill: That makes sense, right?
Bill: It’s sort of like we have to master the tool and then we’ll be masters of our own individual universes.
Bill: So the takeaway maybe in all of this for loyalty marketers is that there are plenty of AI use cases active in the marketplace that you can observe.
Bill: There’s a lot of opportunity to learn from others.
Bill: So maybe we’re saying that there’s not a silver bullet, there’s not like a completely defined list of the ways that AI are gonna impact the technology parts of this business.
Bill: But we know the technology that will influence the way we will influence the way we market to customers.
Bill: And amongst all the criticism, shiny balls, this is one shiny ball you should probably keep your eye on.
Bill: Absolutely.
Bill: It’s like an area where you need to take it on and study it and make yourself an expert as much as you can.
Bill: So the key is to be open, to embrace the possibilities, resist the fearful aspect of it, how it might impact your team.
Bill: And it’s not that we want to ignore those things, but it’s much more useful to be positive and thinking about potential for the growth here.
Bill: And that’s really where we are right now.
Bill: It’s in these early stages.
Bill: So yeah, I know we’ve gone a little bit long, but we’re going to go deeper into all of this.
Bill: We have a refresh course that will be introduced in early 2025 for Loyalty Technology.
Bill: Also our member communications course.
Bill: So you can pick up all those thoughts on the topic there as soon as they’re released.
Bill: If you have questions in the meantime, you can call either Aaron or I or send us an email anytime.
Bill: So love to hear from you.
Aaron: That’s right.
Aaron: I guess that’s how we’ll wrap up.
Aaron: So again, just as I close, if anyone is interested in joining our community of more than 1,000 plus CLMPs in 55 countries worldwide, we just passed that threshold a couple of weeks ago and we’re continuing strong growth on all fronts for that community. You can learn more at thelolteacademy.org.
Aaron: So you can find out about how to get your designation as a CLMP professional.
Aaron: Otherwise, if you want to listen to other podcasts that we’ve had on the Wiser Loyalty series, you can of course, as Bill mentioned earlier, go to letstalkloyalty.com or of course, thewisemarketer.com where we post both of those.
Aaron: So until the next week, I wish you all the best.
Aaron: Thank you very much for listening and as always, stay loyal.
Paula: This show is sponsored by Wise Marketer Group, publisher of The Wise Marketer.
Paula: The premier digital customer loyalty marketing resource for industry relevant news, insights and research.
Paula: Wise Marketer Group also offers loyalty education and training globally through its Loyalty Academy, which has certified nearly 900 marketeers and executives in 49 countries as certified loyalty marketing professionals.
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