The Creation of You

Abstract

If brands that operate in the digital context do not start building their own front-end AI enabled channels, they risk falling behind on competition (White, Addison & Fritz, 2018). But as these (often traditional) organisations implement AI-systems in customer-facing practices, it slowly becomes the new front-office brand ambassadors of the brand (Wilson, Daugherty & Bianzino, 2017). But even though many organisations are starting to invest and implement AI-solutions they do not seem to fully comprehend its impact on their brand and business (Capgemini Digital Transformation Institute, 2017. And, in a similar way that people can be annoyed or pleased by an interaction with a customer service representative, customer-facing AI also has the potential to shape the brand experience of users. This is due to the fact that people tend to judge and anthropomorphise interactions with such AI-systems, which will ultimately affect their perception of the brand and its performance. Therefore, in order for customer-facing AI to add value to the business as well as the consumer, AI-systems should be designed in such a way that they fit with the brand, and benefit the brand experience of the customer. Based on this, the following research question has been formulated: How to augment the brand experience of users in service-driven brands through customer-facing Artificial Intelligence? Furthermore, as this project has been performed in the context of Deloitte Digital, the aim is twofold. First, this thesis will explore how to design for AI-augmented brand experiences by defining brand experience, and the potential of Artificial Intelligence in it. Secondly, these insights should be presented in such a way that they are applicable for Deloitte Digital designers and strategists, so it can be implemented within their existing design processes. Hereby, the insights from each chapter are made actionable,and are translated into concrete add-on design tools and methods that can be used within the context of the client. These tools are illustrated and validated with a concrete client usecase (Volksbank).