AI
Special ones can shape the outcome of their experiences with AI
HARRI NARHI, UX DESIGNER AT IMAGINATION, EXPLAINS HOW AI IS RAISING THE BAR FOR ULTRA-PERSONAL REAL-WORLD EXPERIENCES
I t’ s here, it’ s there, it’ s absolutely everywhere. AI feels inescapable these days. There are so many questions: How do we separate the slop from the good stuff? The‘ agentic’ from the … actually agentic? Moreover, what does it mean for consumers in the experiential sector?
But let’ s take a step back, because brands have an opportunity to reframe the question entirely. Not‘ How do we use AI?’ but‘ How do we create personal experiences that mean something?’ As technology accelerates and consumer expectations rise, how can brands use AI in bold ways to create ultra-personal experiences that truly resonate?
To that, the answer is to stop focusing on creating experiences that are tailored for the consumer, and use AI to build experiences they can shape themselves.
Online, brands are already doing this in interesting and surprising ways. Ahead of Euro 2024, Snickers developed a fully authorised deepfake of legendary football manager José Mourinho, inviting fans to submit‘ own goal’ moments involving their nearest and dearest. Blunders like booking the wrong flights or posing with a half-andhalf scarf( a big football no-no) became material for Mourinho’ s AI clone to roast the subject. A direct integration with WhatsApp allowed fans to drop their custom videos straight into their group chats.
This shows that co-creation works when you use AI, allowing consumers to shape the outcome of an experience, rather than simply consuming AIgenerated content. WhatsApp gave the experience longevity by dealing with what happens after someone walks away. Most importantly, it showed that people engage with and share experiences that have a genuine personal connection. As AI now enables deeply personal online experiences, consumers are
Above: Harri Narhi
Left: Photo by Growtika on Unsplash beginning to expect a certain level of personalisation. Not just to witness a campaign, but to shape it. And brands need to deliver.
What would this look like in practice? Moving forward, brand experiences will grow beyond the static to work through natural-language conversations between the brand and consumer. Think: less static interface, more interactive moment.
Take buying a car, for example. A traditional configurator asks customers to work through a fixed set of options, resulting in a largely transactional experience. An AI-powered interface holds a conversation instead, learning about a customer’ s lifestyle and preferences, building a car around how they actually live.
Florida’ s Dalí Museum offers a great example of AI levelling up a one-onone experience. The museum contains a permanent installation where visitors can pick up a telephone( inspired by the artist’ s famous‘ Lobster Phone’) and talk with an AI-recreated Salvador Dalí. Trained on his writings and archival audio, the AI agent captures Dalí’ s wit and surrealist personality. It’ s a compelling example of an institution lowering the veil between visitor and exhibition, bringing them into the world of art.
Ultra-personalised experiences are more powerful because they turn people from spectators into participants. By helping shape moments through their choices, consumers gain a sense of ownership of the experience. This results in a deeper emotional connection and a stronger affinity with the brand behind it.
As consumer psychologist Paul Marsden puts it, the risk of ultrapersonalisation is creating people ill-equipped for a world that won’ t pander to them.
But its potential to help someone reimagine themselves is a different proposition entirely. With the power of AI behind us, that’ s an experience worth designing for. n
ISSUE 143 / CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD / 57