I’ve just found a fabulous site that summarizes recent research so that marketers (and forward-thinking leaders) can make data-based decisions. This blog post is based on that site and, specifically, an article entitled, “When using AI bots turns customers away” (Great title, isn’t it? Yes, looks like mine… that was on purpose.)

If you’d like to read the article, feel free to subscribe and read it here. I’ll summarize it here to make it easy to use or share.

Here’s the bottom line: “People are up to 30% more likely to stop using a service if it’s delivered by AI or robots (vs a human) when warmth is important to satisfaction (e.g. hospitality).”

To me, 30% is a significant number, so it’s worth taking note of this if you’re managing a product or service where “warmth” is expected. If you convert your “human experience” (checking into a hotel, for example) with an AI bot, you run the risk of losing customers.

Here are some of the limitations of the original research:

• The study compared services fully provided by AI or humans. Further research found that providing services with both AI and humans can improve customers’ attitudes and experiences.
• The research only looked at people’s intention to continue the service at that moment, it’s unclear whether people would be demotivated to use the service in the long term too.

Please note: this 30% drop may NOT be the case in industries where AI bots are appreciated because they can speed up service; think about check-out lines at a retail store, for example. Thinking about all the time we spend in line, waiting to spend our money, wouldn’t an AI assistant be ideal? So this isn’t the case for every industry. It’s important to know when AI bots can help, and when they can do damage.

In sum, the research showed “People are more likely to stop using a service provided by AI-powered bots (vs humans) when warmth is important (e.g. using a receptionist to check in at a hotel vs. a self-service kiosk).”

So how can this information be helpful to you?

Think about all the times you were infuriated by bots (I’m looking at you T-Mobile) and how you felt, as a customer. You’re probably not alone. And while it’s always dangerous to assign a big value to our own experiences (data point = 1), it can be helpful and directional in projecting out the question: if I feel this way, how do others feel about this?

My advice, as a marketer, is to err on the side of caution and TEST. If you think that AI bots can improve your bottom line by making your organization more efficient and effective, consider the customer touchpoints. Are you going to be more efficient by cutting costs? Or will you, in fact, lose customers (and revenues) because of unforeseen consequences – that is, using technology in a way that turns your buyers away, in the long run?

This research on AI bots in the hospitality industry points us to the direction, in marketing, of wanting to know more. Just like we did when websites were the “new thing,” we tested and learned, over time, what worked and what didn’t. What attracted and converted customers, and what didn’t.

AI is in that new space now and the best approach is to test, test, test.