The rise of artificial intelligence is redefining the rules of the game in many areas. Digital architecture – the way content is displayed on cell phones, shopping websites, social networks and more – could soon change, given that We will be less and less protagonists of decisions in the digital world and we will delegate them in other instances: artificial intelligence agents.
The paradigm shift is such that some say that the famous concept of “user experience” (user experience) would be gradually migrating to “AI experiences“.”About six months ago the AI agents began to work. They are not about to work: they work. That triggered a brutal revaluation of any company whose product could be replicated.avoided or automated by one of these agents,” explains Sergio Pernice, physicist, researcher and director of the Artificial Intelligence Engineering degree at UCEMA, and details that Microsoft’s stock market value fell around 23% in the last three months and recorded its worst quarter since 2008; Nvidia, another AI giant, accumulated a drop of around 20% from its highs.
“In short, It’s the market checking “An uncomfortable question: If one AI agent can do the work that previously required five licenses or subscriptions, what is left of the per-user business model?”says the specialist. AI agents, unlike conversational AI, execute tasks anywhere on the internet on our behalf, no longer just through a chat. This opens up a huge panorama of possibilities, since they are able to connect to applications and send emails, schedule appointments, buy products on-line or manage a calendar, without needing to ask for our approval at each step and crossing information from other platforms. It is an assistant who not only advises, but also executes the tasks.
This diagnosis has important consequences, especially in how it will change the way user interaction interfaces are built: given that AI agents are the ones that begin to roam the platforms following a person’s orders and on their behalf, but without the person interacting with them, Applications cease to be visible products with which the user lives and become invisible pieces that feed the agent.. “That changes everything: how important the design is, the brandingthe user experience — because the user no longer sees them. In any case, now the goal is for the application to be friendly for the AI agent, not for the human,” summarizes Pernice.
“The Digital tours will evolve to become conversational and fluidas AI agents with human-like capabilities operate between systems and services, solving complex requests and problems on our behalf,” explains Peter Neufeld, founding editor of Human Signals, who leads the EY Studio+ digital and customer experience capability at EY for financial services firms in the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa. Neufeld was behind a report from EY Studio+ UK, research that developed a prototype conversational AI agent; In a world with so many changes generated by AI, the study sought to understand how the customer experience changed and what role empathy plays in that scenario.
The conclusions coincide with Pernice and say that Interaction models are evolving, taking the human-machine interface to new horizons in experience design and usability. With the widespread adoption of generative AI, consumer behavior is changing, but the creators of those experiences would seem to be unaware of that yet: according to the study, they focus on usability, but not on emotions.
“Before, when you made a purchase, you would research on different platforms and make the decision. Now, we are at a point where you can delegate it to any AI: ask it, for example, to search for airline dates on a certain date, using certain platforms, but simply ordering it to the agent. You no longer interact with the platforms, you interact with the agents“, explains Patricia Moreno Dartigues, partner at EY and leader of EY Studio+ in Latin America, to LA NACION. She points out that some experiences will have to start can even be thought of as interactions only between agentsno longer from people with agents. “In the next evolution of this wave of AI, the agent will buy for you and interact with others; they will have decision-making capacity and that must also be designed,” adds Moreno Dartigues and details that all the consumer behavior analysis that is done today for people will have to be done in the future for agents as well.
In this way, artificial intelligence can change the digital architecture (with its current information structure, the fixed and transactional digital models of the web, and mobile applications) and is already giving way to dynamic, discursive experiences oriented to the journey of the new “user”. This is a change that now raises questions about whether current hardware and software are sufficient to support these new patterns. In fact, it could require “a completely new surface,” one that surpasses the current smartphone.
Brands are no strangers to this reality, and are currently redefining the way they relate to their audiences, in a world increasingly permeated by AI. This is the case of Quilmes, the beer brand, which took advantage of the World Cup and used it as a laboratory to rethink the points of contact with its customers, in this new AI context. Specifically, it launched a promotion that seeks to bring the World Cup experience to all Argentines, but this time through WhatsApp: it allows you to participate in raffles, add chances and access prizes such as beers, balls, glasses, flags, more than 100 televisions and two trips to the World Cup with a companion. All through this messaging application.
“Behind the simplicity of use, there is a technological architecture based on artificial intelligence capable of scaling millions of interactions simultaneously and sustaining responses in real time.”, explains Guido “Chapa” Lofiego, Quilmes brand director in Argentina.
“Artificial intelligence introduces a structural change. While Previously, experiences were designed as rigid and linear flows, today conversational agents allow us to interpret the user’s intention and adapt in real time“, details Lofiego and clarifies that the focus stops being on screens or forms and moves on to the construction of systems capable of understanding, responding and accompanying non-linear interactions, without requiring predefined routes.
The aforementioned EY study revealed that younger generations show greater willingness to interact with AI– 70% of Gen Z and millennials are comfortable using conversational AI for various tasks, even in sensitive situations, compared to only 40% of people of retirement age and older. These results reinforce the idea that Experiences must begin to be designed taking into account these preferences and expectations, integrating them with AI.
To encourage acceptance and adoption of this technology in financial services, the study brings to the table three key findings, which it explains must be addressed for generative AI to gain customer acceptance: first, they point out that it is important to manage trust and privacysince, although there is an openness towards the use of generic AI by financial institutions, fears persist about how their data is used. Secondly, there are concerns about sharing information with third parties for privacy reasons. Lastly, they point out the consumer concerns about losing controlin an increasingly automated world.
In the case of Quilmes, Lofiego points out that empathy and trust do not depend only on the technology, but on the design of the interaction: clarity in each step, the coherence of the responses and the user’s feeling of control are essential. “The objective is to build simple, close and transparent conversations that reduce uncertainty. In that sense, AI does not replace the link, but can make it more accessible, agile and efficient,” he concluded.
The EY study also summarizes in nine principles the key design questions that should guide the development of AI experiencesso that they connect with the needs and expectations of the users. The first four respond to the need to satisfy the demand for empathy, which involves designing an experience that can recognize, respond to and respect the emotional context. The other three principles stem from the importance of understanding that customers will adopt new tools at their own pace and on their own terms; In short, considering the adoption curve. Finally, the last two items arise from the importance of generating a conversational experience.
