AI is increasingly having an impact on influencing consumer purchases and brand reputations, with one study indicating that 28% of consumers are using AI to recommend products.
Boston Consulting Group research suggests brands are therefore having to become increasingly aware of how they are perceived by AI algorithms.
For example, an AI model used by Ballantine’s whisky identified the product as a premium offering rather than a mass-market product, leading the company to create a new advertising campaign to counter this.
While many AI models are closed source and therefore difficult to understand, some new “reasoning” models detail the decision-making process and offer greater transparency, helping marketers to “focus on”.
However, ethical questions continue to swirl around AI-recommended products, with one study showing that LLMs tend to favour global brands over local brands, and luxury products for high-income countries over non-luxury brands for low-income countries.