Is The Use Of AI By Australian Businesses Disrespectful To Customers?

The recent controversy around the use of AI to generate Dungeon & Dragons' newest book—Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants! —as well as the use of AI to manipulate images of politicians, should serve as a warning to Australian businesses about disrespecting or damaging the trust of their customers.

Irwin Hau, who is the founder and director of Chromatix Digital Agency and Australian tech SaaS start-up ConversionCow, says people ask him daily if they can use AI to do things like generate the content for their websites, for example, and his reply is that they should not forget to respect their customers.

“Don’t get me wrong, I think AI is a fantastic and powerful tool, but as we’ve learned from automated telephone systems, customers don’t like communicating with bots,” says Hau. “Neither do the public completely trust AI, especially when you have issues like the recent UK Labour MP who shared a manipulated image that cast UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a derisive light.”

Hau says AI constructs information from what is already out there, but it cannot offer insights, and if you want to connect with your audience or customers, you need to offer them value through insight.

“Use AI to speed up your research and prompt new ideas but be aware that we live in a world of too much information, and the truth is increasingly difficult to identify. When using AI, exercise extreme caution because people do not trust it—yet.”

Hau says communications come in four forms: data, information, insight, and wisdom. Data made coherent is information, which is the realm in which AI works, but information needs insight, and the application of insight is wisdom.

He offers the following advice to businesses looking to incorporate AI in their business operations and communications:

1. People want real insights

"If you want to connect with people, you need to offer them more than information—you want to give them authentic insights. In a way, it is about treating your audience with respect and dignity. Feeding them the messaging equivalent of 'instant noodles' will not impress anybody, least of all win you new supporters or customers,” says Hau.

To engage people as an audience, convert them into customers or sell an idea, they need to perceive value, emotion and human connection by using words and images and how the information is structured. AI can help kickstart you, but it is not to be trusted to do 100% of the job.

2. Embrace AI, conditionally

“AI is valuable for stimulating ideas, research and even some writing, but remember that all it is doing is reconstructing existing data that is already out there.

"It augments humans, but it cannot be human."

3. Keep it human

Hau says engaging an audience comes down to attracting attention and moving people to act, but it needs to be the right kind of attention.

"You can walk into a funeral wearing a big bright pink hat, and you will certainly get attention, but is it the right attention? You can post a big offensive photo on your website that will get attention, but not the kind you want.

"Use AI as a template to structure your messaging but add your insights and wisdom to connect more personally and emotionally."

Hau says that AI offers Australian businesses a great head start in several areas, not least website development and conversion, but it is by no means the final polish.

"AI can't connect with other humans, but you can."

For more information visit: https://www.chromatix.com.au and https://www.conversioncow.com

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