How heritage brands integrate AI into customer service
Editor’s Note: Customer First is the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s special section devoted to promoting customer service excellence. Every other week, we will focus on how people and companies champion customer service to build their brands, stay ahead of competition and improve their bottom line.
The world is abuzz with artificial intelligence (AI), a term first coined in 1955 at the Dartmouth Workshop by American mathematician and computer scientist John McCarthy. AI, a branch of computer science, is an academic discipline that involves the development of systems and machines that can simulate human thought processes, have predictive abilities as well as judgment capabilities.
Surprisingly, the precursor of AI dates back to October 1950, when Alan Turing, today known as the Father of AI, published his seminal landmark paper titled “Computing Machinery and Intelligence.”
Likewise, he developed the Turing Test, which is an assessment of a machine’s capability to emulate human behavior. The ACM AM Turing Award is an annual recognition touted as the Nobel Prize of Computing. A laureate receives a prize value of $1 million, funded by Google.
Why AI is generating so much attention
According to Kaplan and Haenlein in an article published in the California Management Review in 2019 titled “A Brief History of AI: On the Past, Present and Future of Artificial Intelligence,” AI can be classified into three types of systems—analytical, human-inspired and humanized.
Analytical AI delves into cognitive intelligence using learning based on past experience to formulate possible future decisions.
On the other hand, human-inspired AI combines cognitive and emotional intelligence. Thus, robotic machines with AI capability begin to integrate emotional elements into decision-making.
Humanized AI contains characteristics that have all the competencies that include cognitive, emotional and social intelligence, allowing the machine to be self-conscious and self-aware during interaction with others. Robots with analytical capability can answer queries and make recommendations.
On the other hand, human-inspired AI robots tap into the person’s emotional state via facial recognition or tone of voice, thus adapting their recommendations to a person’s emotional state.
The third, a humanized robot, would delve into companionship.
AI enters the world of customer service
Customer service is a dimension of branding that enhances and creates sticky customer loyalty and engagement. According to brand management guru and author Kevin Lane Keller, a brand is a product or service that has value beyond its physical features by creating unique associations, thoughts and feelings about the brand.
Interactive avatars or digital icons that have become more and more human-looking are today’s 24-hour customer service, inquiry and support brand ambassadors.
These days, avatar models look, speak and act like humans and can automatically generate scripts from product page links and address inquiries. Moreover, these avatars can pitch livestream content and generate organic views. They come with tremendous benefits—they don’t get tired, don’t need a break or makeup retouch.
Global brands like Samsung have a team of Neon artificial human avatars. The same is true with Suzuki’s Dave, a virtual product expert and sales representative, as well as with H&M’s virtual assistants.
Still, many brands prefer the good old face-to-face customer service. Some uber brands or uber-high prestige brands prefer to keep a long-existing brand image of customer service hinged on social kinship or close community integration.
Hermes, founded in 1837, a six-generation ultra-elite fashion brand marked by artisan craftsmanship, keeps generations of family customers and new buyers unabashedly taken care of while anxiously waiting for a much-coveted Birkin or Kelly. Enjoying their drink of choice and a warm, excited conversation with the designated Hermes sales associate while trying out the new piece is a common sight at the famed and legendary Hermes Faubourg flagship store at 24 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore in Paris.
American luxury jewelry house Tiffany, founded in 1853, delights its customers with a cup of coffee designed with the emblematic T—for Tiffany coffee, an indulgent way to enjoy coffee—and succulent dark chocolates. Coffee is made more interesting in conversation with an empathetic Tiffany sales associate.
From face-to-face customer service and experience to AI-enabled customer service, the key attribute remains the same: to bring about a delightful customer experience that should resonate meaningfully, uniquely and positively so that the brand remains in the consumer’s mind for a very long time. Moreover, a positive experience with the brand will likely propel the customer to share the experience in a positive way with others.
(The writer is chief brand strategist of MKS Marketing Consulting an an alumna of Oxford University’s SAID Graduate School of Business Strategic Leadership and Strategic Marketing Executive Education Program and Stanford Graduate School of Business Strategic Marketing Executive Education. She is also the 2025 Asean Women Entrepreneur awardee representing the Philippines for her advocacy in helping family business brands become category market leaders or challengers. She is also an Agora awardee for marketing education. Email karenvdeasis@gmail.com.)
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