More Intelligence. Better Reasons to Choose?

People don't necessarily want a deeper relationship with their washing powder. They want clean clothes. They may have a favourite brand, appreciate the fragrance or trust it with something they care about. The company earns its place by delivering something worth choosing, whether or not the buyer wants a relationship.

I think that is a useful starting point for the conversation about artificial intelligence and growth. The promise is compelling: better knowledge of customers, a richer understanding of what matters to them and more possibilities for responding. It is easy to see why businesses are investing.

But that promise contains an organisational question. As intelligence becomes more available, can the company become better at turning what it understands into something people have a reason to choose?

More research, more brands, better technology and more money to invest all create possibilities. AI adds to those possibilities by helping people interpret information and develop potential responses. Realising their value requires choices about what to produce, what to change, where to invest and how to deliver. Those choices involve people with different responsibilities, constraints and measures of success.

Consider a business that learns customers would value a simpler offer. Understanding the opportunity is one part of the work. Making it happen could require changes to the product, pricing, distribution and the way success is measured. Each change may be reasonable on its own, while the combined decision involves trade-offs that nobody can settle independently.

That is where abundant intelligence makes the operating question more urgent. If the company can generate and assess possibilities faster than it can decide and act, more intelligence risks creating a longer queue of opportunities. The technology's contribution depends partly on whether the organisation can change how it works around it.

The principle travels across categories, even though the reasons to choose differ. For a household product, it might be dependable performance, a useful format or easier availability. In financial services, it might be confidence that an important commitment can be made and managed without unnecessary complexity. For a business buyer, it might be a supplier's ability to deliver a result across several connected needs.

Some of those choices support a deeper relationship. Others require very little involvement. In each case, the enterprise has to turn understanding into a benefit the buyer can experience.

I would therefore put an organisational question alongside every ambition for better customer intelligence: what must we become able to do because we know this?

The answer should influence how we bring expertise together, give people authority to resolve trade-offs and commit resources. It should also determine how we judge the result and use what we learn next time. Technology can support that work. Leadership has to organise for it.

The opportunity is to build a company that becomes more capable as intelligence becomes more abundant. Having more possibilities is the starting point. Turning them into better reasons to choose is the work.

Further reading: Deeper Customer Relationships Require a More Capable Organization.