The click is no longer the moment that matters. In the age of AI, people aren’t navigating, they’re … More
“It’s about the customer, stupid.”
That’s the line running through my head every time I’m in a professional setting where AI is the topic. Yet no one’s talking about what it actually means for their customer. The Focus is all on the tools and tech and not enough on the people they’re supposed to serve.
The click is no longer the moment that matters. In the age of AI, people aren’t navigating, they’re conversing. They’re not clicking through funnels. They’re co-creating experiences with machines. If your brand is still optimizing for clicks while the interface shifts beneath your feet, you’re already behind.
And that’s just the beginning. AI can already write your emails, build your deck and plan your supply chain. But soon, it will automate the consumer’s experience with agent bots handling bookings, driving conversions and even making decisions on their behalf. It’s happening now. Just look at all the new agentic browsers entering the landscape. This is already weakening your relationship with your customer.
Platforms are evolving, and attention is shifting. AI-native platforms are stripping out all identity and brand recognition from its responses. Users aren’t clicking through like they did in the traditional click economy.
AI is rewriting the interface. Most brands? Still stuck in 2009.
Just as business automation risks replacing people behind the scenes, consumer automation strips the human touchpoints away up front.
All this is happening while businesses focus solely on asking questions about AI efficiency. The more urgent question: How are you using AI to improve your relationship with your customers?
The Strategic Shift: Build for Customer Resonance
In a post-click world, resonance is the only moat when thinking about customer relationships. Pivoting your consumer digital strategy requires you to shift to AI-native customer experiences.
This shift involves changing workflows and aligning a digital strategy to ever-changing consumer expectations. What used to be judged by clicks is now judged by tone, fluency and feel on your owned platforms and across distributed ones.
Right now, too many experiences still feel flat, cold and transactional. Even in categories where trust is everything, e.g., healthcare, finance and travel, we’ve industrialized functionality but forgotten emotional fluency.
Every new technology brings an opportunity for market disruption. Wherever there’s a new way to capture attention or convert demand, there’s a business ready to capitalize on it. The “Innovator’s Dilemma” is the classic business school example that many large businesses fall victim to. Today, there are clear opportunities right in front of us:
Travel: Before-the-trip storytelling that evokes anticipation, not anxiety.
Healthcare: Agents that deliver care, not just data.
Retail: Brand-specific companions that build identity, not just baskets.
Education: Lesson plans that spark personalized wonder, not just standardization.
A New Mindset Built in Duality
This may seem like an abstract idea, but conceptually, we already understand how to create customer resonance in traditional marketing. Luxury brands build desire through nostalgia-fueled storytelling. Sports sponsorships align brands with cultural moments to earn relevance. Even interruptive ads, at their best, deliver quick hits of resonance that stick.
Now with advanced technology capable of deeper context and interaction, and attention shifting rapidly toward AI-native platforms, it’s more important than ever to translate that understanding into these new environments. The stakes aren’t just higher; the rules will change.
What’s missing is a shift in mindset.
This isn’t an optimization challenge. It’s a meaning challenge. A brand crisis. A leadership moment. And it requires creative thinking and vision. (Not just new technology implementations.)
No one is asking their teams, “How do we make people feel something real in this new interface?” But they should. Because the companies that figure that out won’t just win hearts. They’ll win markets.
Efficiency is table stakes. Too many companies are treating this moment like a series of trade-offs. Efficiency or creativity. Speed or soul. Automation or intimacy.
The brands that win next won’t choose sides. They’ll demand both.
Resonance is survival. Build both or fade.
Dan Gardner is co-founder of Code and Theory.
To read more about the future of customer experience and emerging technologies, see the stories below:
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