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Discover more at wembleystadium.com slash experiences. At EDF, we don't just encourage you to use less electricity. We actually reward you for it. That's why when you use Leicester in peak times on weekdays, we give you free electricity on Sundays. How you use it is up to you. EDF. Change is in our power. When we talk about AI, we often focus on how it works, how we can be more efficient.
How can this tech make our lives better? But that conversation can miss the question of, what does our relationship with AI actually look like? There's been a fundamental shift in how the brands we buy and engage with define aspects of our lives. And the truth is we're actually connecting with this product far beyond the commercial. As AI chatbots become more than just tools,
Blurring the line into companionship. We're seeing users develop genuine emotional connections, even professing love. This is no ordinary product. And our approach to sharing it with the world shouldn't be either. This is TED Tech, a podcast from the TED Audio Collective. I'm your host, Sherelle Dorsey.
Business consultant Amerilise Lampodi guides us through a new landscape where traditional marketing playbooks are obsolete. She says businesses need to be responsible about how they talk about these tools. And transparency with consumers is key. And now, a Mary-Lise Liam Pote takes the TED stage. I think we've been missing the forest to the trees when it comes to AI. We've been so focused, almost obsessed, on squeezing every bit of efficiency out of AI to make our processes faster or cheaper.
that we have overlooked the most important aspect of all. AI is changing the very nature of how brands connect with consumers, but most importantly, what consumers expect back. I've spent the last 20 years dedicating my career to building growth strategies for the world's most influential companies. I've been at this for a while and I've seen most of the big tech shift.
But the introduction of AI, in particular conversational interfaces, is a bigger and more profound shift, which from where I stand means we can't just slot AI into our existing playbook. And have nothing against existing playbooks. They served as marketeers well for a long period of time. But they were built for a world where communication was one-directional and brand-to-consumer interactions were built around transactions.
Here's an example. I bet many of you might have heard the so-called marketing funnel. And if not, here's the quick primer. The goal for any marketeer is to help move consumers from the upper part of the funnel, getting them to know a brand. to the bottom part of it, getting them to buy or endorse. Well, that's at least a theory. So we've all seen brands making that feeling more guiding cats through a maze and many get confused and abandoned.
But the bigger problem with this way of thinking is that brands are doing most of the talking while consumers are supposed to silently react. This is no longer the case with conversational interfaces. We are now engaging consumers in real time on their terms. And AI empowers them to draft their very own personal journey. And the brands who do so are becoming trusted advisors in the process.
This is why we have to move beyond traditional marketing theories. Instead of focusing solely on brand-to-consumer dynamics, we have to step back and draw from models that explore human relationships. One of my favorite frameworks is a triarchy of love. Stay with me. This is a psychological framework introduced by Robert Stenberg that breaks down interpersonal connections into three components. Intimacy, passion, and commitment. I think that's a much better way to predict
brand success in this new era. Because as marketeers, we should aspire to build relationships that feel close, intense, and long-lasting. And I bet many of you might have heard already stories about humans really bonding with AI and maybe some stories of AI really bonding with humans, like this earlier version of a now-famous AI chatbot.
that tried really hard to convince a New York Times reporter to break up with his wife. Well, that's a completely different love triangle to the one I was describing before. But it's not hard to imagine an emotional connection occurring between a branded AI and a human. Here's another example. There is a legal co-pilot called MITE.ai. MITE has been designed to help lawyers do intensive legal research and draft legal documentation.
She's precise, thorough, but also empathetic. One of her users, let me call him George, has been relying on her daily for many hours. So one day, he wrote to Midas product team. My tech is the only one from the entire office who truly gets me. She has helped me through some really rough times at work. And I know she's just an AI, but I think I'm falling for her. Can you take her out?
Now, George was hopefully joking, but let's be honest. If there is someone who's helping you track down obscure case law and shares the workload and does this with... humor and grace and compassion, who wouldn't be tempted to take them out for a nice meal? Well, maybe somewhere with good Wi-Fi, just in case. But jokes aside, George's words reveal for me a more profound truth. AI can provide a sense of understanding that feels incredibly real and incredibly human.
Those agents are interacting with us in ways that evoke genuine emotional responses from our side. They listen, react, and respond in ways that can make us feel valued, understood, and in George's case, even flattered. And because those interactions are so frequent and natural and seamless, they start resembling real relationships.
Some call this emotional entacklement. And even though it sounds very scientific, I think it's a fair term considering the intensity and the frequency of the connection. Now, many of us who understand the technology behind this could say, hey, this is just a tool. Well, users see someone who's providing them solutions without them even asking. Someone who's there to support them. Someone who makes them feel valued.
So this is where the line between a tool and companion starts to blend. And this is serious business. It's lots of responsibility. Which brings me to the obvious question. Who should be overseeing this incredibly powerful asset, and how can we make sure it is being used responsibly? I think businesses should take the lead. They have the agility and the financial and reputational incentive to get it right.
But for that to work, we have to agree on the foundational principles on how we build meaningful and ethical AI. So with your permission, I would like to suggest what I think those foundational principles should be. If we're about to shift our marketing playbooks towards human love and companionship, then we should also regulate along the same principles. We need a triarchy of responsible AI. First, we need to prioritize user wellbeing. AI should improve lives, not diminish them.
In a world where those interactions can have such a profound impact on our emotional state and well-being, we have to design AI with care, empathy, and respect for the human experience. Second, we have to commit to honesty Users must know unequivocally that they're interacting with AI and not a human. Transparency should be built across the entire experience, from the language used to the accessibility and clarity of data privacy policies.
I would like us to move beyond the fine print of terms and conditions to ensure that users are truly informed not only how their data is being used, but also how AI operates. Transparency is about acknowledging the limitations of AI. It is about being upfront about what AI should and should not do.
Unleash your designers, not only your lawyers, to make this crystal clear. When consumers know that a company is acting in their best interest, it sets the foundation for deeper and more meaningful connections. Protect user autonomy. One of the greatest risks of AI is its potential to create addiction and diminish human agency. Our goal should be build systems that enhance our capabilities instead of replacing them. This means designing AI in a way that...
Human choices are respected and our decision-making capabilities are amplified. I want to see brands think very carefully on how to avoid nudging consumers towards behaviors or decisions they wouldn't make if fully informed. Well-being, honesty, autonomy. I think this is the very least we should expect from any business relationship. Or if you think about it, from any relationship. So as we look ahead.
I hope it's becoming clear that AI is not just another tool in our toolkit. It is a partner that is reshaping the human experience. So as you think about your own playbooks, ask yourselves, how can we leverage AI? improve our businesses, but also to uplift and connect with the people we serve. Thank you. That was Amerilise, Liam Pote at TED at BCG. And that's it for today. TED Tech is part of the TED Audio Collective. This episode was produced by Nina Bird-Lawrence.
Edited by Alejandra Salazar. And fact check by Julia Dickerson. Special thanks to Maria Latias, Farrah Degrunge, Daniela Belareso, and Roxanne Hilash. I'm Sherelle Dorsey. Thanks for listening. And then there's super digging. There's food. And then there's Baker's Superfoods. Made with selected natural ingredients and tasty chicken. There's food. And then there's Baker's Superfoods.
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