What is customer loyalty when AI shops for you?

Tom Blijleven
Printed on: 21 July 2025

There’s one thing thrilling about shopping for the proper product on-line. That fast dopamine hit, the satisfaction of a necessity met, the smoothness of the expertise. For years, we’ve been transferring towards quicker, simpler, smarter procuring. And now, AI has taken it one step additional. Really, it’s taken it out of our arms.

As a result of now, the AI is making the calls. Actually.

Final week, Google quietly introduced a new feature that blew my thoughts. Their AI can now name companies in your behalf. Say you’re on the lookout for dog-friendly accommodations in Paris with a late checkout, or want a last-minute groomer earlier than your poodle’s large park playdate. Simply ask, and Google will telephone round, examine choices, and return with a performed deal. All with out you having to dial a single quantity.

For somebody like me, a borderline Gen Z-er (1997) who is aware of extra friends with than with out telephone phobia, that is revolutionary. Nevertheless it additionally makes me ask: What occurs to loyalty when the assistant will get all of the credit score?

Agentic procuring isn’t coming. It’s right here.

We’ve already seen the shift. ChatGPT lets customers shop directly in chat. Google Lens can find that rug you noticed in a café. AI interfaces are designing your good wardrobe and recommending matching lipsticks. Procuring has change into frictionless, seamless, and more and more… faceless.

These days, I ask “my AI” loads. Whether or not making a recipe from issues I discovered in my fridge or evaluating footwear in a retailer to see which are greatest for enjoying tennis, AI helps me make selections faster with out the trouble of asking an in-store worker for assist. Nevertheless, my use of AI follows after I’ve already bought one thing OR once I’m in a retailer about to purchase one thing.

With these new agentic AI options, that’s about to alter.

If-slash-when I ask my AI to search out eco-friendly pet food for beneath €30, it doesn’t present me manufacturers I’ve adopted on Instagram. As a substitute, it reveals me outcomes primarily based on value, supply pace, and components. Manufacturers change into bullet factors. The “purchase now” button turns into invisible. The dopamine hit? It’s nonetheless there. However the model connection? Gone.

So, how do you construct loyalty if you’re not even a part of the acquisition?

That is the scary bit. Nevertheless it’s additionally the thrilling bit.

Loyalty is now not simply concerning the sale. It’s concerning the second after. Whereas AI may need discovered the product, the post-purchase expertise continues to be up for grabs.

Your model can nonetheless matter. Nevertheless it has to work tougher and smarter to indicate up when the client isn’t asking for it.

Right here’s what that appears like in a world of AI private buyers and robo-calls:

Be helpful with out being requested.

Once I purchase that natural canine shampoo by means of an assistant, I nonetheless respect a fast information on how usually to make use of it, or a tip to examine for allergic reactions. Ship it by e mail or WhatsApp. Don’t watch for me to ask. A superb instance I discovered is that this email by GIR (by way of Actually Good Emails), outlining care ideas for newly bought merchandise – so I don’t have to wonder if I can throw them within the dishwasher:

Deliver persona into the invisible.

I’ll bear in mind in case your chatbot has a reputation and jokes about moist canine smells. In case your supply e mail features a enjoyable “Meet the Pack” part introducing your crew’s canine, I would even smile.

Flip packaging into connection.

When the product arrives, it’s your second. A intelligent thank-you card, a QR code to reorder, or a personalised message (“We hope Xena loves it!”) jogs my memory who you’re. Not the AI.

Use receipts like micro-content

It sounds uninteresting, however even a PDF bill can have a message: “P.S. Need a canine brush that matches? Faucet right here.” It’s refined, nevertheless it sticks.

One in every of my all-time favorite order confirmation email attachments, I’ve been utilizing it for years, is this one from Safari Resort Beekse Bergen. After ordering entry tickets, you get the tickets in PDF, accompanied by a map of the park and a few good ideas for if you’re really on the resort:

Give me loyalty perks that really feel private

I don’t care about factors. I care that you simply remembered I ordered flea drops final month and provided me a reduction on tick repellent earlier than summer time begins.

Make help much less scary

I nonetheless hate phoning companies, but when your app or web site lets me live chat with somebody who understands canine house owners and makes use of emojis, I’ll come again (promise 🫱🏼‍🫲🏼).

Don’t neglect actual life

If I can decide up a free deal with at your pop-up store subsequent time I’m on the town, or deliver my canine to your occasion, you’ve simply created a second AI can’t replicate.

Be taught how Dutch private care model Rituals uses WhatsApp in-store to gain loyalty.

The way forward for loyalty is emotional, not simply environment friendly

We used to win prospects with nice UX and quick supply. Now that’s the baseline. AI has raised the bar. Folks crave heat, care, and moments that make them really feel seen.

The manufacturers that win loyalty within the age of AI would be the ones that present up after they’re not within the highlight. They’ll ship a birthday deal with to your canine, repair a supply concern with out asking for a monitoring quantity, and nonetheless sound human when the interface doesn’t.

Have a look at your post-purchase expertise not by means of the lens of ROI however by means of the eyes of somebody who trusted you with their cash. Are you rewarding that belief? Are you displaying up in ways in which matter?

As a result of whereas AI may win the sale, you continue to have each probability to win the connection.