By 2025, nine out of ten retailers were already adopting or piloting AI. The industry didn't debate whether to adopt it; it skipped straight to how fast. That urgency is understandable, but what is happening inside some of those rollouts is a cause for concern.
The brands struggling right now aren't failing because they lack AI. They are struggling because they are using it to replace human judgment instead of sharpening it. Performance marketing often runs in one silo while brand strategy stays in another. The customer, caught somewhere in between, stops feeling like a person and starts feeling like a conversion target. When the most direct line a brand has to its audience is treated like a cold transaction machine, trust erodes quietly. The metrics often don't catch the damage until it is too late.
High-Tech Tools for a High-Touch Era
I recently watched a recording of Andy Laudato’s session at ShopTalk, and one line stopped me mid-scroll. Andy, who led as CIO during our time together at Pier 1 and is currently the COO at The Vitamin Shoppe, is one of the sharper retail minds in the business. He said something deceptively simple: "None of us are behind on AI because even if you think you’re ahead, it’s gonna change anyway. So we’re all in the same place."
That reframe matters, but it was his underlying philosophy that stuck with me. Andy invoked the "Andy Griffith era," those neighborhood general stores where the owner knew your name, remembered what you bought last week, and had your preferences accounted for before you even walked in. His ambition for The Vitamin Shoppe’s 650 locations is exactly that: using AI to make each one feel like your local shop.
The Vitamin Shoppe empowers its "Health Enthusiasts" with AI-driven, gamified training that calibrates to their specific knowledge level. When a customer walks in, associates can instantly pull up a full history of loyalty points and past purchases right on the floor. Andy put it plainly: "The worst thing that can happen is that the associate leaves that person and walks away for 5 or 10 minutes...and that customer just feels a little lonely in that process." AI is what makes that absence unnecessary.
Scaling the Human Touch
As part of the strategy leadership team at Publicis CRMOne, I advocate for this logic as the cornerstone of the customer journey. We treat every digital interaction as a relationship test: one that either builds trust or breaks it. We’ve found that the most successful brands are those that prioritize the long-term connection over the short-term conversion.
We can now leverage AI to identify niche customer segments and clusters, creating hyper-personalized experiences at scale that go far beyond one-size-fits-all experiences. Most brands default to the latter not because they lack data, but because they are too focused on the next promotion rather than the long-term relationship.
How to Move Forward
If your AI rollout is making your brand feel less human, something is off. The technology should disappear into the experience. Here is where to start:
- Give every touchpoint context. An experience with an in-store associate, a marketing email, and the website experience should all reflect what you already know about that person. A customer’s history should live in the conversation, not just a database.
- Leverage AI for precision. Use machine learning to identify specific customer clusters and automate the kind of "one-on-one" relevance that was previously impossible at scale.
- Measure what actually matters. Clicks tell you if something worked in the moment, but lifetime value and repeat purchase rates tell you if you are building something worth keeping.
Andy’s closing line is the right one to end on: "If we do this right, it takes us back to a time when retail was more personal and one-on-one." The technology is finally fast enough to let us slow down and focus on the individual.
