Work & Co’s Vision for AI-Driven Commerce

The intersection of design and engineering is at the center of our model at Work & Co — and it’s also the lens we’re using to explore AI and its potential for clients.

It’s clear that the way people interact with web and mobile interfaces is set to fundamentally change. Far more efficient and personalized experiences for our clients’ customers are taking shape.

For example, historical browsing patterns have meant that we’re used to clicking through multiple pages - often 8-10 times - to go deeper and deeper for more detailed information. This won’t be necessary in the future; large language models have the potential to make product discovery sharper and instantaneous. With chatbots —a space in which we’re known for building award-winning experiences— we can combine natural language processing with visual context for a more fluid, rich experience.

With our vision for AI-powered conversational commerce, we already see entire industries set to benefit. In retail, whether a large legacy or DTC player, or from luxury to pet food, sorting through SKUs can be a breeze, leading to increased conversion. For hospitality and travel, we envision that airline, hotel, cruise booking will all rapidly evolve for greater efficiency.

In all cases, personalization now has a path to level up to. Currently, the majority of personalization is persona- or segment-based, which ends up being generic. By and large, companies lean on this method because they lack the resources to shape content to be personalized for specific signals. A lack of real value or relevance reflects back on brands too.

Benefits will include:

• Speed to content —navigating to answers— will be a competitive advantage
• Large language models can help chatbots get smarter and dynamic interfaces can surface content a lot quicker
• Natural language will offer an alternative way to explore a catalog
• User experiences will incorporate multiple inputs and dynamically serve content optimized for individuals versus cohorts and segments
• Recommended options will be far more tailored to take into account a user’s preferences, location, or availability
• In the not-too-distant future, fine-tuned multi-variant testing will be easy
• Cost efficiency, with barrier for entry for highly dynamic experiments now much lower
• More definitively owning your brand’s platform as a way to protect against external content aggregators

We’ve built patterns, and now we are orchestrating data into an interface. The next generation of AI tools will not only help curate data to specific use cases, but also display it in a more efficient, streamlined way for end users. Future-facing brands are exploring integrating this technology into their existing interfaces.

If your organization would like a customized Conversational Commerce workshop please reach out to Work & Co at hello@work.co.

To learn more about our approach to AI and see how we can help your organization plan for the future, please visit our dedicated AI Practice page.