AI Didn’t Shorten the Customer Journey. It Changed It: Patricia Kendall, Iterable

AI didn’t shorten the customer journey. It changed it

By Patricia Kendall, Principal Value Consultant, Iterable

There’s been a lot of excitement around the idea that AI and eventually agentic commerce will collapse the path to purchase.

Ask AI what to buy. Let it do the research. Get the recommendation. Check out.

Simple, right? I’m not so sure.

New eMARKETER research points to something much more interesting. Consumers are using AI for shopping, but they aren’t necessarily handing over the shopping experience. They’re using AI to research products, compare prices and understand their options. And then they go somewhere else.

They check reviews. They look at social content. They visit retailer sites. They watch creators. They validate what AI told them.

In fact, Google research cited by eMARKETER found that shoppers who use AI engage with 12x as many touchpoints as those who don’t. That’s not a shorter journey. It’s a more fragmented one. And I think this is where marketers need to rethink the AI conversation.The opportunity isn’t just getting into the AI answer. It’s becoming the answer consumers trust enough to validate. Because AI can recommend a product. It can’t eliminate the very human need to feel confident about the decision. That makes the middle of the funnel more important—not less.

Reviews matter. Creators matter. Product content matters. Expert opinions matter.

And the consistency of the brand experience across all of those places matters even more. Gen Z is already giving us a preview of what this looks like. They move fluidly between social, AI, retailer apps and physical stores.They aren’t choosing one channel.They’re using whatever helps them get confidence. That’s the shift I think marketers should be watching. AI may automate the transaction. But it doesn’t automate trust. If anything, AI is creating more places where brands have to earn it. The brands that figure this out won’t necessarily be the ones with the most AI. They’ll be the ones that understand what happens after AI makes the recommendation. Because that’s where the customer journey is getting really interesting.

About Patricia Kendall

Patricia Kendall is Principal Value Consultant at Iterable, where she works at the intersection of customer value, marketing strategy and customer engagement.

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Source & Credits

Source: eMARKETER, “AI complicates the path to purchase as marketers focus on mid-funnel opportunities,”

This article is provided to KARV | Tech Insider by: Patricia (Dubbe) Kendall