The Problem With AI Recs for Today’s Consumer
According to a recent report from strategic consultancy Alice Labs and global technology firm Reaktor, there’s been a notable uptick in “algorithmic fatigue” amongst everyday consumers.
It’s easy to see why people have grown weary. Algorithms are everywhere.
Want to watch a movie, here’s what we think you’ll like. Want to order a pizza, here are the top picks. Typing an email to a colleague and….. What the?! Did a ghost in the machine just finish my sentence??? Not exactly what I wanted to say, but fine.
A (human) recommendation from a good friend, a trusted tastemaker, or a knowledgeable expert can often prove far more valuable than anything an algorithm might generate. Or, at least it feels more personal, more directly speaking to you and your in-the-moment needs and wants.
What’s the secret sauce in this more direct, more personal rec? Gut intuition, an imperfect science not rooted in data; capable of conjuring that ephemeral X factor all marketers long for: the unforeseen element of surprise.
Okay, fine, but organizations can’t scale gut-level human intuition, even if it might be more valuable in certain instances.
Sure. But they can scale an action that often leads to intuitive decision-making: listening in real time.
Listen to Clients First, Recommend After
My role at BookClub has largely focused on diagnosing client problems, and prescribing the right solution for them. Colleagues even teasingly refer to me – and the service – as “Dr. Books.”
So how did I become a board certified book recommender for paying clients?
In the past 4 years, I’ve read close to, if not more than, one thousand non-fiction books – mostly from business and leadership categories.
I promise I’m not lying, shilling for Big Publishing, angling for a set of steak knives, or doing some type of misguided Bradley Cooper in Limitless cosplay.
It just… happened. And because of this niche expertise, I’m well positioned to prescribe a highly targeted, micro tailored set of solutions for clients.
This white glove experience would often manifest as frank conversations around desired programmatic outcomes, identifying learning and development needs, mapping our platform to their organizational goals, etc.
Take the example of a client who sought to integrate BookClub into a pre-existing leadership development program. He came armed with a list of books around customer experience and leadership.
A cursory search would have easily recommended these titles – algorithms are nothing if not an online popularity contest. But often, the first titles clients request (usually based on that good ol’ algorithm) aren’t always the best fit for their specific use case.
During client onboarding, we dug into fundamental questions about the organization itself, in addition to the leadership program. What did the CEO look for in a team leader? Where did they see themselves, both now and in 5 years? What values did they espouse?
We ended up selecting “Be Our Guest,” a book detailing Disney’s bespoke – yet universal - customer service protocols. The practical applications outlined in “Be Our Guest” truly spoke to members of the leadership program, who took it upon themselves to implement some of Disney’s best practices into their own customer experience protocols.
Inspired action is the hallmark of a powerful recommendation.
But this type white glove service isn’t scalable for a fast-growing tech platform such as ours. However, identifying the “Dr. Books” onboarding service as a valuable offering sparked ingenuity on the part of our product and engineering teams.
What if we could replicate this white glove client experience as a feature on the platform?
And thus “Dr. Books” the online resource tool was born.
Dr. Books on The Platform
“In the near future, experts predict that content on the web will double every 72 hours. The detached analysis of an algorithm will no longer be enough to find what we are looking for.
To satisfy the people’s hunger for great content on any topic imaginable, there will need to be a new category of individual working online. Someone whose job it is not to create more content, but to make sense of all the content that others are creating. To find the best and most relevant content and bring it forward.”
Rohit Bhargava, bestselling author, founder of Non-Obvious, and a non-obvious keynote speaker on marketing, trends, innovation, and diversity.
Dr. Books as a product feature is an AI tool and resource that superpowers content discovery on the platform, trained on both an extensive library and BookClub’s earned institutional knowledge.
Sounds cool. But how do I use it?
Let’s walk through some of Dr. Books’ key functionalities to better explain its role in the user experience.
FEATURES / BENEFITS:
Nav Accessibility:
Strong communication and relational trust are the natural byproducts of reliability – a good friend is only ever a text or call away. And what’s more, with good friends, you grow to rely on timely, thoughtful responses as a key feature of your relationship.
Trust between a product and its users operates within a similar logic.
A strong product feature is both accessible and reliable. If a user wastes too much time clicking around in the dark, they won’t just abandon that particular feature – they’ll likely abandon the product altogether.
For this very reason, we made sure “Dr. Books” would be accessible via the global nav no matter where you are on the BookClub website.
When you click on the icon – Dr. Books opens up in a "drawer" that slides over your main content, and retains your conversation history for that session regardless of where you travel on the site.
You can close Dr. Books when you're done with your query, but pop right back to Dr. Books when you have another content related question.
Like a good friend, Dr. Books is there when you need them.
Two-Paned Information Architecture:
By now, most people have grown accustomed to dynamic flows of information.
At any given moment, someone will have multiple chat windows, tabs, screens, etc. open – flooding their brains with layered streams of communication.
Because of this, Dr. Books deploys information through a two-paned architecture.
- Pane #1: Your conversation with Dr. Books
- Pane #2: Dr. Books’ ongoing recommendations.
This two-paned architecture creates a synergy akin to a real conversation between a person and a highly attuned expert – like a doctor listening attentively, hoping to accurately diagnose the problem and prescribe the solution.
When someone expresses a problem, feels seen and heard in the moment, and immediately receives a thoughtful response – they’re more likely to stick around.
Today, lack of recognition and poor engagement in and out of the workplace often metastasizes into apathy and attrition.
An omnipresent listener has a distinct edge in the marketplace.
Dr. Books Curates AND Aggregates:
“A machine learning algorithm walks into a bar. The bartender asks, ‘What’ll you have?’ The algorithm says, ‘What’s everyone else having?’”
-Chet Haase, Google Engineer
To round out the full discovery experience created via sustained engagement with Dr. Books – users are granted a suite of options during the recommendation cycle.
Dr. Books not only recommends specific Sparks – what we call atomic units of book-inspired content on the platform – but responses are also ranked, e.g.:
- Great match
- Good match
- Fair match
Not only that, but Dr. Books intuits and encourages action and application around content for users. The utility of this resource doesn’t end once a few recs are generated, however.
Users can click to further explore a spark, bookmark it for later, share it with a friend or colleague, or add it to a playlist (a collection of Sparks, much like how a Spotify playlist is a collection of songs).
Additionally, they’re able to discover and aggregate content around pressing workplace topics ranging from business agility, to AI in the workplace, to leadership, to resilience, to mindfulness, to DEIB, and the list goes on.
These inspired actions create behaviors of learning, leading to a habit of regular exploration and discovery – beyond even workplace development.
The avowed non-reader might suddenly find themselves interacting with copious ideas from books, and might even have fun doing it.
To be clear, nothing can replace a book, or the author’s original intent.
Our hope is that BookClub will serve as a reminder to clients and customers of the essential, universal power of books – and even inspire them to go beyond our offering to make reading a regular habit.
And if Dr. Books does its job, users can and will benefit from the critical growth and organizational success that book inspired learning makes possible.
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