The Physical Presence and Relationship Distance for Efficient Consumer–AI-Business Interactions and Marketing

The development of artificial intelligence has triggered important changes in society, in the business world and in consumers’ everyday lives. Many of the daily human activities are nowadays performed with the help of AI, having major implications on the interaction between consumers and companies. Therefore, the marketing strategies of companies have to be adjusted in order to include AI. This chapter presents a conceptual approach on the types of AI and their impact on the marketing strategies of companies. The authors focus mainly on two differentiation criteria of AI, namely the physical or virtual presence of AI and the social relations between consumers and AI. On the one hand, there are personal AI assistants, which are permanently involved in consumers’ daily life and external voice assistants or service robots, which interact with consumers during the acquisition of products or services. As for the two categories of AI, the exchange of data and attachment are different, so the authors focus on the main challenges for each category by analyzing the implications they have on the marketing strategies of companies. On the other hand, there are also AI devices with a physical presence or AI devices with virtual presence which interact with the consumers by voice. The physical presence and the friendliness of the voice may impact the interaction in different ways.