In the 1700s, a chair took a craftsman weeks to make. His hands knew the grain. He’d shape the joint, sand the curve, and somewhere in that slow labour, something of him went into the chair. Then came the machine. Suddenly, one man could produce a hundred chairs a day. As machines replaced men and handwork, the quality and craftsmanship declined, and something else went missing too. Not the chair. The hand that made it. The chairs got cheaper, faster, and more uniform. And the world quietly forgot that a chair could ever have carried someone’s care inside it.
We are doing this again. Only this time, it isn’t furniture. It’s service. It’s us.
McKinsey research confirms personalization has shifted from differentiator to table stakes; we want to be known, not processed. That feeling of being truly seen is what earns loyalty. Its absence sends us looking elsewhere. So, tell me: why are organisations racing to hand that exact moment, the moment of being known, over to a machine?
A wise question for any business who has been swept up in the race would benefit from asking; what are we actually chasing? Get really clear.
Is it; faster handle times…. lower headcount…cost per transaction down… all are incredibly beneficial to the bottom line, and I understand their pull. But what’s the long game? If cutting cost is the strategy, what will your customers reward you with, if not loyalty? What will make them choose you again, if not the felt experience of being served?
Let’s define our terms, because language has become the great hiding place.
Real service is relational. It requires a human being who sees another human being, listens, and cares enough to act. That’s not my definition alone; it’s the definition service has always carried. Take the human out, and you haven’t made service more efficient. You’ve removed the thing that made it a service at all.
Artificial service is something else entirely. It can be fast, accurate, or even pleasant. Nearly half of consumers say they’d use AI for personalised recommendations, and 44% would rely on it for instant support; so I’m not arguing AI has no place. It does, for the routine and the low-stakes. But responsive is not relational. A system predicting your preference is not a person caring about your outcome. Don’t call AI service. It isn’t. It’s automation wearing the service’s clothes.
And here’s where I ask you to be very, very careful…if you are wanting to protect your reputation and strengthen your brand loyalty with customers. Automate the function, but say so. Use AI for convenience. Use humans for connection. Know the difference, because your customers already do.
What you carve out of the human experience in pursuit of efficiency may be exactly what your customers were loyal to in the first place. Choose with your eyes open. Call it what it is.
Our Service Intelligence Whitepaper explores how leaders can embrace AI without losing the trust, loyalty and human connection that customers value most. You can download it here.
And if this conversation resonated with you, forward it to a leader who is wrestling with the balance between efficiency and experience. These are the conversations that will shape the future of service.