On the 27th April 2024, I spoke at the GDSC MOUAU 'Build With AI' event, and I'll be speaking on improving customer success with AI.

On my way to the venue, I started going over my slides and it felt too "corporate," so I started thinking of real-life applications of AI in improving the customer journey.

That thought process is responsible for this case study, and I hope it's helpful.

The Problem

Every serious product team knows that at the end of the day, the customer is the reason you come to work in the morning, The faster you can take them from a touch point into your funnel, onboard them, and turn them into paying customers, the better for you and your paycheck.

The problem is, that the onboarding process is getting more convoluted, especially as more companies add features with growth, which in turn limits how personalized the product can be for individual accounts without burning through a ton of cash and manpower

So, what's AI's role in all these...

For many companies, Artificial Intelligence in customer success sounds like a trendy buzzword, important but almost impossible to implement. Often, AI is viewed as a collection of tools—chatbots for basic interactions and knowledge bases powered by smart search. They’re often third-party-run services, like embedding Gemini into your app to act as your chatbot. Yes, these applications offer definite benefits, but they rather represent a narrow perspective on AI's true potential. Here, I argue that companies that treat AI as a core intelligence, capable of learning and evolving alongside their business, unlock a path toward true personalized customer success.

Let me give you an example
WhatsApp's latest updates come with a special AI assistant called Meta AI that’s basically your personal chatbot that you can chat with anytime. But that functionality in and of itself is outward-facing, it’s Google Search that you can chat with.

Now hold that thought, I’m a big professional wrestling fan, and on one random night, I felt the urge to join a wrestling channel on WhatsApp so I could keep in touch without having to surf my browser. Here’s what I asked MetaAI, and here’s what it said.

*deep sigh

The solution

The real purpose of AI is that it makes your customers feel special with minimal effort on the company’s end. Every customer wants to feel like you’re thinking about them and only them, even when it’s neither feasible nor realistic. However, if you understand this as a founder, how you look at AI will change dramatically.

The true power lies in integrating AI deeply within a company's internal processes. By training AI on a company's specific customer data and workflows, a form of "Continuous Learning intelligence" can be created. This intelligence continuously monitors and starts optimizing the user’s experience from the onboarding process, ensuring it remains relevant as the product evolves and customer needs shift. Similarly, AI embedded within the product itself can track user behavior, identifying friction points and underutilized features. These insights can then inform product development, ensuring a continuous alignment with real-world user needs.

This deeper integration extends to support teams. AI can analyze customer interactions, product usage patterns, and internal notes, uncovering hidden patterns and predicting potential churn risks. This empowers support teams to become proactive problem solvers, anticipating issues and offering tailored solutions before they escalate. Furthermore, AI can surface patterns within product usage and communication history, indicating a customer's readiness for product upgrades or additional features. This equips sales teams with the right insights to deliver personalized upsell opportunities at the perfect moment, maximizing customer lifetime value.

The benefits of AI aren’t all clientside either, just think of how easier your team’s work will be when processes become more aligned with user expectations, a happy team is more productive, and that will trickle down into the collective work atmosphere.

Alright, enough talk, Let me show you a few examples that detail just how AI can be utilized, from onboarding to retention, in real-life products available on the market right now.

1. Personalized Onboarding

Example: Asana's AI-guided onboarding tailors the experience for small marketing agencies. It anticipates common workflows, suggests templates and prioritizes features most valuable to this specific type of customer.

The Impact: Reduced cognitive load, immediate value demonstration, and an increased likelihood of successful activation.

2. Pre-empting Problems with Proactive Support

Example: Shopify's AI analyzes new listings, flags potential image or SEO issues, and proactively offers guidance and automated fix suggestions.

The Impact: Ensures early success by empowering the user, prevents frustration before it starts, and builds trust in the platform's value.

3. Intelligent Personalization

Example: Grammarly adapts its suggestions based on the writer's unique style and project types, enhancing writing without feeling intrusive.

The Impact: The product learns to support the user's strengths, boosting ongoing value as their expertise grows.

4. Smart Self-Service Resources

Example: HubSpot's AI-powered chatbot understands natural language queries, delivering targeted resources for tasks like building email campaigns.

The Impact: Reduces support ticket volume, empowers users with 24/7 assistance, and improves the overall service experience.

5. AI-Driven Upsell Opportunities

Example: Zoom analyzes usage patterns for businesses on the free tier, suggesting upgrades that seamlessly address pain points like meeting length restrictions.

The Impact: Increased revenue through relevant upgrades, builds brand loyalty as the product grows with the user's needs.

Disclaimer: I have no idea if the mentioned products already offer these AI enhancements, if they do, good for them, if they don’t, too bad.

AI-driven customer experience isn't just about the first interaction; it creates a lasting impact:

I remember the first time I used Spotify’s AI DJ, it just felt like a clever bastard who blended songs with similar rhythms. I love it; in fact, it just cued in King Promise’s Perfect Combi. It’s a perfect tool that expresses what I mean by learning intelligence, understanding my Spotify usage in real-time, and tweaking the algorithm in real-time as well, leading me towards an ‘Aha’ moment where I’m spending more and more time on the app, which means I’m having a good experience and the company is also making money. Isn’t that the dream of every PM?

TLDR: Is your product a maze for your customers? AI can be their guide. It personalizes their journey, eliminates roadblocks, and proactively solves their problems – the key to happy, loyal users.

I hope you enjoyed this piece.

See you in the next one!

CASE STUDY: The customer’s secret desire to feel special and how AI can fix that.