How customers communicate with AI - and what it means for your business

Mimicry - our instinct to subtly mirror another’s language - helps create trust, a sense of connection and positive experiences. But this powerful social mechanism changes when you interact with an AI-agent.

In this lecture, I present research showing that consumers naturally mimic AI agents far less than human service agents, and that this drop in mimicry leads to lower satisfaction, weaker trust, and reduced willingness to upgrade or buy.

The key reason is psychological distance: people simply feel less socially connected to AI. I also show how signaling human involvement in AI systems can reduce this distance, restore mimicry, and strengthen consumer responses. These insights offer practical guidance for designing AI-supported customer experiences that feel more human, engaging, and effective.

(Photo: Shutterstock)