If you’re expecting a breathless blog post on the wonders of ChatGPT or any other AI-powered bot, I should be up-front that this ain’t that kind of post.

This isn’t about how to use AI for branding.

This is about learning FROM AI to enhance your own human-powered branding.

So here’s the deal, psychologists were studying human-AI interactions (specifically AI-powered chat engines and bots) and came across this fascinating pattern [bolding mine]:

When artificial intelligence (AI) agents disclose personal information, it can boost users’ empathy towards them, thus increasing acceptance of AI technologies. The study involved online experiments where participants engaged in text-based chats with an AI agent.

Researchers found that the agents’ disclosure of work-relevant personal information was associated with greater empathy from participants, whereas no disclosure suppressed empathy.

The visual representation of the AI agent, whether human-like or robotic, did not significantly influence empathy levels.

Did you get that?

Even a robotic chat-bot can bond with humans IF it discloses “personal” information.

On the other hand, “no disclosure suppressed empathy.”

People don’t want to interact with — let alone trust or make themselves vulnerable to — faceless, story-less, and personality-less… anything!

If given the choice, customers will consistently choose to trust a person they have some level of connection with over and above other options.

So if you haven’t already, consider using your branding ads to tell your origin story and disclose some relevant personal information.

If it can bond people to machines, just imagine what it will do to bond customers to you.