Artificial Intelligence and You

Artificial intelligence is radically impacting your online user experience. Your favorite browser’s homepage and shopping sites are increasingly made-to-order to suit you perfectly. The longer AI is around, the better it gets at knowing what you like and what makes you buy, participate, and care!

What’s AI and UX?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is more than self-driving cars! It’s a new way for computers to process information. Rather than just following commands, AI collects images, videos, and content that you liked in the past and uses that to anticipate what you’ll like in the future. Computers using AI smarter over time and create better solutions.

User experience (UX) is your emotions, beliefs, and preferences in response to your online experience. Anything that makes you respond to the online content you are seeing; anything that makes you interact online. (International Organization for Standardization, n.d.)

AI is used to understand you better. Does this result in more sales? Sure! But it may also increase your loyalty to a site or brand and make your time spent online more enjoyable.

How does it do that?

History, categories and algorithms – AI categorizes you into groups of other like-minded people. Images, videos, and design will also be categorized. Match these categories with your browsing and purchasing history, and voila! AI can offer you what you like and how you like to see it. That’s how Netflix and Amazon know how to make successful and useful suggestions.

Algorithms–not just for Facebook anymore! Algorithms are calculations made with collected data and the categories AI has developed. The results are meant to anticipate your emotions, responses, and preferences. (Kosmayer, 2019)

Great! Where will I see AI?

The more personalized your websites become, the more human an experience you’ll feel you have. At least, that’s what the big tech companies are hoping. (Irfan, 2019) Search bars better anticipate what you need. Customer service chatbots are more conversational. (Lounge lizard, 2017)

The top tech companies are developing and deploying AI throughout their products and websites as rapidly as they can. (Marr, 2019) The market is expanding into the hundreds of billions. 

• Google uses it for more accurate and personalized search results. AI customizes the design and content of your homepage.
• Netflix uses AI to suggest new shows and movies. It’s working; AI suggestions account for 80% of Netflix streaming. (Irfan, 2019)
• Amazon suggests products based on what you bought, what you viewed, and what similar buyers viewed or purchased. Amazon emails suggest new purchases based on all of this data. (P.K., 2019) 
• Facebook uses AI to automatically analyze the content and emotions of your posts; it’s called DeepText. Another AI technology, DeepFace, is used to instantly recognize your face in photos. Facebook uses AI to identify and remove inappropriate content. (Marr, 2019)
  

What’s next? Any concerns?

As AI advances, your online UX will transform into a more individualized experience. Your needs and interests will be anticipated. Getting the info you want and finding what you’d like to buy will be even easier. 

There are a few things to think about though. What happens to imagination and creativity when we’re so used to seeing customized content? Will AI just further separate us, only showing us content that reaffirms our social and political beliefs? Will our online experience become bland and predictable?

by Sonia Molineux

I’m a mom and I love to learn. Currently, I’m discovering e-commerce at American Military University. I’ve been a naval intelligence officer and earned a master’s from the School of International Service at American University and a bachelor’s from Rutgers College. My husband and I plan to start a web services and analytics company. 

References

International Organization for Standardization. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:std:iso:9241:-210:ed-1:v1:en

Irfan, M. (2019, October 29). Artificial intelligence and the future of web design. Retrieved from Usability Geek: https://usabilitygeek.com/artificial-intelligence-and-the-future-of-web-design/

Kosmayer, D. (2019, April 17). How AI can improve the UX of websites and landing pages. Retrieved from Usability Geek: https://usabilitygeek.com/ai-improve-ux-websites-landing-pages/

Lounge lizard new york website design shares 6 reasons to use AI in your business website. (2017, August 4). Retrieved from PR Newswire: https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/docview/1925766874?accountid=8289

Marr, B. (2019, December 9). The 10 Best Examples Of How Companies Use Artificial Intelligence In Practice. Retrieved from Forbes.com: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/12/09/the-10-best-examples-of-how-companies-use-artificial-intelligence-in-practice/#2016bbdf7978

P.K., R. (2019, February 11). How Artificial Intelligence is changing web design and web development. Retrieved from Acodez: https://acodez.in/artificial-intelligence-web-design/