The customer journey has gone off-script

The line between social and search is at a peak blur and AI is trying to eat everyone’s lunch. If your customer journey still looks tidy in a presentation with some nice, neat arrows from discover to consider to buy, it's time for a rethink. Because while the linear neatness may help us feel we understand, the modern reality is far from tidy. 

As you’ll know, the modern shopper might find something on TikTok, check it on YouTube, send it to a group chat and ask AI if it’s worth the money before even visiting your website. You of course know this already as it’s reflective of how you yourself buy – you just hoped someone else would amend the journey slide in the deck.

Here’s the part where we slightly let you down and reveal we’re not actually going to share that new journey either – it’s an ever-changing model, so pinning a moment in time won’t help like you think it might. Instead, we’re going to reveal something far more valuable: five influences shaping the modern journey in real time, so you can plan your next move accordingly. 

Without further ado, here are five influences shaping the modern journey and what you can do about them. 

1. Social is becoming search

Pinterest wants to be Google

Digital pinboard platform Pinterest now handles more than 80 billion searches a month. Their CEO therefore wants advertisers to stop thinking of it as a social network and start thinking of it as a search engine… for shopping. With more than half its searches being commercial, and more than half of its users being Gen Z, that makes sense. 

As stated above, younger audiences don't default to Google to find things. They use TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest and LLMs. And they’re not always even actively searching, they’re just online, living. Exploring.

Discoveries happen by accident while on safari in the digital jungle. And brands therefore need be visible while they run, climb and swing through it, asking questions as they go. 

How? Search-shaped social content, not simply campaign or brand content. Ensure you’ve built content around the real questions your audience asks – not just about you, but about them, so wherever they go looking it's you they find with the answer. 

Is “search-shaped social content” reflected in your content strategy? 

2. Search is becoming social

Google Images wants to be Pinterest

Socials becoming search isn’t a new theme, we know. But what about the flip? Search platforms are now borrowing the browsing habits that make social useful – hence peak blur. 

Google Images is turning into a personalised inspiration feed, with a continually updated gallery based on your interests. You can explore, save ideas and build collections as you go, much like Pinterest. 

That matters because it reinforces the new search behaviour above: people aren’t always searching when they’re searching – they’re simply exploring. Search therefore isn’t question-based, it’s exploration-based, and imagery itself is now a gateway to discovery. 

This makes your brand imagery more powerful than ever. Quality, art direction and style will capture attention, enter collections and invite people into your world – a world they might want to be a part of. Stock imagery, I’m sorry to say, won’t do this. Unless the world you’re trying to build is an ecstatic boardroom workshop c.2014.  

Is your imagery art-directed or styled enough to become an entry point to your brand? 

3. AI wants the whole journey

Google AI Mode and ChatGPT bring external apps inside their platform

AI is moving beyond answering questions into planning, creating and even shopping. 

Google's AI Mode now lets people connect services like Instacart, Canva and YouTube Music, so users can move from a conversation straight into a task without changing space. ChatGPT has done the same with apps like AllTrails, Booking.com and Spotify inside its own platform. 

Behaviourally, as more of us use connected AI ecosystems to navigate hybrid spaces, we will increasingly expect to discover, decide and act in one place. The best experience therefore may no longer involve sending someone to your website but taking your services to the platforms they already use, meeting them where they are. 

If you’re an organisation where people browse, compare and explore your range, heading inside an AI-connected app reduces the steps between them and you, and allow them to explore your world one conversation at a time. 

4. Trust in AI depends on the task

We trust AI to compare and inform, not to commit on our behalf

“But do people trust AI enough to buy with it?” I hear you ask. Great question! The answer, in short, is no. Hence the focus on browsing, comparing and exploring. 

A recent US study found only 24% of Gen Z were comfortable using AI for payments, and just 10% for automatic repeat purchases. So, comparing trainers, holidays or universities is one thing but setting up a CGPT standing order is quite another. AI trust isn’t simply high or low - it depends on the ask and the task. 

And that holds true in our own CGPT-app exploration. We’re yet to find an app that handles the final decision - always handing the user back to the brand when it's time to pay or apply.  

This is an evolving space, so these boundaries will change. Think about how many of us once refused to add a bank card to our Apple wallet. Now we don’t even have an actual wallet. For now, brands must work with the trust people have today. When trust improves and pathways are more secure, it’s worth exploring too. 

Have you found a CGPT app that handles the final decision? Let us know! 

5. Gen Z don’t want AI everything

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should

Signals suggest that not only is AI-trust task-dependent, but it’s context-dependent too because of two little things called authenticity and privacy. Remember them? Turns out they still matter. 

Three related stories made this clearer than a clearthing from clearland. First, another recent study found 72% of Gen Z feel negative or cautious about AI-generated content. Clear. Next, Meta pulled a new AI image feature in Muse after a backlash-tsunami over privacy concerns people had finding out users could use public Instagram accounts as references for AI-generated images. Clearer. And then the clever sods at Polaroid tapped into this and built a whole campaign around real, non-digital moments and real experiences that LinkedIn has duly lapped up. Clearest. 

The point is that just because you can doesn't mean you should. It’s easier than ever to create AI-generated content or ignore privacy concerns in the name of hitting publishing targets or launch deadlines, but you will pay the price for your shortcut. People will turn away. Or worse, they’ll de-influence you. Keep real people and real stories at the heart of your content. And use real creatives with real expertise to create it. And when AI has materially shaped what people see, and it can definitely push you further, faster in the right doses, say so. Don’t hide anything, and you’ll have nothing to hide.  

Are you yet using AI in your creative processes? If so, how, why and what’s the impact been? 

The journey is changing but the tenets of great customer experience remain

To stay relevant as the journey evolves in real time, give people the answers they need, meet them where they are and present authentically and transparently. That’s it. Yes, the what, how and where you do these things are changing, but not the rules of a great customer experience. Luckily, we can help you with both.  

We help organisations stay relevant with the next generation - designing digital experiences they choose, use and come back to. We can help you understand these changing behaviours, expectations, methods and tech as they change, so get in touch.