Why effortless experiences demand a whole lot of effort

Did anyone else blink and AI was everywhere? In the headlines, on your feed, baked into your tech even soon to come to the silver screen (see Tilly Norwood). Brands are rushing to implement it so that they don’t ‘fall behind’.

If you’re a brand looking to not just reel in Gen Z, but keep them coming back for more. And are thinking about implementing some AI. I have some news for you.

Our research showed that Gen Z doesn’t want it - 33% would be put off by a brand that used it. They want effortlessness. To get in, do what they have to do. Then get out and get on with their lives away from a screen.

Some brands are away ahead

Let me tell you about a recent, incredibly effortless experience. Clue: it didn’t feature AI and would likely not benefit from AI. But what it does have is an incredible amount of technical engineering behind it.

I take the train to work and often my patterns of going into the office are erratic which means doing a lot of travel planning on the fly. I have children and so after doing school drop off I park my car at home and purchase my train ticket while I walk to the station, through my phone, using only my thumb. My ticket is instantly available as a QR code on my phones’ native wallet, which I use to exit the station at the other end. There is almost zero friction in this process. (Although the one improvement I would make would be for the app to make a pre-emptive suggestion of my ticket requirement based on my purchase history  - doesn’t need AI).

The engineering behind this simple, elegant and effortless experience is vast , let’s take stock:

• Mobile payments (finance and technology working in partnership, to send digital representations of my pounds and pence to a faceless, secure, computer system)
• Biometric authentication (the digitisation and leveraging of my literal physical being)
• Cloud based ticketing systems (data centres, server farms, developers, security guards)
• Ticket attendants mobile digital ticket scanning (wifi enabled hardware
• devices instantly scanning and assessing the validity of my ticket, often purchased minutes earlier)
• Train station digital access controls (physical internet connected barriers, instantly notified of my thumb based activities)
• My thumb, my physical touch, instantly spends my money, validates me for travel and gives the proverbial nod to a glass and steel barrier, 10 miles away….

It almost seems obscene that all this has to exist so I don’t have to use a ticket kiosk… and yet, Gen-Z have never lived in a world without this engineering, to Gen-Z this is as insignificant as the VHS tape to those of my decade. Our research tells us that Gen-Z expect this.

But back to my train example. There are risks and no-gos in this example, and in many experiences like it, which could quickly turn this modern, effortless  into a sub-par experience.

Train reliability aside (Great Western Railway, I’m looking at you) , there’s a layer of digital annoyance that could have me lobbing my phone onto the tracks. I get stuck at the barriers because my QR code won’t work; the attendant scans my ticket and it’s invalid… I get a fine. How many of these little annoyances would it take to have me considering my options and driving to work?

Our research says it straight

Our latest phase of research into Gen Z’s digital preferences tells us that that NUMBER ONE driver for digital (and brand) loyalty is effortless. Without exception Gen-Z expect perfect, effortless, every-time, and if they don’t get it, they’ll find it somewhere else – 60% of Gen Z would abandon a brand forever after a bad digital experience.

Beautiful technical engineering has removed patience, empathy and generated a new era of brand loyalty! We have created a monster, and now we must feed it!

Technology has become so ubiquitous and so successful that it has bread expectation and contempt, and this generation will let the world hear its ire, and the world will listen. And guess what? We all stand to benefit.

Brands, investing in the art of technical engineering is no longer a nice to have, it’s no longer about looking to the future, developing cool new features or unique experiences, it’s now survival in a new era of brand loyalty. When your experience breaks, so does Gen Z loyalty. Reduce friction. Make it easy. Make it quick. Make it intuitive. Then focus on features.

Gen Z don’t feel this way because they’re entitled, but because they’re burnt out, they’ve had enough, they realise that their world is built on this technology, but, that wasn’t their choice, it’s the world we made for them, and they’re tired of spending all their energy in it. They want in, and they want out, simple, effortless. So if you want their custom, that’s what they need.

Forget theory, what to do in practice

First, stop designing only for when everything goes right. Assume connections will drop. Payments will hang. People will be distracted, in a rush, and using one hand. Your experience should fail gracefully. No dead ends. No endless loading. Always a clear next step.

Second, remove friction where systems meet, not just where users tap. Most frustration doesn’t come from bad design — it comes from sign-ins failing, sessions expiring, links breaking, payments timing out, or data not syncing properly. These moments feel small, but stacked together they destroy trust.

Third, treat speed as part of the experience, not a technical detail. If something feels slow, it is broken in the mind of the user. Measure it. Protect it. Fight for it. People don’t wait — they leave.

Fourth, make sure you can see problems instantly. If users find issues before your team does, you’re already losing goodwill. Every broken experience should be visible, understood, and fixable quickly.

And finally, automate the boring stuff. Updates, fixes, scaling, security, backups. The less humans have to manually intervene, the more consistent the experience becomes. Effortless for users only works when it’s relentlessly organised behind the scenes.

Here’s the truth: none of this is effortless for the business. It takes focus, discipline, and constant attention. But that’s the deal. You carry the weight so your users don’t feel it. That’s what modern loyalty is built on now — not flashy features, not AI for the sake of it — just experiences that never make people think twice.

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