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Leadership Brief

Machine Customers - The Impact of Consumer Bots on Customer Journeys

March 03, 2022

Roland Bühler

Machine customers are already present in many markets, driven by trends such as IoT. This leadership brief gives an overview on how to prepare to satisfy the needs of consumer bots and other autonomous machines when they are shopping. The customer journeys of machines are driven by data, which is a significant change compared to the interaction with humans.

1 Executive Summary

Megatrends, such as IoT or smart devices, change the way products or services are bought. Machine customers will be more and more important in many markets, as they will either support humans within the purchase process ― or have their own needs that they will satisfy with autonomous purchases.

It is now crucial for organizations to prepare in order to be compatible with machine customers. In addition to a human-centered marketing and sales approach, the requirements of machines must be considered already today ― and even more so in the future.

Availability and accessibility of appropriate data that satisfies the needs of machine customers will be key. Furthermore, due to the rapid development of machine customers over the next years, an agile approach is necessary to continuously adapt to recent insights.

In addition, the risks that come with machine customers must be handled, such as security and privacy issues.