Alex: In 2025, AI isn't just influencing consumer behavior, it's
becoming an extension of who we are.
From coffee machines that sync with smart pillows to humanoid robots
in our homes, businesses now face a new challenge: leveraging this hyper
personalized tech while navigating privacy concerns and staying human at the core.
How do you strike the perfect balance between automation and authenticity?
My name is Alexandre Nevski and this is Innovation Tales.
AI is changing the game for businesses, shaping how people shop,
interact, and even feel about brands.
If we believe the hype, AI is about to do everything from making your morning
coffee to predicting the weather for your vacation 10 years from now.
But before we hand over the keys to the robots, there's one question we
need to ask: how do you use AI to personalize experiences while staying
authentic and respecting privacy?
That's where Shahar Boyayan comes in.
Shahar is a leading voice in AI and consumer behavior.
Known for helping businesses make sense of this fast changing world.
Her groundbreaking report, "AI-driven consumer trends and business
applications: navigating the near future of commerce and the eight laws
of irresistibility," is packed with practical insights that show companies
how to use AI effectively without turning their customers into data points.
Without further ado, here's my conversation with Shahar Boyayan.
Shahar, welcome to the show.
Shahar: I'm so glad to be here.
Alex: Well, thanks for taking the time.
Now, as a business consultant, you've studied psychology and consumer
behavior, and you've published a report entitled AI Consumer Trends for 2025.
So let's start there.
How is artificial intelligence shaping consumer behavior at the moment?
Shahar: It's actually becoming an extension of ourselves.
That's really what's happening.
Many times we don't even have, we are not even conscious that is happening,
but we are getting so accustomed to the devices and what they do for us, that now
it's becoming an extension of ourselves.
And the fact that I like this topic is because I think we are about
this year and the next year to face the biggest change in behavior that
we have seen since the pandemic.
But this one is bigger and it's going to go deeper into our lives, right?
Because we already have devices in our room.
You're using AI all the time.
We have watches, smartwatches, smart glasses.
We are starting to be monitored by all these AI components, right?
And this will cause changes in behavior.
And there's a very exciting part about that because it creates a lot
of possibilities for businesses.
And at the same time, there are some few things that we need to
be concerned about so we can cater this to our best interest, right?
And not the machine's best interest.
Alex: So is the behavior changes that you see related to the ability of the service
providers to deliver experiences that are enhanced by artificial intelligence.
And consumers therefore being a little bit, um, emotionally ambiguous about this.
Or are we also talking about the consumers themselves somehow
also using AI tools on their end?
Shahar: I think both.
For the businesses, it does offer a lot of possibilities, right?
Because with what we have right now, that is not even what we are
going to have a month from now, for example, with the humanoid robots
in our houses, we are already being monitored by a lot of devices.
Like my daughter wears a smartwatch that tells her when she's stressed, right?
So it's in every single level.
It's not only how many steps we make a day.
So in a very short period of time we might be waking up and the pillow will tell the
coffee machine to start making coffee.
I go brush my teeth and my toothbrush will tell me that I need to go to the dentist.
Of course, all these, all these things also allows businesses to
improve the experience that we have.
Simple thing, for example, a hairdresser that knows exactly how I like my hair
and when it is time to get in touch with me and they will be able to do
also to a multi channel of devices out there or creating apps for this.
As we get super comfortable with AI, which is still a process, because, you know,
when we talk about AI, we are talking about, oh, this is old news, right?
We've been dealing with AI for years.
But for the end consumer, this is, this, the now is when they
are getting comfortable with.
And it is unbelievable the amount of business owners, for example, that I talk
to, that have not even tried ChatGPT yet.
When some of us cannot even, you know, I can't stand listening
about ChatGPT anymore, but they still haven't tried that.
So it is a process to all of us and many of us, we have concerns.
So we try not to use, or we think we don't use, but then we
go to Netflix and we accept the recommendations that he does for us.
So we are using it anyway, right?
But as a business owner can create apps and options for the person
to have a better experience.
With all this incorporation of AI and our current lifestyle that we are being
isolated more and more inside the home.
We had a trend of cocooning, which is a term by Faith Popcorn that is a futurist.
We already had that trend coming for years.
But when the pandemic started, we actually got used to being inside the home and we
start catering the home with ourselves.
what's happening right now is that we, with AI, I can have the
home exactly as I want, right?
I clap my hands, the lights go up, the lights go down.
I choose the music.
I choose all the devices that are going to interact with me
and give me advice as well.
So being home became a very comfortable thing.
And of course, if you live in places like the United States,
it's even a safer place than any other place to be inside the house.
But this has isolated us a lot.
And we are seeing, even with the younger generations, that the
social part is becoming an issue.
It's becoming harder and harder for us to interact with other human beings.
We want things, well, because we are carrying everything for ourselves.
We expect the same when we go out.
And then it's a different ball game out there.
So we see issues in the socialization, but what we all expect is that everything
is catered to us, which leads to the trend of hyper personalization.
I want everything to be about me.
I also want that because we, as a society, we feel very lonely.
One in every five Americans feel extremely lonely, and one in every three
Americans think they have a real friend.
So that's how lonely we are right now.
So when I go and interact with the business, I want to be seen.
I don't want to be invisible.
I want them to show they care, and I want them to cater specifically to my needs.
And this is actually not that difficult to do.
For example, in a restaurant, for example, I can have, I can go inside the
restaurant, and an AI or even the menu can tell me, Hey, you had fish last time.
Why don't you try our steak?
It's with the same sauce, but with a different twist.
The person would say, wow, they know what I ate last time, right?
I'm special here.
So there are many ways for us to create that hyper personalization
that doesn't require huge investments, in AI devices and is already
being done in some cases, right?
The other thing that I can provide this hyper personalization is understanding
my customers beliefs and principles.
Because, for example, especially if I'm dealing with a younger generation
that is more socially conscious, for example, than the baby boomers, they
expect to know if you source your food, for example, locally, if you care
about the environment, and you need to figure ways of telling them that.
So back to the restaurant thing, I can open the menu and when I choose
the lasagna, for example, it will show me a small video of how that
is prepared in the kitchen or how is the components of that lasagna, how
it's outsourced in the community.
So it can show me that side in an almost subliminal way.
I don't need to be talking about that all the time, but it's showing,
okay, I care about what you care.
And I take care of the, our environment, our society, as you, you want to be
taken care of by a business owner.
This is very important because the perception of the consumer related
to companies is not that good, right?
I think we are in a all time low.
it's unbelievable.
Even the social media, that all the time when you try to, promote the
brand, you're not going to get much traction because brands usually are not
very transparent and raw and unique.
And that's what the consumer is looking for.
Alex: And what do you think , going back to the example, let's say with the
restaurant, on the one hand I can see how providing recommendations on the menu and
providing additional information about the sources of the ingredients adds value.
But at the same time, I guess it raises questions of privacy.
It raises questions of, let's say, is this a transaction or is
there more of a human connection?
Sometimes, especially thinking about businesses like restaurants
or hairdressers, there is.
and a very important element of, like a human touch, right?
So you might ask a waiter to tell you about, the origin of the
ingredients and it's in a ways different than if that information
is just provided to you on demand.
So how do you see this being implemented properly from a service provider's
perspective, how do you do hyper personalization without raising all
the issues with privacy or just very simply without annoying your customers?
Shahar: With privacy, it's very interesting because we all need
to be very vocal about what we expect or not from the machines.
Because we have the next situation, for example, there's a company in
Europe launching a humanoid robot ready for the market in February, right?
We are probably going to have those here.
They are expensive, but you're going to figure a way to have
one in your house, right?
How much do you want it to be actually listening and recording
everything that happens in your life?
What is too much?
What can you do?
And then, where is it going to be uploaded to?
And who is going to be getting this data?
After all, our home is our most intimate environment.
How much do we want that and who is controlling all that?
Which billionaire is controlling all that?
So we have to be very vocal of where the limits are because it is still a Wild
West , in terms of, Our safety, right?
And we have to be concerned all the time.
Whatever happens in the near future, we need to always be exercising our critical
thinking, and we need to make very sure that the final decision is ours.
Now, about the part of the question about the human touch.
I'm all for, yes, humans need to be there and interacting because this
isolation that we are living now, it's going to increase and it's
going to cause many, many problems.
As a business owner, you need to see how you're going to achieve that balance.
Because in some things, you need consistency.
Consistency is the key to success in business, right?
You need to be very consistent.
This is always the same experience that you need to provide.
And unfortunately, many times, it doesn't matter how much training you put into
an employee, if they're in a bad mood, if they had a fight with a girlfriend,
things might go south that day.
So you have to know that balance, which are the things that you can train and
have very good results and which are the things that you should automate
because you need that consistent to be there every single time.
And I think we can achieve that balance very well.
But it does require some sitting down and brainstorming.
You can brainstorm with the AI.
I do that all the time.
I use Claude a lot and the entrepreneur always has this problem, we tend
to say it's the loneliest person on Earth because you never find people
to talk about on the daily life.
The wife or the husband are not entrepreneurs.
It's just hard.
So sometimes we go to the AI.
What do you think about that?
Then you brainstorm as long as the final decision is yours.
It is good.
But I think it's a matter of balance.
AI is not here to replace everybody and everything is not going to happen.
But at the same time, There are many things that can be
beneficial to a business, right?
And those things will have to be there, and this will cause consequences.
You are going to have some professions that are going to go away, but
that has happened with every single major change in history, right?
Some professions go away.
we are very creative people, right?
The human beings.
So we find a way to adapt to what's coming up.
Alex: So what one of the very key, points you've made that I would like to go back
to is that if you need consistency to deliver a specific service or part of
a service, that might be a good place to put automation, maybe artificial
intelligence or something else.
And on the other hand, and I go back to the report you've published, you have
eight laws of irresistibility in there.
And one of them is for businesses really to embrace authenticity and rawness.
And so I wonder whether for you, these are kind of, if you need consistency,
you go with automation and AI.
If you need, if you don't, then maybe it's a good place for authenticity or rawness.
Or do you see those two actually being compatible?
Shahar: I think they are very compatible because when I need the rawness and
the authenticity is especially when I'm creating visibility, I'm showing to the
consumer who I am, what I am about, right?
I think one question that we always need to ask is who the consumer
becomes by working with you.
And it doesn't matter the size of your company.
It doesn't matter what you do.
if you provide the right experience, you change the person.
So who do I become by working with your company?
It's a crucial question that I have to ask as a business owner.
And now when I am vocalizing what I do when I'm on social media, when
I'm marketing, when I'm advertising, I need that rawness there.
Because the more I go with the traditional, everything is branded and
we have to have official communication, I'm going to lose the consumer.
They are not looking for that.
A very good example is the company Duolingo.
You have an app that you can learn any language.
They do a very good job.
They created the character, the Duolingo.
And Duolingo dances on TikTok.
And when TikTok was banned, Duolingo said goodbye to everybody.
Then the company employees threw Duolingo in the dumpster and said goodbye.
And then when we came back, there was a skit about that.
You have companies like Mr. Peanut doing a good job of that.
But basically.
What they want to see is, who are you?
What are you about?
And if you make mistakes, let's go with that.
So it's true for everything, podcasts included, right?
We don't want the traditional TV person that has the perfect hair, perfect makeup,
perfect age, saying the perfect things.
The consumer doesn't want that anymore.
They want to see who you are.
And if you make mistakes, you go along.
you don't stop recording.
We make mistakes and you go along and you'd have to do that in social
media as a whole, and then showing the backstage and by showing the
backstage many times means, okay, let's show what's not working as well.
Because if it's a business, it doesn't have only good days, right?
It actually has a workload of bad days.
Let's show how we deal with that, how we are problem solvers in that situation.
What happens next?
That's what the consumer is really looking for because it's actually
looking for where are you like me?
And where can we connect?
Remember, we are isolated.
We are feeling lonely.
We need connections, but connections that matter.
So if you're just talking about the features of what you are offering, it's
not going to get anybody's attention.
Now, if you're talking about the futures.
What's in it for them once they interact with you, that's another ball game.
So we need always to be thinking about when I'm creating a piece for
social media, for advertising, or for whatever it is, am I talking
to them on an emotional level?
Because that's when I stopped being a commodity where people are going
to say, okay, you're cheaper than that one, so I'll go this way.
And they start thinking, no, it is, I care about what you say.
So it doesn't matter how much you're charging.
I will go with you because we have something in common.
I'm reaching them on an emotional level.
a more core thing for what we want.
That's why some places can only sell coffee at 50 cents and other
places can sell coffee at $7.
It's not because of the quality.
That, that is not even relevant, right?
What is the difference?
How do I feel when I drink that coffee?
How do I feel when I show that coffee to everybody, right?
So we need to be there.
And this rawness comes in these scenarios.
so when I'm talking about sourcing locally, your menu can do that
automatically for everybody, but you can also have reels where
you're shopping in a local market.
Then you're choosing which tomato you're going to offer that day.
Simple things that can be done by any business is not related
to the budget that they have, and that can make a huge impact.
So I think it's a mix, but I think they go well together.
Alex: It kind of sounds like these are not activities that you would want to
automate, like shooting that reel as you're buying the groceries in the market,
isn't something you don't want to, I don't know, use Sora to generate that clip.
You actually literally want to have like a behind the scenes
vibe that matches your business.
So would you say that's where you see maybe, AI being used for other
things and like, when we want to.
to, to show what's behind the scenes, then we don't use AI.
Is that how you see it?
Shahar: Yeah.
Yeah.
I think it's always a combination, right?
Because for example, I have tested that and I have made a gazillion
reels, where it's either my voice or me or footage that I have done.
And a gazillion ones that AI has done everything for me.
Those at the moment, they do not perform well, right?
Because it's somehow, it still sounds or looks fake, but this is
changing so fast that I don't know.
Now a combination.
So for example, in one of my business, I target an audience
that is very different than I am.
It's a much younger.
Needs and wants all different, right?
So when I do the footage, I edit on a software that has AI, but
I edit the video and then I use an AI voice of a younger person.
So in that case, I'm, using both because you can tell by the voice of the
person more or less what age they are.
So I need a much younger audience in that case.
So then I use the AI voice.
I would say when you're looking, should I use AI here or not?
I would first start with a list of the 10 things you hate to do in your
business, and we all have those, right?
We might have started a business thinking everything would be my way, and we figure
very fast that no, there's a lot of very boring things that you have to do.
So, write those down.
What are they for you?
And those ones are the ones that you're going to automate.
So I call that a digital doppelganger.
We can create twins of ourselves all the time right now.
Very good twins.
And in those things you are going to put AI on because you already
don't like to do those things.
For you, maybe answer, for example, I, I don't know why,
but I hate talking on the phone.
Always have.
So now we have an AI to do that and it does a very good job when
somebody comes to me is because it's already being qualified in some way.
It's an existing customer, it's a good prospect or something like that.
But the questions about the data, small talk, I don't have to do
it and I'm very happy with that.
Maybe you don't like to answer emails and AI can do that.
Maybe you cannot and will not be monitoring your site all the time.
AI can do that.
So I would first in those places.
First, because it is easy, it's not expensive, and then it frees you time
to do exactly what you should be doing.
That is strategizing about your business and implementing new things.
It's very easy for us to say, just go to the market and film.
But when you have to unclog the toilet of your restaurant, when you have to
fight with an employee, when you have to buy the stuff, you don't have time
to go to the market to film something.
So you need to figure, okay, where can I put the AI to free me time?
I can actually do things that will matter to the consumer.
That would be much better because many people think that their day in their
business is just putting fire out.
I don't know if you know how long a real fireman spends, extinguishing fires.
Do you have a ball game?
The percentage of time they spend with that?
Alex: I have no idea, but I guess minutes.
Shahar: usually they spend only 2 percent of their time putting fire out.
The 98 percent of their time is used in strategizing how to avoid that to happen.
And we as business owners, we should do exactly the same.
Our day should not be I need to deliver this to this client, I need
to get this, and I need to do that.
It shouldn't be like this, because you're putting fire out.
You should be creating things to avoid these situations.
And a lot of these situations can be avoided by automating.
Because it's usually the weak points, the points that you don't like, or the
points that are difficult to find people that want to do it in the correct way.
So you automate those, and then you go with your day, planning for either
the next crisis or the next launch.
Alex: That makes total sense.
Is there any harmful aspects of hyper personalizations?
Do you see any limits that you would advise to your clients to,
when they thinking about hyper personalizing their service?
Shahar: I think there are many things that concerns us, and
we need to be aware of them.
Because, again, the hyper personalization is happening
because of this hyper isolation.
So, for example, today I can go to a website and find a
boyfriend, and guess what?
This boyfriend is not only going to be gorgeous, he's only going to say
what I want, when I want, and will do whatever it's necessary to please me.
That's very hard to find in real life, right?
All this hyper personalization and isolation also causes
problems in behavior as consumers.
Because they're in that isolation and in that world that they have
catered for themselves, so they expect things that are not possible
when they go and interact socially.
There is a very big danger.
And unfortunately we are going that route.
So when I'm develop, I don't develop anything.
I'm not a techie person, but when I'm developing an app or a service,
that for AI, I need to consider those things because we all live on this
earth and we all live in a society.
So it's better that besides the money part, we also think will
this cause any type of harm or not?
And if it is.
How can it, how can we balance, how can we put limits, right?
for example, if you have a company that offers boyfriends and girlfriends, where
is the limit for what they can say or not?
Unfortunately, this was learned the hard way.
Maybe you will think about all the bad scenarios before, when you are in the
development stage of those things, right?
But we have to think, because we tend to embrace things and
not think about it, right?
So you will have to do this for your customers.
Alex: Yeah, that makes sense.
And as we're about to wrap up, I usually ask at the end for a book, a tool,
or a habit that has made a particular impact on you in the last 12 months.
And And why?
Shahar: A book?
It would be the one never split the difference.
The reason I this book, it is written by an agent that does hostage
situations and it is phenomenal.
Because it teaches you how a human being thinks, right?
And, you know, when we are in business, we tend to think it's all
about the business side and how we make more money and more profit.
But, If you're in business, you're selling either to a company or to a human being.
And if you're selling to a company, you're also selling to human beings at the end.
So we need to understand how they work.
This makes not only easier for you to market your product or service,
but it also makes it cheaper for you to market your products or service.
As a tool, I do like Claude a lot.
It's simple because it's like ChatGPT, but it's more business oriented and
it has the projects that I like a lot.
Maybe we'll soon have to go back to GPT because there are some very
cool things happening right now.
But that's the thing with AI.
The moment we say A2, it's all news tomorrow.
So I think a better approach would be go try, see the thing again, things
you don't like to do, or you need help with, and go try some tools out there.
There's a new one every single day.
And the ones that you like, see how you can implement
that in your business as well.
Alex: Yes, absolutely.
So we'll make sure to put Chris Voss's Never Split the Difference in
a link in the description, of course.
And the final question, what is the one thing that you would expect to remain
the same, constant 10 years from now?
Shahar: The only thing that is always a constant is change.
Things will keep changing and, change is a funny word because
in the marketing, we avoid it.
Nobody likes change, but that's the only constant we have in life.
Business will change, political parties will change, AI will change.
So the more you get comfortable with the fact that every time there is a
change, you have to do adjustments.
Because that's what we have to do all the time.
You're fine.
You're going to be successful.
Now, if you just, enter the behavior of, I don't like this and I don't
want to know about it, and I'm not going to use it, as a business,
you're going to be left behind.
Because there is no way out of it.
Once consumer behavior changes, it doesn't go back.
You already saw that in the pandemic.
If you were expecting things to go back as they were, never happened.
So it's not going to happen.
So you either adapt or you're going to be left behind.
Alex: Perfect, wonderful, Shahar, thank you very much.
Shahar: My pleasure.
It was a pleasure to be here.
Alex: In today's conversation, Shahar showed us how artificial intelligence
is changing the way we live, shop, and connect with businesses.
She shared practical advice on using AI to make things more efficient, while still
keeping that all important human touch.
One key takeaway?
AI works best when it handles the boring stuff, like scheduling or answering
common questions, so you and your team can focus on what truly matters, building
real connections with your customers.
So here's a couple of questions to think about.
Where can you use AI to save time, and how can you make sure your business
still feels personal and authentic?
If you want to dive deeper into how AI is shaping the future of
consumer behavior, check out Shahar's report, AI Consumer Trends for 2025.
The link is in the description.
As always, we have more exciting topics and guest appearances lined up, so
stay tuned for more tales of innovation that inspire, challenge, and transform.
Until next time, peace.