There’s no way to downplay or deny the fact that artificial intelligence will shape our future over the next several decades. According to a 2019 Ernst and Young survey, 87% of CEOs and business leaders were planning on investing in AI initiatives over the next year. Since then, AI has only become more critical for businesses worldwide.
One of the reasons AI is so important is that it will be better equipped to handle human emotions. While many experts and analysts may speak about how AI allows machines to “learn” technical knowledge better, the truth is that AI will also help companies of all sizes connect with their users, clients, and customers in a more emotionally intelligent manner.
AI may be the future, but emotional AI is also part of that future. Here are eight ways to help you connect with your mobile app users on a more emotional level.
Smoother Login
These days, countless people worldwide have dozens of apps that they may use for various reasons. The average individual may have financial apps to help them handle their portfolio, fitness apps to help make sure that they exercise regularly, and entertainment apps to help them enjoy content and distract them from their everyday routines.
One way you can connect with users better emotionally is to offer password-less login. Many apps implement fingerprint or facial recognition, for example. If your users don’t have to enter a password every time you open your app, it can help improve user engagement and interaction.
Offer More Voice Interaction
With the rise of smart home assistants: one thing is clear. Consumers want to be able to “speak” their way through an issue. In 2020 alone, Americans added hundreds of millions of smart devices in 2020 alone. Making sure you can recognize your users’ voices is a great way to connect with them on a deeper level.
There are different ways voice interaction can help the user experience. A voice assistant could adjust their tone or volume based on the situation, for example, or introduce vocabulary that offers more empathy than usual. The right voice assistants can help create a cohesive customer experience, as well. The fact that users can engage with the apps hands-free is another huge plus.
If your app is offering voice interaction, it’s a great way for your mobile app to connect with users on a more meaningful level. Voice interaction not only makes for a better customer experience, but it can also help reduce friction issues.
Add Social Sharing Features
If there is one thing that the COVID-19 global pandemic proved, it’s that human beings are social creatures and crave interaction. It is also one reason so many social media platforms have grown exponentially over the past several decades.
Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012, but it only took several years to be soon worth a hundred times that amount. If you want to connect with your users emotionally, you should make it easy to offer social sharing features. People love sharing content and experiences, and users can even end up becoming advocates.
Keep It Conversational
Some businesses want to impress their users as much as possible, but it can end up coming across as forced or dishonest more than anything else. You may remember coming across an app that described their product or services using technical jargon, and immediately felt less interested and engaged with what they have to offer.
Mobile apps should focus on conversational language if they want to create a bond with users. Of course, conversational chatbots can go a long way towards personalizing a customer experience with mobile app users. Chatbots will evolve to become more emotionally intelligent, which can help users feel understood rather than judged.
More Video Content
If there’s one thing that’s an apparent design trend throughout industries, it’s this: users love video content. Tiktok is one of the quickest apps in history to reach 1 billion monthly active users, and it’s largely because of user-generated video content.
Video content is one of the ways that both your company and app can “tell a story”, which is why so many marketers rely on video content in general. Video content does more than just appeal to marketers, though. In fact, users spend 88% more time on websites that have video content.
Onboarding That Makes Sense
We’ve spoken before about the importance of mobile app onboarding, and how it can be incredible way to explain to the user why their app makes sense for them. Let’s say that you have downloaded a new productivity app.
It can be frustrating to deal with a complex onboarding flow, where it isn’t exactly clear how the app should be used or what unique benefits it offers. Does it start with an intense tutorial that might immediately bore users, or list functions that aren’t really that important? You may wonder: how can this affect users and their emotional connection?
Well, imagine that the productivity app instead immediately highlighted how it fits into your life, what the app is used for, and then leaned into interesting features that help it stand out from the competition. Now, the user can feel more empowered, engaged, AND informed about the productivity app.
Push Notifications
Mobile apps need to begin to rethink the push notification, because it’s about more than just delivering a message. Push notifications help users engage more often, and personalization can help take that engagement to the next level.
What else can push notifications do in terms of emotional connection? One obvious example would be the app sending a push notification for the user’s birthday. A music streaming app can use push notifications to suggest new music artists similar to your past listens, which can also help strengthen the emotional connection a user has with that music streaming app.
Implement Incentivization Programs
When your app offers an incentivization program, you can turn passive users into active advocates for your products/services. Some apps try to offer a competitive referral program to help incentivize users to spread the word, while other apps may focus instead on a loyalty program.
Many businesses have benefited from offering a loyalty program, where you can offer a gamified experience for a user and their purchases. If 72% of consumers belong to a loyalty program, why not take advantage of those users who may be interested in additional engagement?
