Guide Decision-Making with AI-Powered Insights: Tactics for Product and Technology Innovators
- Deborah Nas
- Jun 20
- 4 min read
The internet and digital platforms offer access to countless information sources. This abundance, alongside the increasingly vague distinction between minor and major decisions, can be overwhelming. AI can provide clarity and confidence to those faced with life's many decision points. Understanding how to harness technology to facilitate decision-making is not just an asset, it's a necessity. Here, we delve into five innovative ways technology can be leveraged to aid decision-making processes, emphasizing AI-driven solutions to illustrate these concepts.
Filter & Rank
Imagine an online shopping experience where AI algorithms personalize product recommendations based on your past behavior, preferences, and even current trends. Similar to how Netflix suggests movies or Spotify curates playlists, e-commerce platforms can use AI to filter and rank products, making shopping more efficient and tailored to individual tastes. For instance, an AI-powered platform could prioritize eco-friendly products for environmentally conscious consumers or highlight items based on their carbon footprint.
Compare & Advise
Decision fatigue plagues us all, particularly when faced with an overabundance of choices. AI can simplify this by comparing options across multiple dimensions and suggesting the best fit. For example, in the article from two weeks ago, Delivering the Digital Age Anytime, Anywhere through AI, the AI travel assistant, Guide Geek, was discussed. This trip planning tool can also be used to compare options for what to visit and advise them on what might be the best personal fit. One can even use it to compare various factors such as the environmental impact of traveling to a certain place, or the historical significance, and more. There are numerous new, similar services like Roam Around or TripPlannerAI, offering these features as well.
Review & Endorse
In the digital age, reviews are a cornerstone of trust and credibility. AI can enhance the reliability of reviews by detecting and filtering out fake or biased feedback (often generated by other AI systems), ensuring users access genuine opinions. Moreover, AI can aggregate reviews from various sources, providing a comprehensive rating system that highlights the most helpful reviews based on user engagement and authenticity.
Amazon is leveraging generative AI to provide an easy way for customers to see the common themes across reviews. Their AI scans all existing reviews and generates a short paragraph summary that is displayed on the product detail page. This saves customers time and allows them to zero-in on specific product attributes they may want insights on in advance of purchasing.
Predict & Alert
The dilemma of timing a purchase to secure the best deal can be alleviated with AI's predictive capabilities. By analyzing vast datasets, AI can forecast price trends and alert users to the optimal time to make a purchase. Hopper is one such tool that can be used to predict and purchase airfare. They’ve compiled abundant data on airfare prices and they use AI to analyze and predict prices over time. Hopper gives users data-driven guidance on whether they should book their trip now or wait for a better price, offering them an opt in to receive notifications of price changes if they’re not ready to buy just yet. This technology isn't limited to airfare; it's applicable to stock investments, real estate, and even retail sales, transforming uncertainty into strategic action.
Structure & Guide
While the many recommendations tools and services do help users better analyze the options available to them, making the final decision, whether big or small, can still be a challenge. Technology and AI can, once again, fill this role to help guide users in making these decisions.
Consider a career AI platform that acts as a virtual mentor and assists individuals in navigating their professional journeys. This AI-driven service might provide personalized career guidance by analyzing your skills, interests, and job market trends. It could offer a structured approach to explore various career paths, from technology and science to arts and education, ensuring you find a role that aligns with your passion and the future job market. By utilizing data analytics and machine learning, it would help users identify their strengths and suggest potential growth areas, making the daunting task of career planning more manageable and focused.
Dos & Don’ts of Guide Decision Making
🪟 Be Transparent: Clearly communicate how data is collected, analyzed, and utilized, ensuring algorithms are free from bias and reflective of diverse user needs.
🤯 Prevent Choice Overload: While offering choices is essential, overwhelming users with options can be counterproductive. Aiming for a balance that offers variety without complexity is crucial.
⚙️ Make Settings Intuitive: Tailor filtering and ranking settings to match user goals. Anticipate their needs to provide the necessary controls to streamline their decision-making process.
In conclusion, as we navigate through the myriad decisions that shape our daily lives, technology, particularly AI, stands as a pivotal ally. By offering personalized recommendations, simplifying comparisons, ensuring the authenticity of reviews, and leveraging predictive analytics, technology can demystify the decision-making process. For those at the helm of innovation, embedding these principles into your products not only elevates the user experience but also positions your offerings as indispensable tools in the modern individual's decision-making toolkit.
This article is is part of a series of 24 articles sharing practical, actionable tips on how to design tech products that people don't just use, but love. The articles build on the world’s leading design methods for designing successful tech products, as described in the book “Design Things that Make Sense”. Visit www.designthingsthatmakesense.com to learn more or download the free toolkit.
