Mark Schaefer has always had an instinct for seeing around corners, but he has an even rarer gift: he notices how technological change lands on the human heart. Long before AI dominated business headlines, Mark was writing about community, emotional resonance, belonging, and the deep psychological threads that tie customers to brands.
I’ve been fortunate to know him not just as an author, but as a collaborator and mentor — someone whose work I drew from when we produced a podcast series for Dell. Across every podcast we recorded and book he’s written, one theme repeats with increasing clarity: technology changes, but humanity is the constant.
His newest work, How AI Changes Your Customers, pushes that theme to an entirely new level. While I’ve spent the last two years writing extensively about the business implications of AI — from operational acceleration to content automation — Mark flips the lens. He asks more foundational questions:
What does AI do to the customer?
What shifts when the very people we’re trying to reach begin thinking, relating, and making decisions differently?
The result is one of the most important marketing books of the AI era, not because it explains the technology, but because it explains us. Mark’s interviews with more than 300 experts, psychologists, philosophers, futurists, and technologists reveal a stark truth: AI is already reshaping the cognitive and emotional foundation of the customer.
The Bad News: The Customer Is Changing Faster Than We Are
AI makes thinking easier… sometimes too easy. With chatbots replacing deep research, people are forming habits of cognitive shortcuts, outsourcing complexity to machines. That shortcutting extends beyond information processing. Emotional intelligence is shifting as well. Individuals are building meaningful relationships with AI companions that never interrupt, never judge, and never run out of patience. Human-to-human interaction, by comparison, can feel abrasive, loud, or demanding. For marketers, this creates a paradox: the customer is more connected than ever, yet often lonelier than ever.
This technological dependency also affects personal agency. When algorithms reliably outperform human judgment in areas like navigation, investment decisions, or product recommendations, it becomes tempting to defer choices altogether. Confidence, risk tolerance, and even the sense of personal identity can erode. Meanwhile, the world those customers inhabit becomes harder to decipher. Synthetic media dissolves certainty. Reality is no longer a shared experience, but a personalized stream.
These psychological shifts give rise to a customer who is less patient, less loyal, and increasingly inclined to trust a machine’s recommendation over a brand’s message. Marketing built on attention, loyalty, and persuasion suddenly feels outdated. Mark argues that ignoring these changes is not just a missed opportunity — it’s a threat to relevance.
The Hard News: Marketing Must Adapt to an Algorithmic Gatekeeper
Future customers will rely on AI intermediaries — personal agents and recommendation engines — to filter, evaluate, and even negotiate on their behalf. These AI systems will shape buying decisions before a human ever looks at a brand’s messaging. Traditional marketing will be insufficient because it was built for a world where humans controlled the first impression.
Mark introduces the concept of targeting the algorithm and the human. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) becomes essential. I’ve written about this need as machine experience where structured data and context can be better digested and interpreted by AI. Brands will need to earn credibility not only in the eyes of customers but also in the reasoning models that guide them. Authority, authenticity, and reputation signals — long necessary — are now prerequisites for visibility. Content will need to satisfy AI’s insatiable appetite for data, factual clarity, and context while remaining deeply compelling for human readers.
The companies that succeed will no longer be the ones with the loudest promotions, but the ones that create the strongest trust signals across digital ecosystems. Invisible influence will outrank traditional persuasion.
The Turning Point: Humanity Emerges as the Final Advantage
Here is where Mark’s argument becomes both hopeful and practical. In a world where AI becomes the default interface, humanity becomes the differentiator.
He explores how vulnerability, imperfection, and even awkwardness become strategic assets. Customers gravitate toward what feels real, flawed, or emotionally resonant. Automated perfection is forgettable. Human texture is memorable.
This realignment gives brands new ways to forge meaning. If AI accelerates tasks and compresses decisions, humans look for experiences that restore depth: shared excitement, community, rituals, and purpose. Mark calls this collective effervescence — the sense of being part of something bigger than oneself. The brands that curate those shared emotional states will become anchors in an increasingly fluid world.
And contrary to the fear that AI will replace human roles, the book argues for intentional augmentation rather than delegation. AI can reveal patterns, provide mentorship, and expand capability, but only if humans remain engaged participants. The companies that win will be those that understand technology not as a substitute for human value, but as a multiplier of it.
The Good News: AI Can Make Us More Human, If We Let It
The most surprising turn in the book is Mark’s insistence that AI does not inevitably diminish humanity. This is where Mark and I absolutely agree on the promise of AI. AI can amplify humanity and purpose.
AI can automate the forgettable parts of work, leaving more room for the meaningful parts. It can personalize experiences not merely for conversion, but for care. It can reduce friction, allowing brands to invest in wonder. It can give customers clarity, time, and emotional space to rediscover themselves.
For marketers, this becomes a call to stop chasing automation for efficiency alone and start designing experiences that honor human psychology, identity, connection, and purpose. As with any of Mark’s books, he doesn’t just present the problem; he provides a framework for brands to build upon. In this case, it’s how brands can incorporate the Human Advantage.
Buy How AI Changes Your Customers on Amazon
In the end, How AI Changes Your Customers is not a book about AI. It’s a book about people — how they think, feel, believe, connect, and grow. It’s a book about what we risk losing, but also what we stand to gain. And it is a reminder that, as transformative as AI may be, the brands that endure will be the ones that make their customers feel unmistakably human.
©2025 DK New Media, LLC, All rights reserved | DisclosureOriginally Published on Martech Zone: AI Is Rewiring Your Customer’s Mind… And Marketing Will Never Be the Same