Engaging Customers with AI: How to Deliver Interactive, Immersive & Inconspicuous Experiences

AI isn’t just transforming businesses; it’s transforming customers. The easy access to generative AI (Gen AI) tools and virtual assistants has brought a seismic shift in their behavior and their expectations with brands. In a recent study, 58% of consumers said that they have shifted from traditional search engines to Gen AI tools as their primary source for product and service recommendations.

Let’s face it. Today’s AI-savvy customers are better informed, increasingly demanding, and less loyal than ever before. They use LLMs to get detailed and bespoke product comparisons instantly, expect brands to anticipate their needs and have an assistant/agent around, and abandon experiences the moment they encounter the slightest friction. 

To win their attention and loyalty, marketers need to rethink engagement. This extends beyond mobile, laptops, and tablets to include smart devices like wearables, smart TVs, voice assistants, and other connected experiences that are now part of customers’ daily lives. The key lies in leveraging AI to deliver experiences that are Interactive, Immersive, and Inconspicuous — the pillars of CleverTap’s 3I Framework.

How AI Has Transformed Customer Behavior

AI has fundamentally reshaped the way customers discover, evaluate, and engage with brands:

• Push to Pull Interactions: Instead of being constantly “pushed” marketing messages across channels, customers now prefer “pulling” the information they need when they need it.
• Hyper-Personalization to Individualization: Customers expect brands to know who they are and what they need instead of being treated as a part of some cohort or segment.
• Smarter Decision-Making: AI has made customers self-sufficient researchers who compare features, prices, and reviews within minutes before interacting with a brand.
• Zero Tolerance for Friction: Customers have heightened expectations for instant gratification, and a delayed response, irrelevant recommendation, or clunky checkout can trigger immediate abandonment.
• Experiential Economy: With choice and information at their fingertips, customers don’t just buy products anymore; they seek memorable, fluid experiences. 

Engaging Customers with AI: The 3I Framework

Brands must meet customers where they are, anticipating needs, and making engagement effortless. The CleverTap 3I Framework of Interactive, Immersive, and Inconspicuous engagement provides a roadmap for marketers to connect with AI-enabled customers meaningfully.

1. Interactive Experiences

Engagement is now a two-way street, and customers expect brand interactions to be individualized, contextual, and instantaneous. AI enables marketers to drive these dynamic, real-time conversations that elevate customer engagement and experience.

How AI Helps

• Resolves Customer Queries: Handles queries in real time and proactively guides customers to relevant help resources, cutting down wait times. 
• Drives Personalized Interactions: Makes customers feel seen, heard, and understood by analyzing individual histories, browsing patterns, and real-time activity.
• Automates at Scale: Enables marketers to deliver one-to-one conversations without adding manual overhead.

Example

A skincare and makeup brand’s AI chatbot personalizes beauty consultations by analyzing purchase history, preferences, and skin tone, making product discovery effortless.

2. Immersive Experiences

Immersive customer engagement is about seamlessly integrating experiences into the natural flow of a customer’s journey. Instead of interrupting them with additional steps or distractions, these experiences augment what the customer is already doing, nudging them toward conversion effortlessly. And, AI can level up the game significantly.

How AI Helps

• Detects Intent in Real Time: Recognizes where the customer is in their journey, when they are ready to act, and responds instantly.
• Orchestrates Across Touchpoints: Ensures experiences remain consistent across channels while adapting to the customer’s natural flow.
• Optimizes Conversion Journeys: Minimizes friction by reducing extra or “out-of-flow” steps and delivering contextual offers.

Example

A banking app uses AI to detect when a customer pays a bill or transfers funds and gently suggests allocating an extra 2% to savings – right on the payment confirmation page instead of an email or SMS that can disrupt the customer’s momentum.

3. Inconspicuous Experiences

The power of inconspicuous engagement lies in making customers feel understood without feeling targeted. By using AI to deliver hyper-relevant yet subtle experiences, brands can create moments of serendipity – where the right message, product, or offer appears at precisely the right time, without disrupting the journey.

How AI Helps

• Analyzes Behavioral Signals: Learns from browsing patterns, purchase history, and engagement data to predict what customers might need next without explicit input.
• Integrates Personalization Seamlessly: Embeds personalized offers, banners, and content into the experience naturally.
• Maintains Contextual Relevance: Ensures personalized elements stay aligned across devices and touchpoints.

Example

A returning female customer, who recently browsed handbags and jewelry on an e-commerce app, lands on the homepage and is greeted with a personalized banner announcing a curated accessories sale. Below, she sees tailored product suggestions matching her browsing patterns.

AI Customer Engagement: Best Practices for Marketers

To deliver AI-powered customer engagement, marketers need a strategic, customer-first approach – one that balances personalization, relevance, and empathy while ensuring AI enhances the experience rather than overcomplicating it.

Here’s how to get it right:

1. Predict, Don’t Just React

Instead of waiting for customers to act or ask, use AI tools that analyze historical behavior, real-time intent signals, and contextual data to anticipate and address what customers need next. 

For example, a streaming app uses AI to predict when a user is likely to cancel based on reduced viewing time and proactively recommends highly relevant shows or offers a free trial extension to retain them.

2. Design for Micro-Moments

Leverage AI capabilities to focus on real-time intent signals and deliver hyper-relevant messaging at the exact moment of decision. 

For example, an airline app detects that a user has opened their boarding pass and sends a real-time notification about a nearby lounge offer or gate change – exactly when it’s useful.

3. Personalize Without Overwhelming

Personalization works best when it feels intuitive, not intrusive. Use AI to segment intelligently, but avoid over-targeting. Customers should feel understood, not tracked. 

For example, instead of sending daily generic offers, a retail app uses AI to understand individual purchase frequency and sends personalized discounts only when customers are most likely to act.

4. Keep AI Human-Centric

While AI can undoubtedly scale personalization and automate tasks, human empathy and brand voice are irreplaceable. Train AI systems to reflect your brand’s tone and set clear escalation protocols for complex queries. 

For example, a banking chatbot answers customer queries, but when it detects frustration in customer sentiment, it escalates the issue to a human agent who can better handle sensitive conversations empathetically.

5. Measure What Matters

Traditional KPIs like clicks, opens, and impressions only tell part of the story. To assess the real impact of AI-powered engagement, focus on experience-driven metrics, such as:

• Retention Rate: Are customers coming back?
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV): Are you growing long-term revenue?
• Churn Probability: Are predictive interventions reducing drop-offs?
• Advocacy & NPS: Are customers becoming brand promoters?
• AI ROI: Are your investments in AI technology achieving the predetermined productivity outputs?

Winning in the AI-Powered Experiential Economy

Customers have changed. They’re smarter, faster, and more empowered, often using AI tools to guide their decisions before you’ve even engaged them. To keep up, brands must evolve from transactional interactions to experience-driven relationships.

By leveraging AI to deliver Interactive, Immersive, and Inconspicuous engagements, marketers can create moments that feel intuitive, personalized, and unforgettable. In a world where AI has raised the bar for customer expectations, brands that blend intelligence with empathy will create experiences that customers not only enjoy but also advocate for.