AI and Consumer Trends: Balancing Hyper-Personalization and Authenticity with Shahar Boyayan
In 2025, artificial intelligence isn't just influencing consumer behavior—it's becoming an extension of who we are. From smart pillows that communicate with coffee machines to humanoid robots entering our homes, businesses face a new challenge: leveraging this hyper-personalized technology while navigating privacy concerns and maintaining human connection at their core.
AI as an Extension of Ourselves
"It's actually becoming an extension of ourselves," explains Shahar Boyayan, a leading voice in AI and consumer behavior, during her appearance on Innovation Tales with Alexandre Nevski. "Many times we don't even have, we are not even conscious that it 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."
Boyayan, known for helping businesses make sense of this rapidly evolving landscape, believes we're facing the biggest change in consumer behavior since the pandemic—but this transformation runs deeper and more intimately into our daily lives.
"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," Boyayan points out. "And this will cause changes in behavior."
The Rise of Hyper-Personalization
As AI becomes more integrated into our homes and lives, consumer expectations are evolving toward what Boyayan calls "hyper-personalization." This trend is driven partly by our increasingly isolated lifestyles.
"We had a trend of cocooning... but when the pandemic started, we actually got used to being inside the home and we started catering the home with ourselves," she explains. "With AI, I can have the home exactly as I want. 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."
This comfort with our AI-enhanced homes has contributed to greater social isolation. According to Boyayan, "One in every five Americans feels extremely lonely, and one in every three Americans thinks they have a real friend."
This isolation drives consumers to seek deeper connections with businesses. "When I go and interact with a 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."
Implementing Hyper-Personalization Without Being Intrusive
How can businesses implement hyper-personalization effectively without crossing privacy boundaries? Boyayan offers several practical approaches:
Simple recognition systems: "In a restaurant, for example, I can go inside 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. I'm special here.'"
Align with customer values: "Especially if I'm dealing with a younger generation that is more socially conscious, they expect to know if you source your food locally, if you care about the environment, and you need to figure ways of telling them that."
Show, don't just tell: "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 the components of that lasagna are outsourced in the community."
Privacy Concerns and Setting Boundaries
With hyper-personalization comes significant privacy considerations. Boyayan emphasizes the importance of being vocal about our expectations regarding AI and data collection.
"With privacy, it's very interesting because we all need to be very vocal about what we expect or not from the machines," she says. "There's a company in Europe launching a humanoid robot ready for the market... How much do you want it to be actually listening and recording everything that happens in your life? What is too much? And then, where is it going to be uploaded to? And who is going to be getting this data?"
She advises maintaining critical thinking and ensuring final decisions remain with humans: "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."
Balancing Automation and Human Touch
For business owners, finding the right balance between AI-powered automation and human connection is crucial. Boyayan suggests using AI for consistency while preserving the human element for authenticity.
"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," she explains. "You need 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."
Embracing Authenticity in Marketing
While AI can provide consistency, authenticity remains critical—especially in marketing and brand visibility. Boyayan emphasizes that today's consumers crave genuine connection and transparency.
"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," says Boyayan. "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."
She cites Duolingo as an example of a brand successfully embracing authenticity through creative, unpolished content: "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."
This includes showing the less polished aspects of your business: "Let's show what's not working as well. Because if it's a business, it doesn't have only good days. Let's show how we deal with that, how we are problem solvers in that situation."
Where to Implement AI in Your Business
Boyayan offers practical advice for business owners wondering where to start with AI implementation:
Start with what you dislike: "I would first start with a list of the 10 things you hate to do in your business... and those ones are the ones that you're going to automate."
Create a digital twin: "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."
Focus on strategy: "It frees you time to do exactly what you should be doing. That is strategizing about your business and implementing new things."
She compares effective business owners to firefighters: "Do you know how long a real fireman spends extinguishing fires? Usually, they spend only 2 percent of their time putting fires out. The 98 percent of their time is used in strategizing how to avoid that happening."
Ethical Considerations
With the power of AI comes responsibility. Boyayan warns about potential negative consequences of hyper-personalization and isolation:
"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."
She encourages businesses to consider the ethical implications of their AI implementations: "When I'm developing an app or a service 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?"
Embracing Constant Change
When asked what will remain constant in the next decade, Boyayan's answer is simple: change itself.
"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."
Her advice to business owners? "The more you get comfortable with the fact that every time there is a change, you have to do adjustments... 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."
Implementing AI with PropTalkie
As businesses navigate the complex landscape of AI implementation and hyper-personalization, tools like PropTalkie provide the perfect solution for balancing automation and authenticity. PropTalkie's intuitive SaaS platform for GoHighLevel allows businesses to create personalized customer experiences at scale while maintaining the human touch that consumers crave.
With PropTalkie, you can:
Automate routine tasks while preserving your unique brand voice
Create consistent customer experiences across all touchpoints
Implement personalization strategies that respect privacy boundaries
Focus on authentic connection while AI handles the repetitive work
Ready to transform your business with the perfect balance of AI efficiency and human authenticity? Take the first step toward hyper-personalization without losing your brand's soul. Visit PropTalkie today to discover how our powerful tools can help you thrive in the AI-driven future of consumer engagement.
This article was based on an interview with Shahar Boyayan on Innovation Tales with Alexandre Nevski, a podcast dedicated to exploring inspiring stories and insights from industry leaders.
