Jim Lecinski is a clinical professor of marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and author of The AI Marketing Canvas (Stanford Press, 2026), where this concept first appeared. The opinions expressed are his own and may not reflect the opinions of Google.
Marketing leaders have spent much of the past year thinking about how AI will change their jobs. How should teams leverage AI? Which use cases are most important? What about workflows? They’re all important. But frontier CMOs now also need to consider how AI is changing the customer.
A lasting pattern in that change is beginning to emerge. Consumers turn to AI to help them think things through, feel safe, get things done, or, as I see it, to help them: head, heartand hand. They learned that AI is quick, patient, candid, available, willing to explain the same thing five different ways, can show empathy and understanding, and is increasingly able to turn advice into action. In other words, consumers are starting to learn what truly intelligent help looks like and are starting to rely on it.
The changes are reflected in the data. According to , generative AI will reach a population-level adoption rate of 53% in three years, which is much faster than personal computers or the Internet. Stanford Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) 2026 AI Index. The report also states that the annual value of generative AI tools to U.S. consumers will reach $172 billion, with the median value per user tripling between 2025 and 2026.
The question for marketers is: Where are customers looking for this new kind of intelligent help? How can we respond to these people who are able to use AI with their heads, hearts, and hands?
Responsible: AI helps consumers think through complex purchasing decisions
The first pattern is cognitive. Consumers are using AI to help them solve difficult problems. They ask AI to explain things they don’t understand, summarize complexities, compare options, consider tradeoffs, translate product jargon into plain language, pressure test choices, and advise before they act.
As AI enables customers to reach decisions faster, brands should also be ready to remove friction from the final purchase journey.
This “head” behavior increases in places where decision-making risk and mental strain are high: confusing or emotionally taxing choices, time-consuming research, jargon-heavy categories, and purchasing processes where consumers lack confidence. Head actions occur frequently in areas such as healthcare, travel, technology, automotive, insurance, education, home improvement, beauty, wellness, financial services, and many B2B decisions. In either case, customers can ask the AI assistant to explain categories, compare alternatives, simplify decision-making, or suggest questions to ask next.
Consider a consumer purchasing a new electric vehicle. She can ask the AI to compare three models in terms of range, charging time, incentives, total cost of ownership, safety rating, and compatibility with daily driving habits. In minutes, AI can explain unfamiliar terminology, clarify trade-offs, and turn a confusing field of choices into a manageable short list. AI helps here to reduce the time from initial research to purchase readiness.
For marketing leaders, the implications are clear. Identify areas where customers are mentally overloaded and ensure that content, data, claims, product information, pricing, availability, and proof points are current, clear, and easy for both consumers and AI systems to understand, compare, and evaluate. As AI enables customers to reach decisions faster, brands should also be ready to remove friction from the final purchase journey.
Heart: AI helps consumers make more confident purchasing decisions
The second pattern is emotional. Consumers rely on AI for reassurance, support, tone, continuity, and the feeling of being heard. Stanford HAI’s 2026 AI Index points to this new emotional utility. Among users of AI companions, 11.9% cited always-on support as a key benefit, and 9.9% said it provided a safe space to express emotions. Consumers are starting to notice that AI responses sound patient, responsive, and even understanding. AI can help you rehearse difficult conversations with salespeople and customer service agents, make stressful situations more manageable, and prepare you to ask pointed questions that will make you feel more confident as a buyer.
Consumers judge brand experiences by whether they feel respected, safe, and well supported.
Consider your parents purchasing life insurance for the first time. This decision can involve unfamiliar language, difficult or uncomfortable personal questions about family and financial security, and potentially intimidating conversations with human insurance salespeople. AI can help explain terminology, rehearse questions to ask, and identify areas of uncertainty so customers can enter the conversation feeling more prepared, relaxed, and in control.
For CMOs, this is an opportunity to close the vulnerability gap. Brands need to identify moments when customers feel anxious, exposed, or overwhelmed and design those experiences around clear explanations, a reassuring tone, clear next steps, continuity throughout the interaction, and easy access to a human when customers need it.
This raises the bar for customer experience. During high-stakes and stressful purchasing moments, consumers judge brand experiences by whether they feel respected, safe, and well-supported. CMOs need to ask where customers need reassurance as much as information, what tone should brands use in those moments, what should AI remember to be helpful, and when should an experience be handed over to a human because it feels too risky?
Hands: AI helps consumers get their jobs done
The third pattern is practical. Consumers use AI as additional tools. They ask AI to create shopping lists, compare travel options, find deals, draft messages, organize tasks, plan dinner from the ingredients they have on hand, and do regular tasks in their daily lives.
Consider a traveler who is planning a family vacation. AI can already compare destinations, flights, hotels, reviews, prices, cancellation policies, and loyalty benefits to family budgets and preferences. We narrow down hundreds of options to a short list and recommend an itinerary. The next step would be to get consumer approval to book or complete a transaction, and then the AI would act on its recommendations.
Consumers rely on AI to reduce mental effort, manage uncertainty, feel supported, and get things done. This creates new customer experience standards.
This is the path to agent commerce. It’s the AI that helps you search, compare, filter, choose, and ultimately trade. Stanford HAI shows that AI agents perform significantly better on benchmarks of real-world computer tasks, although reliability remains variable. Consumer demands for AI are increasingly moving from “tell me what to do” to “help me do that” and “do this for me.”
For marketing leaders, this means preparing brands for a more assistant-driven customer journey. Product data, pricing, availability, reviews, policies, and transaction paths must be structured, up-to-date, reliable, and easy for intelligent systems to understand and act on. CMOs need to ask which tasks customers want AI to handle, where direct control is needed, and whether brands are ready for customers who may arrive through an AI assistant rather than through traditional search or a website.
New consumer expectations: intelligent help
The general pattern is the same for the head, heart, and hands. Consumers rely on AI to reduce mental effort, manage uncertainty, feel supported, and get things done. This creates new customer experience standards.
For CMOs, the agenda for action is clear.
- head: Mapping pre-brand AI moments. Are your customers already using AI to describe categories, compare options, rate complaints, read reviews, draft questions, or narrow down choices before they reach your website, app, store, sales team, or service channel?
- heart: Redesigned high friction moment. Where are customers feeling confused, anxious, overloaded, or simply trying to complete a task? This is when brands need to provide the right mix of clarity, reassurance, transparency, and human intervention.
- hand: Prepare for more assistant-led journeys. Make sure your content, claims, product data, policies, reviews, availability, pricing, and proof points are structured, up-to-date, reliable, and easy for both people and intelligent systems to understand, evaluate, and act on.
Your team is already thinking about how to leverage AI to increase marketing productivity. The next challenge for leadership is to ask how AI will change what customers expect from brands. CMOs who start answering that question now will be better equipped to design AI-enabled customer experiences that are easier for customers to understand, act on, and trust.
