Melissa Bridgeford, Co-founder and CEO of Wizard chats about the increased importance of boosting conversational experiences in modern digital journeys:

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Welcome to this MarTech Series chat Melissa, tell us about yourself and what inspired the Wizard platform?

Wizard was inspired by a personal pain point when I was living in New York City and working crazy hours in finance. I was already texting to communicate with my Uber driver, Postmates person, Instacart shopper, and many other mobile apps. Yet there was no way to text to buy anything from my favorite brands and retailers; there was no mobile-first solution for shopping. This was a lose-lose for both consumers and merchants. So I set out to solve this pain point with my first startup, and now Wizard.

Wizard is building the most powerful AI-driven conversational commerce platform enabling search, commerce, and customer service via text. This allows consumers to bypass the web entirely and complete the entire shopping experience via text with their favorite brands and retailers. Wizard provides a new sales channel for merchants, increasing sales and conversion rates, and most importantly customer lifetime value. A win-win for both consumers and merchants.

How are you observing the demand for conversational commerce change how online brands deal and interact with customers today? Can you talk about some of the most impactful conversational experiences you’ve seen brands implement as part of their digital journeys?

The demand for conversational commerce – from merchants and consumers – has never been higher. Consumers are hungry for personalized interactions with their favorite brands and digital agents to navigate their shopping needs, while merchants are seeking to meet consumers where they’re spending their time in 2023 – on mobile and messaging 3 hours a day.

Companies in the CPG space – and the consumable and replenishable sectors in particular – are ripe for AI-powered conversational commerce. Wizard has seen great success in categories such as beverages, kids, pets, and skincare. Chido, a canned cocktail brand, now attributes 44% of all sales to Wizard’s conversational commerce platform, and the consumer journey has only just begun.

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When it comes to the use of AI across different marketing functions: what do you still notice brands miss opportunities on when they implement new AI tools to drive their goals? What are they not doing enough of?

We’re at an inflection point where the power and value of conversational AI experiences has become clear, and more brands are seeking to incorporate AI into their customer engagement. Now is the time for brand marketers to embrace the AI revolution! Some marketers are eager to adopt AI tools right out of the gate, allowing them to create new digital shopping experiences for their customers, at scale. Others, skeptical that AI will be able to meet their high standards, prefer to maintain tight control over their script when conversing with consumers. Before now, the quality of AI interactions has been inconsistent, but all of that has changed in 2023.

In the new AI frontier, great marketers will learn how to strike a balance. AI has powerful capabilities when it comes to speed, efficiency, and accuracy, but unchecked AI bots lack the ability to infer how a customer feels and the experience can often feel robotic or frustrating. But all of that has changed. Today’s AI bots are powered by deep data and supported by humans in the loop, so they can now be a powerful extension of one’s brand and team.

The key is finding ways for humans and AI to complement, not replace, each other. At Wizard, we pair our AI messaging systems with real humans who can quickly support the consumer when their needs  move beyond what the AI model can support. Likewise, AI can complete purchases and provide more holistic guidance than human agents. By pairing people with AI, we’re offering unparalleled realtime customer service that also has the emotional intelligence that only humans offer.

How will the evolution of AI-powered martech change the marketing game in the near future in your view?

For years, marketers have been struggling to deliver on consumers’ desire for one-to-one, curated interactions with their favorite brands. Now with AI, marketers can personalize customer experiences at scale, based on the specific needs and wants of the individual customer. AI will help improve the consumer’s experience with the brand which will drive loyalty and commerce; while resulting in more sales and lifetime value for the merchants. Wizard’s goal is to enable brands to launch a conversational commerce channel with customized digital experts to drive engagement and sales, and HITL to ensure a delightful customer experience.

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Before we wrap up, how would you tell marketers of today to balance their offline and online marketing journeys using integrated systems and process: what should teams do more of to tie this in better? 

The omnichannel experience is blurring the lines between online and offline marketing journeys. Consumers today are discovering skincare products on TikTok, heading to Sephora to see the full line, and then buying on mobile after asking a few personal questions to a virtual CX agent. It’s less about balance and more about ensuring that you’re delivering a seamless, compelling shopping experience at every touchpoint. In this paradigm, a solid SMS strategy is critical. Two-way SMS that understands and responds to the consumer’s needs means the difference between an abandoned cart and a purchase. Wizard provides the solution to bridge the online and offline through AI-powered conversational commerce creating a seamless customer journey via text.