Know your customers

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Our customers are being rewired. Are you freaking ready for this?

KYC or “Know your customer” has always been marketing’s most important commandment — not because it sounds good on a keynote slide, but because it has always been true. If you understand human nature, you can build relevance. If you understand how people decide, you can earn attention, trust and sales.

Now here’s the uncomfortable question posed by marketing thinker and author Mark Schaefer: What happens when “human nature” itself is being reconstructed in real time?

We’ve lived through waves of technological change that have made life faster, cheaper and more efficient. But this AI wave feels different. It doesn’t merely change what people do. It changes how people think, how they feel, how they relate and even how they define “me.”

Schaefer’s argument is not that customers are adopting a tool. It’s that customers are becoming different kinds of humans. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Let that sink in.

If your customers are changing at the level of psychology, the old playbook — the one built on familiar triggers, habits and attention patterns — will start to seem like attempting to win a modern basketball game using a rulebook from the 1970s. You can blow the whistle all you want. The crowd moved on.

This is not science fiction.

We are already seeing signs of “algorithmic abdication.” People are letting AI shape decisions about what to watch, what to buy, what to read, what to believe and increasingly, how to live. In the most extreme cases, people are forming emotional attachments to AI companions and treating non-human empathy as a substitute for human relationships.

As marketers, leaders and builders of customer experience, we should not respond with panic. But we should respond with seriousness. Because if you don’t understand the people you’re trying to reach, you’ll be speaking loudly, confidently and expensively… into emptiness.

Schaefer’s concern was sharpened by his participation in a large expert canvassing about how digital life and AI may reshape humanity by 2035. A related report from Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center (with Pew Research Center) highlights how hundreds of experts expect considerable benefits, yet also worry about misinformation, declining cognitive skills, deepfakes, surveillance, widening inequality and growing threats to human agency.

In other words, yes, we will get smarter tools. But we may also get more distracted minds and delicate trust.

And this is where marketing becomes less about tactics and more about anthropology.

If algorithms select people’s information, ideas and entertainment, what still moves them? If a machine can generate an answer instantly, what happens to patience, curiosity and deep thinking? If it becomes harder to tell what is real, what happens to credibility, authority and reputation?

Here’s the practical implication: the marketing advantage shifts from “who shouts the loudest” to “who becomes the safest signal.” Schaefer says.

Trust becomes the new currency because attention becomes cheap. AI makes content abundant. Abundance does not create belief; it creates skepticism. When everything can be produced, edited, faked and amplified, customers will increasingly gravitate to what feels human, consistent and accountable.

So what do we do?

First, we rebuild marketing around human assurance, not just human persuasion. That means fewer tricks, more truth. Less hype, more helpfulness. The future belongs to brands that reduce anxiety and increase clarity.

Second, we design experiences that algorithms cannot fully replace: community, belonging, identity and meaning. You can automate information, but you cannot automate authentic care. You can scale messaging, but you cannot fake integrity for long. In a time when people are unsure what to believe, consistency becomes a brand superpower.

Third, we prepare for “AI as the customer.” The decision-maker is slowly shifting. Recommendation engines, shopping assistants and AI summaries can serve as gateways between your brand and buyers. If you want to be chosen, you must be understood — not just by humans, but by the machines that filter what humans see.

Fourth, we protect the human inside our organizations. If our teams become exhausted, cynical and reactive, no amount of marketing automation will save the brand. Customers can sense culture through service, speed, tone and consistency. Build disciplined internal systems, then communicate with friendliness.

Finally, we stop treating this as a “marketing trend” and start treating it as a leadership responsibility. Customers are being rewired. That means our job is not simply to sell. Our job is to stay close enough to the human condition to serve people responsibly as their world changes.

Because in the end, the brands that win won’t be the ones with the most AI. They’ll be the ones who are most human… on purpose.

Now you know why we need to hear from Mark.

It’s a changing world, and we need an expert to help us understand. Mark Schaefer is in town, and I’m excited to have him share his ideas at SpeakersCon! He’ll be joining a lineup of extremely gifted and able speakers on Feb. 11 at SPACE, One Ayala.

See you there!

Join Francis Kong at SpeakersCon 2026, a one-day experience designed for leaders, educators, executives and professionals who want to communicate with clarity, credibility and purpose. Happening on Feb. 11, 2026, at SPACE, One Ayala Makati. Gain practical insights on leadership, influence and authentic communication in today’s evolving landscape. For inquiries, e-mail us at [email protected] or send us a direct message at facebook.com/SpeakersCon. Visit www.speakerscon.ph for details.