AI chatbots as curators OR is AI shrinking the luxury world?

“Over and Over and Over and Over” exhibition by 6:AM at Milan Design Week

It is widely recognised that luxury brands should not approach AI as a tool for full automation, as this is not an appropriate goal for this industry segment. Instead, AI is hailed as a tool for brand-authored interpretation layers as well as curation and reassurance. Its relevance is particularly prominent because a significant portion of intention capture has shifted to AI tools, as consumers now turn to AI chatbots to find options that meet their needs. A potentially concerning issue is that most people rely on generic, open-ended questions that they may or may not narrow further. We looked into the implications of this search process.

We ran the following prompt through ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity: 

I am a luxury consumer, female, 35 years old, looking for a luxury watch. I want something of high quality but unique. Give me five recommendations. 

This prompt, while very simple and lacking sufficient context, is still more concrete and specific than most consumers’ prompts. The three chatbots provided different recommendations with completely different models recommended and partial brand overlap. The criteria used to further narrow down choices included budget, size, material, bracelet type, and personal style. However, all three outputs consistently recommended European brands (8 Swiss brands, 3 French brands, 1 German brand). 

The initial prompt was expanded to specifically request luxury watch brands outside Europe, and this time the brand overlap was significantly higher, with 3 of 5 brands being the same across ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. This quick search manipulation implies that primary visibility is given to the already established brands with extensive history and media coverage, whereas discoverability of lesser-known brands is limited. When it comes to luxury, this heavily intersects with the country of origin. 

At the surface level, this is not much different from the skewed representation of different brands in Google rankings. The real challenge here is that consumers treat AI chatbots differently. The communication style and format make it easier to believe we are receiving recommendations from someone knowledgeable rather than being presented with search results. If we believe we are receiving expert recommendations, how likely are we to engage in several prompting iterations? How likely are we to challenge them? Will we intentionally explain what “unique” or “luxury” mean to us, or will we refine our search based on criteria such as budget or personal style? 

AI chatbots are now where consumers express their initial intent and where that intent is captured and shaped. While making high-ticket decisions, as in the current prompt, is still unlikely to be heavily influenced by AI (according to McKinsey’s research), the universe of options presented to consumers will probably shrink.  And that brings us to the big question: As our existence becomes more and more digitalised, what will happen to brands left behind by the latest algorithmic challenges?