Convenience-store retailers should prepare for how artificial intelligence (AI) will impact the way they talk about their categories and how their customers will interact with their programs as AI becomes more pervasive, said Kyle Drenon, co-owner of the Springfield, Missouri-based ad agency Supper Co.
They should do this “so we can anticipate how these new technologies will fit into our worlds,” said Drenon, who spoke Feb. 26 at CSP’s Convenience Retailing University in Austin, Texas.
The rise of AI has fundamentally changed how c-stores interact with their customers, he said.
Just since September, AI usage has grown by 75%, he said.
More traffic from bots, less from humans
Customers are not getting c-store messaging directly like they have in the past, Drenon said, adding that AI is writing, reading and filtering content for c-stores and their customers.
AI will continue to grow in this intermediary role.
“Human to robot communication is becoming the default along with that growth,” Drenon said.
“To communicate effectively, we must understand how the robots treat our information.”
Websites and apps are the online representation of the categories that c-stores manage, and most of these properties currently are built like brochures, designed for human viewing of products and promotions.
“Guests visit and get information, and then they leave, but AI is playing a significant role in how our guests find and consume our web properties,” he said, adding that fewer people are clicking to visit c-store websites now.
“Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT have made actually going to our websites less necessary,” Drenon said.
“Rather than experiencing our sites as we intended, more and more, guests only get small pieces of information in summaries from the robot friends.”
C-store channel properties like websites and apps are decreasing in use across the board.
In 2024, bot traffic eclipsed that of human use of the internet.
“The internet uses itself more than we do now,” Drenon said.
So, as LLMs have entered the market, websites began experiencing more and more traffic from bots and less from humans.
“They’ve stepped in as interpreters of the web for their users, translating our brand experience into their chat windows,” Drenon said.
“But as of right now, our properties are still brochures built for humans, not rules built for robots.”
However, in the future this will change how c-stores are found and how brands are translated, he said.
While many are declaring that search engine optimization is dead, this isn’t true, “but the content our guests receive is very different than traditional search,” Drenon said.
Impartialness of AI won’t last
Right now, AI claims to be impartial, but that won’t last long because ads are coming and will change the experience—and answers user receive will become less neutral, Drenon said.
“Because like Google before it, there’s a lot of money in selling visibility inside these systems,” Drenon said.
“ChatGPT is expected to make several billions dollars in ad dollars this year.”
He added, “LLM usage is so much better at getting people to buy things.”
The reason it is better is because total LLM value has already surpassed traditional search, according to Boston-based Semrush, a software used in web tracking, Drenon said.
“We’re not talking about traffic or usage here, we’re talking about which controls more behavior related to purchasing decisions,” he said.
He said that LLMs currently are 23 times more likely to drive purchase or signups than organic search, adding that many predict that will increase over time.
“We’ll need to learn how to use these ads this year as they become available—and continue to discern how SEO is evolving,” he said.
That’s the power of how influential AI can be on the web, he said, and for that reason, AI isn’t just going to be the most used thing on the internet.
“It is becoming the internet itself,” Drenon said.
“The web as we know it is being covered in an ambient layer of AI.
AI will decide what people see in the future more and more.
It will become the operating system for digital information.”
People crave real connections
Up to 70% of social content is AI or bot generated content right now, Drenon said, adding, “You can bet they’ll be working on ways to protect their massive user base.”
But it’s not all doom and gloom, he said.
“As far as social goes, one technique is rising to the top: human authenticity,” he said.
“People are craving more real connection, and our brands are better if they’re less polished, more raw.
Less formal, obviously human content, is what’s winning now.”
People are gravitating more toward content that simulates a conversation or moment of which they want to be a part, he said.
“Especially in vertical video, the most active area of social, if an ad or content is obvious, users choose to skip that conversation.
But if it feels genuine, they’re more likely to stay.”
Strategically, this means not just going out and filming a funny moment to get views, it’s about using content to create conversations and activity the retailer wants to happen.
“We recently filmed a series of these videos with this goal in mind,” Drenon said.
“We made videos of people talking about the routines they have related to the c-store.”
One example was a guy who invented a routine called a car wash lunch in which he goes inside and buys two slices of pizza and eats them while he’s getting a car wash.
“Ads like these can be up to 20 times more efficient at driving sales,” he said.
Ninety-two percent of consumers trust this style of content more than highly produced communications, he said.
“They don’t want AI-generated slop,” he said.
“They want to see real people having experiences with your brand that verify it’s quality.
And the good news is it’s much easier to create than ever before.”
However, only 2% of a c-store’s audience sees its organic social content.
There is a lot of noise out there right now, but one thing remains true through this revolution of technology: Human-to-human contact is still the best way to influence sales in your categories, Drenon said.
“As more AI enters our lives, the best brands will keep prioritizing this while adapting to the new technology and communication changes in the new era,” Drenon said.
“No matter what the robots say.”
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