by Jackson Murphy, Forbes

Humans are capable of turning simple digital experiences into disasters and the rapid move toward artificial intelligence is proof that brands are becoming more confident in bots than real human users. And brands have good reason to be confident. Today we’re in that awkward wild west period, where companies invest heavily in tech, only for humans to make a mockery of things.

This digital playground of human misery is gaining 20% more touchpoints every year, according to McKinsey & Company. About 20% of our experiences are end-to-end digital, leaving 80% at the mercy of hybrid failures. And it’s no coincidence that our customer journeys and experiences are often ripe for so-called “digital Darwinism.” In a world where only the strong survive, people continue to gravitate to the more digital, less human experiences out of convenience. In his latest report, “The 2016 State of Digital Transformation,” Brian Solis found that only 54% of companies had even mapped out their entire customer journey. On a positive side, 41% of leaders found that digital transformation had increased market share while the customer experience solidified itself as the driver of digital transformation and the key to dealing with digital Darwinism.

Experiences Designed To Solve Problems Can Actually Create More Issues

Self-checkout was designed to improve shopping experiences but instead, often leads to frustration. The user interfaces are universally bad from a design perspective, and between barcode scanning and problematic scales, it’s easy to spend more time flagging down the poor human left standing to assist.

However, Amazon Go, the new project from Amazon, is an effort to reduce frustrations and pain points once and for all; the new service is essentially reducing a space for human error by going fully digital. This is the first “just walk out” retail technology resulting in the ultimate of digital experiences in the real world – no lines, no checkouts and no pain points.

If brands outsource their work to consumers, it better be easy, as Amazon is pledging to do. If they want to make us scan our own groceries to save labor costs, make it flawless or your customers are going to pick the store that does it better. That’s what’s at stake for brands and why Amazon’s take on the future of retail has the potential to be everywhere soon. 

Human Interpretation Impacts Digital-Led Experiences

One challenge for the customer journey is that no matter how much you spend on technology, humans improvise. Take Uber, for example; the company spends millions providing its drivers with state-of-the-art technology designed to disrupt the entire transportation status quo. The challenge is that the ride-sharing company’s drivers can interrupt that effortless digitally led experience. Drivers call to ask where you are and ask to take you on another route from the GPS. The digital tools get pushed to the backseat by humans when there is room for interpretation.

Human factors are causing us to think about bypassing this hybrid approach with driverless cars. One way to smooth out the journey could involve adding some simple digital checks in the process or your account settings to signal to your Uber, for example, noting that you prefer drivers not to call you.

The variances in the experience can leave room for new players to enter the market and capitalize on weaknesses in the system. The battle for customers will be won and lost on the user experience as much as the product.