AI & Customer Journey
From Pyramid to Journey: How AI Is Changing the Buying Process
At Intersections in Milan, a reflection on needs, marketing funnels and artificial intelligence. AI is increasingly part of discovery and evaluation, while trust still matters when it is time to buy.
The journey no longer always begins with a search
For a long time, we pictured a fairly linear process: a brand builds awareness, sparks interest, is compared with alternatives and is eventually chosen. After the purchase, a good experience can bring the customer back.
In reality, buying journeys have always been less orderly. AI is making them more conversational.
Someone might start with a broad question — “How can I reduce my energy costs?” — and use a conversation to identify possible solutions, compare relevant features and clarify what to look for. AI can help people discover a need, not just find an answer to one.
That changes the top of the funnel. Awareness may no longer begin with an ad or a visit to a brand’s website. It may start with a question asked of an AI assistant. Interest and consideration can develop in the same exchange, without clear steps that a brand can easily see.
From discovery to decision: a gap remains
AI is already useful for exploring categories, generating ideas, summarising information, comparing features and finding reviews or deals. Letting it complete a purchase on someone’s behalf is a different matter.
A global study by IBM and the National Retail Federation found that 41% of surveyed consumers use AI assistants to research products, 33% to look for reviews and 31% to search for deals. In a Gartner survey of 322 U.S. consumers conducted in January 2026, only 11% were willing to let AI make purchase decisions, even in lower-stakes categories.
The samples and markets differ, so these figures do not describe Italian consumers directly. They do point in a consistent direction: many people are ready to use AI to support a choice; far fewer appear ready to hand it the final decision.
Trust is the critical point
Why is the move from recommendation to purchase so significant? Because buying means entrusting a system with something tangible: money, personal data, expectations about quality and, sometimes, the handling of a future problem.
An assistant may recommend an appealing product, but people still want to know where the information came from, whether it is current, how the options were selected and what may have been left out. They want to verify the price, read authentic reviews, understand return terms and know who will help if something goes wrong.
Trust, then, is not a detail to add at checkout. It is built throughout the journey, through accurate information, identifiable sources, transparency and control that stays with the person.
Maslow and the funnel: putting the person back at the centre
Maslow’s pyramid is not a marketing funnel, nor should it be treated as a fixed sequence of buying stages. It can, however, remind us that people do not buy features alone: they seek to meet needs and reduce uncertainty.
AI can help turn a loosely defined need into decision criteria. It can make it easier to explore options and understand which differences matter. But it does not remove the need for reassurance, accountability and human connection, especially when a decision has significant financial or personal consequences.
For businesses, this means rethinking the funnel without simply trying to “show up” in AI-generated answers. It means making content clear and current, explaining products and services in accessible terms, stating prices and conditions transparently, highlighting verifiable reviews and providing a smooth path to a human contact when needed.
The new funnel is a journey of trust
AI is not erasing the stages of the buying process. It is making them less linear, more personalised and, in part, less visible to businesses. Discovery may begin in a conversation; comparison may happen across multiple sources; the final decision may return to a brand website, a marketplace, a store or someone the customer trusts.
For marketers, the question is not only how to appear in an AI answer. It is how to earn the trust of the person that answer is trying to help.
During this transition, AI’s most useful role may not be to buy on our behalf. It may be to help us choose better, while leaving the final decision to us.