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On today鈥檚 podcast episode, we discuss the interesting ways folks watch the Olympics, the best (and not so best) ads from the Games, the impact of X suing advertisers, how much in-store chatbots can move the needle, how to view Disney鈥檚 streaming profitability milestone, which national park most of America could drive to in a day, and more. Tune in to the discussion with our vice president of content Suzy Davidkhanian and analysts Sara Marzano and Carina Perkins.

Two lawsuits highlight potential risks to banks that use AI-powered chatbots but don鈥檛 update their practices.

Just 43% of consumers trust information given to them by an AI chatbot or tool, according to a survey by Attest.

A third of consumers who prefer to give their drive-thru orders to a human say it's because AI chatbots are likely to make a mistake.

Stronger attachment: The leap from static chatbots with profile pictures to animated, voice-enabled avatars could help users engage more deeply with Character AI鈥檚 product. The ability to mimic auditory and visual cues can make the chatbots both more entertaining and emotionally realistic. That could deepen parasocial relationships鈥攆or better or for worse鈥攂etween chatbots and users.

The move helps it differentiate itself from competitors crowding the chatbot and agentic AI space. More importantly, reasoning models are the bridge between AI chatbots and artificial general intelligence (AGI). AI鈥檚 landscape is changing: We could see chatbots and agents adopted by consumers and enterprises while reasoning models make inroads into more theoretical fields such as STEM.

The option to transfer from a chatbot to a live agent, which could signal chatbot fatigue. Click here to view our full forecast for Canada smartphone banking users.

In the case of GPT-4o, which was introduced last year, fine-tuning the chatbot to focus on reinforcement learning was a move to make the AI more engaging and friendly. Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect. Users reported that the chatbot began to praise and agree with nearly every user statement, regardless of accuracy or safety.

Only 4% of US adults prefer to use an AI chatbot to place a fast food order at a drive-thru, according to the survey. 56% of US consumers are not interested in interacting with AI for food experiences, according to a September 2024 survey from Chain Store Age.

Not quite perfect: The chatbots lean into uncanny valley territory with voices that don鈥檛 sound quite right, similar to Spotify鈥檚 Wrapped podcast hosts, which may make some users feel uncomfortable. The bot鈥檚 slang seems to be a bit outdated, like when it used the word 鈥渄ope鈥� to describe a museum鈥攁 bit cringe for the Gen Z crowd.

Generative AI Chatbots in Retail (蘑菇AV subscription required). Generative AI for Personalization in Consumer Banking (蘑菇AV subscription required).

Consumers are also increasingly familiar with AI assistants designed specifically for shopping, such as Amazon鈥檚 Rufus genAI chatbot. Two in 3 (66%) respondents are at least somewhat aware of these tools, and 57% have used one in the past six to nine months.

Twenty-four percent of teens use chatbots at least several times per week. GenAI chatbots, such as ChatGPT or Snapchat鈥檚 My AI, mimic conversational patterns when providing responses. They can provide summaries similar to genAI search engines and learn from prompts to provide increasingly specific answers.

Banking chatbots are getting an AI boost: Chatbots are critical to customer relationships in banking, but customers still don鈥檛 like chatbots as much as banks do. Consumers鈥� adoption of AI banking chatbots also varies by country. AI compliance challenges: Banks are increasingly adopting AI for high-stakes operations like loan approvals, which is exposing them to more third-party risk.

All in one: Google and Microsoft鈥攁nd potentially Meta鈥攁re creating standalone apps for their AI chatbots and features. Those separate offerings will let the companies experiment with new features and services and differentiate their AI tools as separate brands.

Character AI chatbots are intended to have human-like personas, even emulating living or deceased people. Our take: Consumers value personal connections with AI, which emphasizes the importance of customer service chatbots or website tools being conversational.

Twenty-four percent of teens use chatbots at least several times per week. GenAI chatbots, such as ChatGPT or Snapchat鈥檚 My AI, mimic conversational patterns when providing responses. They can provide summaries similar to genAI search engines and learn from prompts to provide increasingly specific answers.

The news: Manus AI, developed by Chinese startup Monica, is an autonomous AI agent designed to think, plan, and execute real-world tasks鈥攕urpassing traditional chatbots and delving into autonomous AI, per The Register. It鈥檚 currently free and available by invite-only, but interested users can apply for access.

AI-powered customer service chatbots. Why genAI? The use of AI in chatbots is nothing new. As conversational AI technology has evolved, retailers have harnessed natural language processing (NLP) and natural language understanding (NLU) to improve the capabilities of customer service chatbots. However, training these AI algorithms is time-consuming and expensive.

The insight: Brands are looking for ways to optimize their sites and product listings as referral traffic from generative AI (genAI) sources like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Amazon鈥檚 Rufus chatbot skyrockets.

But so far, most use cases for chatbots revolve around customer support. For example, Best Buy鈥檚 genAI-powered bot can troubleshoot product issues and manage deliveries. However, chatbots that are fully integrated into the shopping journey are rare. Amazon鈥檚 Rufus AI chatbot is one example.

Once rolled out across 10 markets, the chatbot is expected to handle queries for 37 million customers. How easy is it to implement? While genAI chatbots and virtual assistant technology are widely available, post-implementation challenges remain. For instance, a genAI chatbot that answers customer queries incorrectly or dramatically deviates from the brand鈥檚 tone could damage a bank鈥檚 reputation.

Retailers need to use caution in how they implement AI for customer service, as customers could also grow frustrated with AI chatbots that are not actually helpful. Use this chart: Retailers can use this chart to brainstorm ways to implement AI, make the case for improving customer service, or demonstrating areas where AI use may be overhyped. Related 蘑菇AV reports:.

Enhancing engagement: AI-driven chatbots and recommendation tools tailor attendee experiences, offering relevant content and simplifying networking connections that would be difficult to handle manually. Providing real-time insights: Some platforms use AI to analyze attendee behavior in real time, gauging sentiment and engagement.