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From Search to Chat: What Happens When Your Customers Talk to AI?
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  3. From Search to Chat: What Happens When Your Customers Talk to AI?

From Search to Chat: What Happens When Your Customers Talk to AI?

Article by
Halley Brewer Junior Editorial Manager @VivaTech
Posted at: 11.12.2025in category:Session Digests
We recap the VivaTech 2025 session on what happens when your customers talk to AI.

Search-to-chat-panel.jpg In this session, marketing leaders discussed how they are implementing artificial intelligence into their brand strategy to best connect with their customers.

During the 2025 edition of VivaTech three marketing executives shared about how their companies are implementing AI to create a seamless omnichannel experience for customers. Kaylin Voss, the Executive Vice President of Salesforce, showed how AI agents can change how businesses function. Dave Dugan, VP Global Clients and Agencies at Meta, discussed how AI agents are developing on WhatsApp, the worlds most used messaging app. Asmita Dubey, Chief Digital and Marketing Officer at L’Oréal Groupe brought perspective on how brands can utilize these new tools to best engage customers.

What Do Consumers Want?

The shift from search to chat is reshaping how customers interact with brands, but how can brands take advantage of this to increase customer satisfaction and build brand trust?

81% of consumers want highly digital personalized frictionless experiences,” Voss said. “When that is delivered successfully, we see the lifetime value increase anywhere from 10-30% with that brand

Voss shared the changes she has seen in the use cases for Agentforce since its launch. At the start people asked basic questions but after they develop trust and personalized communication, they ask more complex questions quickly. “What we’ve seen is trust allows you to go further, faster with agentics,” Voss explained.

Dugan brought up what they are looking for at Meta to know that their algorithm is showing consumers the correct content. One metric they consider is how often people share the content on their feed to others,

If the recommendation is right, it might be so good you want to share it to a friend

This happens four and half billion times a day, he explained that the link between, “our feed services and messaging is where marketers can really take advantage.”

How Companies Can Implement

Asmita Dubey discussed how L’Oréal is reaching new customers with the launch of Beauty Genius, their agentic AI powered personal beauty assistant. L’Oréal uses WhatsApp to host this agent so customers can text with the AI like it would a friend. Dugan showed that is what consumers are pushing for, “On WhatsApp we see 600 million conversations per day between one of our users and a business.”

People want to communicate with a business just like they would with a friend or family,” Dugan said. “If I have a question I am going to text somebody

But having these solutions in place is only helpful if the consumers know they exist. Companies now must work on funneling existing and potential new clients to talk to their agents.

They are going about this in two ways. The first is working on generative engine optimization (GEO) to make sure their content is being picked up and pushed by AI platforms,

All the information on our brands, has to be structured in a way that it can be picked up by AI,” Dubey said. “The task at our end is our brands, their presence and their footprint online is more GEO friendly

The other option is by moving customers from their existing content into their new artificial intelligence programs. To do this, they can use already established networks like social media. Dugan explained that on Meta apps, the best way to get reach is producing a broad range of content, so it can deliver the best content to the right people.

Keeping the Human Element

Even with the rise of agentic AI, some people still want a human experience. Voss pointed out there is a “secret sauce” of humans and AI working together to give the best experience.

Dugan agreed, many people still want an in-person experience and when that happens, the key is to make the transition from AI to human as smooth as possible. Making sure in-store staff are aware of the previous digital experience and can best be suited to help the customer when they come in.

Moving Forward

While AI can be a great tool for companies to connect with their customers and build trust, it is just a tool. How companies are using it makes all the difference. Dubey urges companies to keep a balance,

On one hand AI can tell meaningful stories, but on the other hand it is very true, we can drown in the AI slop

Voss pointed out it is important not to be pushy and overwhelm customers with overly proactive marketing. The panelists acknowledged in order for the interaction between customers and AI to be positive, companies must create a base line of trust.

Want to know about how AI is transforming industries? Check out AI in Healthcare: How AI Is Saving Time, Money, and Lives

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