Algorithms and consumers: How the ‘personal touch’ still matters in the app world

Many of us have fears of app and website algorithms using our online activities, even a simple like or dislike, to come up with tons of data that their sponsoring companies can use. The apprehension for most of us comes from our perception that these mathematical equations that come up with mysterious, if effective, formulas are cold, calculating tools that never stop measuring the inside of our minds. However, the latest trends show that cell device users — that’s you and me — respond faster, and if the site or the app uses a more personal, warmer approach.

Instagram is leading the way with its algorithm, which comes with a feed that touches on our more sensitive side. The New York Times analyses how Instagram changed the way it was sending those images to its more than 400 million visitors. The rule of thumb in social media sites was to post immediately on the user’s page the posts that had just been uploaded from their friends or followers. This chronological method gives the user the impression that what had been posted on his page is immediate. Immediacy, though, does not necessarily mean relevance, as Instagram is beginning to show. Their new and improved feed now prioritises the posts that you will like, based on their algorithm’s analysis of your own past posts and as well as the pictures of friends you had clicked on.

To illustrate, if your algorithm shows that you, a cake lover, regularly follows your Aunt Jill’s posts of the cake and cookies she bakes, then the next time Aunt Jill whips up a chocolate mousse, that’s the first thing you’ll see on your Instagram page — even though Aunt Jill’s enticing shots of those to-die-for desserts were uploaded eight hours before your best friend John’s post of his latest painting. Instagram algorithm recognises that you would actually be happier looking at Aunt Jill’s cake shots instead of John’s latest art work.

In the New York Times interview, Brian Blau, a vice president at industry research firm Gartner, explains the rationale behind this strategy: “If algorithm can give you more engaging content more frequently, you’ll stick around longer.”

On a subliminal level, Instagram leaps from the traditional position as a content-releasing social media site to an actual community that has a helping hand in making close friends, who are in a very large online group, become even closer.

Another app that is paving the way for users to feel that more personal approach is Born2Invest, a news and business app that streams in the latest news from every industry from all countries around the world. Users need only to click on certain categories to check out the information they want. The data help the app determine the kind of news that is relevant to certain sectors of its users.

Born2Invest founder Dom Einhorn says, “Users want a ton of information, from the stocks they should invest in, the organizations they should apply to, or the skills they should study. But they can be overwhelmed with all the data streaming in. Preference for information also varies according to the user and the region he belongs to. Our data analysis helps us keep track of which news our users find truly relevant, and our team of international writers and journalists make sure they have them when they need them.”

Ted Livingston writes in Medium that the chat device can make customer experience even more personal, which can lead to repeat business. The usual way of sending orders for groceries, movie tickets, or even hamburgers through apps can be inconvenient at times. A hungry staffer doing overtime may find it tiresome to type in his contact information, password and various security-related information just to have a pizza delivered late night to his office.

A chat device in the app, however, can stimulate a conversation that can actually engage this staffer. The questions he receives from the bot in the chat — “which drink do you prefer with your pizza?” “How many people should be served in your office right now?” — might actually make him think about his order and revise it as he goes along.

The end result is a happy customer who has the satisfaction knowing that all his concerns have been addressed. The online exchange in this case becomes personal; and that it is a bot, and not a human being, who interacts with him is irrelevant.

Digital Trends’ report on Joshua Browder’s legal bot is a forecast on how a bot can augment that personal approach by selecting and recommending information based on a user’s legal history. Right now, the Browser legal bot is just wired to answer legal questions from users about parking tickets.

However, instead of giving standard information that can be downloaded from a website, the bot actually interacts with the user, asking more questions such as road conditions and the driver’s identity, and weighing the parameters of each parking-ticket case. It does all this before sending the information that would be just right for the user’s particular case. Though the bot is still in its beta stage, it has already helped its users resolve parking-ticket cases worth a total of $3 million, without hiring expensive lawyers. Adding wonder to it all is that Browder is only 19 years old.

Apps have changed the way we have done business, looked for work, traveled and shopped in style and with financial smarts. They have opened up a multitude of choices that are both fascinating and wonderful. By adding a more personal equation, the more advanced algorithms keep the interaction between the flesh-and-blood user and the software interface warmer and more human.