As conversations around AI and luxury grow louder, Guy Salter OBE MVO - luxury investor and founder of London Craft Week - brings a note of clarity - and caution - to the conversation.
In his contribution to our Luxury Insights Report into Art, AI and the Future of Creativity, Guy applies his influential “Discernment Curve” to the world of AI-powered consumer experiences: how it could empower more informed and independent luxury purchases, elevate emerging talent, and even level the playing field between global giants and micro brands...
How does your concept of the "discernment curve" apply to AI-driven luxury items? How might AI change how consumers view luxury?
The Discernment Curve is how acquiring knowledge empowers luxury consumers with elevated levels of confidence to develop their own style and taste, which then results in more independent-minded and sophisticated decisions when buying luxury goods and experiences.
The main way AI could influence this is by helping consumers go on a deeper dive in their quest for knowledge. This could in turn affect another of my luxury mega-trends, the iceberg of hidden talent. This is made up of artisans and makers creating very special things, which are as good or better than the famous names. If AI was able to triangulate this with the consumer’s own personal passions, their previous research and purchases, or even cultural factors, so they only got highly relevant topical recommendations, this could be very powerful.
It could even bring another of my forecasts for the future of luxury a step forward – that of Mass Discernment – which essentially flattens the market, driving accessibility, opening up opportunities for small and micro businesses and depriving some of the biggest players of many of their current advantages.
The other key factor for AI to be properly effective would be the speed to recall insights just before the purchase decision was made and that this could be further filtered live through an easy ‘conversation’ in which the consumer can quickly go deeper or sideways.
As ever, the devil would be in the detail, with the biggest challenge reliability (including not making things up), nuance and, most of all, being able to distinguish between real expert or expert-next-door (human) sources, rather than noisy, mass or sponsored opinion online.
In essence, the only way this might work in the future is if AI can itself acquire discernment…
