How can Artificial Intelligence enhance in-app personalization & customer retention?

Sabah Noor

Feb 28, 2022

5 min read

Today, brands and businesses cannot ignore the increased usage of mobile phones and mobile apps. That is why working on only desktop-based access is no longer a relevant tactic for growth. 

Nowadays, businesses of all niches are coming up with mobile apps for generating revenue and bringing in more customers, and this might be the reason why there are currently 2.87 million apps available for download on Google Play.

Source: Unsplash

But do you think that just launching an app on Google Play or any other platform is enough, especially when the users are inundated with options? If your app slacks the necessary appeal, it can turn out to be an implication to your business reputation instead of acting as a catalyst for growth. To top it is the number of people (21% of people) abandoning an app just after one use. 

The only way to climb the ladder of success in the ocean of competition without becoming a one-time use app is to use the power of personalization. Although in-app personalization is not an easy task, it can be a practical approach with the right resources like AI. 

So, let’s see how the power of AI is improving in-app personalization and increasing customer retention. 

The rise in the demand for in-app personalization 

With the market becoming cluttered and with so many options, customers are looking for a unique and convenient experience rather than going through the same mundane journey of purchasing a product, resulting in a shift to a trend where people prefer a personalized experience. 

Stats showing a rise in the demand for in-app personalization:

• More than 80% of the customers are more likely to buy from a brand that offers a personalized experience. 
•  89% of the U.S marketers agree that personalization of their app has increased their revenue along
• 63% of smartphone users are more likely to purchase from an app that offers relevant recommendations
• 71% of consumers have an aversion to an impersonal shopping experience
• 58% of smartphone users felt more inclined toward those companies whose apps remembered who they were and their previous behavior. 

How is AI improving in-app personalization?

Access to user personas in real-time 

One of the best things about AI is that it can comprehend demographical and behavioral data in a more detailed and less time-consuming manner than humans. It helps brands find out the type of content that will prove relevant for every person’s mobile app use. 

Yes, you read that correctly, every single mobile app user. 

Source: Unsplash

You can bid farewell to the not-so-effective yet cumbersome manual segmentation of users into unchanging personas. In such a system, the segmentation done based on the data collected would have already shifted when you accessed the user personas. 

But it doesn’t matter whether you have 100 mobile users or 1000 mobile users, AI can learn about each one of them on an ongoing basis, and it will also keep you updated about which persona the user currently fits. 

Personalized and apt content delivery 

Not keeping the audience engaged through the mobile app might be why every 3 out of 10 apps get deleted within 30 days of installation. You might be planning to deliver new and updated content through the mobile app daily to keep occupying space on the user’s mobile. However, if that content is irrelevant and un-targeted, then all your efforts will go astray. 

Personalization is the only way to drive app engagement. Remember that you are fighting to get a user’s attention who gets 65-80 notifications on his mobile every day. So, the user will undoubtedly lose track of the generic content in the ocean of messages. 

Source: Unsplash

AI comes with the power of digesting a vast amount of data about every individual through their in-app behavior. Based on this data, the same AI can make relevant recommendations. 

Home screen personalization in apps 

The home screen is the most critical aspect of any mobile app, and it is usually the go-to screen for users to navigate. But instead of relying on the one-size-fits-all approach with the home screen app, you can use AI to add personalization in this vital section of your app as well. 

Based on the app category and the quality and quantity of the demographic data during the first-time onboarding flow, you can build a personalized home screen experience for the user and make them succumb to staying engaged with the app. And this will never be a time-consuming task since AI will be helping you with garnering and analysis of data. 

For example, if you have launched a music-based app, you use data like favorite songs, name, age, and gender of the user to build a first-degree personalized list of music recommendations on the home screen. 

Customize the navigational experience 

In addition to personalizing the browsing, user searches, and click behavior, you can also work towards personalizing the users’ navigational experience or, in simple language, customizing how the users navigate on the app. 

AI can harness insights from parameters like geolocation, weather, timezone, buyer persona, gender, and then personalize graphics, CTAs, banner images, products, and trending offers to give a unique navigational experience to the user. 

AI can also leverage the most common path towards conversion for optimizing the navigational journey. It can also identify those aspects of the app that remained unused or that might be hampering the navigational journey of the user. 

Improving the timing 

The biggest perpetrator of your mobile app can be too many notifications being sent at the wrong time, as 28% of the users delete an app just because it sends them too many notifications. 

A customer might love to hear that they will get 20% off on their favorite jacket that they have put into the ‘For Later’ category, but such notification will be of no use if sent at 3 AM in the morning. That being said, this can be a quick turn-off for someone even when sent at 10 AM if the person is doing night shifts. That is where AI comes into the picture. 

By analyzing the user behavior and how and when they have interacted with a notification, AI can decide on an optimal time to send notifications that will have more chances of being clicked by the user. 

Takeaways

AI can do wonders for mobile apps, but personalization is the biggest perk of incorporating AI in mobile apps. With AI, you can take the in-app experience to the next level, increasing customer engagement and boosting customer retention rate. Of course, the incorporation of AI in mobile apps has its limitation, and it is only as good as the amount of data it comprehends. Still, you can avoid a lot of guesswork and manual workload from your mobile app marketing by using AI. For more information, feel free to get in touch with our experts.