Nhu nguyen

Over the past year, I’ve worked more with AI-driven products, from launching advanced AI-powered technologies to building communities that actively advocate for AI applications. What excites me most is seeing genuine user enthusiasm and engagement. Yet this enthusiasm also reveals a new challenge: AI is no longer a novelty. The industry is moving beyond hype, and the way we communicate, position, and grow AI products must evolve into its next phase.

Traditional communication frameworks are built around a linear journey: awareness, tease, engagement, and sustain, guiding perception and nudging customers toward recall, purchase consideration, and daily usage. This model works well when a product still needs to earn attention and build relevance. But AI products have quietly crossed a different threshold. They are no longer something users “discover” or “try.” They have already embedded themselves into daily routines, decision-making processes, and even personal habits. The challenge for communicators today is no longer how to introduce AI, but how to evolve storytelling when the product has become infrastructure in people’s lives.

This reality became especially clear in a recent focus group I attended: over 90% of participants said they already use AI as a personal assistant. They instinctively turn to AI when they notice health symptoms, need help with calculations or financial decisions, or even when they’re having a bad day and seek emotional reassurance or playful fortune-telling (yes I did it sometimes). AI is no longer just a logical support tool, it has become a cognitive and emotional companion.

When the interviewer asked what they expect from the next generation of AI applications, many users expressed a clear shift: they no longer want AI to simply respond to commands, they want it to proactively guide them. Not just to execute tasks, but to suggest what they should do next. This signals a fundamental evolution in value creation. Differentiation will no longer come from technical capability alone, but from how deeply AI can personalize interactions and create meaningful two-way relationships that naturally embed into users’ daily lives. For product teams and communicators alike, the challenge becomes translating this invisible intelligence into tangible trust, relevance, and emotional resonance — making personalization not just powerful, but intuitively human.

To me, there are three communication approaches that should flex depending on the product, industry, and business priorities. The first approach asks a simple question: Can the AI product reflect and evolve into each person’s unique self? Here, storytelling focuses on how users personalize, shape, and stretch the product to fit their own habits, goals, and identity. Rather than promoting one “perfect” use case, communication highlights diverse ways people adapt the app to their lifestyles, creating their own workflows, rituals, and micro-solutions. The product becomes a mirror of individuality, and the brand becomes a platform for self-expression.

The second approach centers on guiding user life and career growth alongside product evolution. As users spend more time with the app, they unlock deeper capabilities, personal milestones, and meaningful touchpoints that reflect their progress and learning journey. Communication shifts toward celebrating small wins, habit formation, and self-improvement. The AI product becomes a living diary of progress, where people can feel proud of what they’ve achieved, how they’ve evolved, and how the tool has supported their journey. In this approach, loyalty is built not through features, but through emotional investment and personal momentum.

The third approach emerged from an insight I got during a user interview, when participants raised concerns about the balance between AI learning their habits and the amount of personal data being collected. This leads to a direction centered on trust and boundaries — positioning AI not just as a powerful assistant, but as a responsible partner. As AI becomes increasingly embedded in personal decision-making, emotional wellbeing, and sensitive life moments, communication must actively shape healthy expectations and informed usage. This means clearly articulating what the product can and cannot do, how data is protected, how recommendations are generated, and where human judgment should remain central. I realize that trust is no longer built through brand reputation alone, but through product experience and messaging. In this approach, strong communication builds confidence, autonomy, and psychological safety, allowing users to grow with the product while remaining firmly in control.

AI is no longer something people simply adopt; it is something they live with and expect to maximize for daily use. Our role as communicators is no longer limited to explaining features or driving usage. We are designing meaning, behavior, and long-term relationships between humans and intelligent systems. To me, the brands that will win the next phase of AI growth are those that help people see themselves in the product and grow alongside it. This requires a new level of responsibility, intentionality, and cross-functional thinking — where product design, ethics, storytelling, and user experience converge.