The AI Backlash Is Here — And It's Coming for Your Customer Experience

Colin asked his AI assistant one simple question — what time the film started — and it answered, confidently, wrong. A small thing. But it's the crack that reveals something much bigger.

A backlash against AI is building: data-center protests, job fears, "AI slop" everywhere. In this episode, Colin Shaw and Professor Ryan Hamilton ask the question most leaders are missing — what happens when that backlash reaches your customer experience? The answer runs through a psychological trap called the halo effect, a word you won't forget ("enshittification"), and one uncomfortable truth: the brands that win won't be the ones using the most AI.

Best Quote from the Episode:

"The best practice is this: you tell a customer when they're talking to AI, and you tell them when they're not." — Colin Shaw

Key Takeaways:

• Why one bad AI moment can poison trust in your entire brand — the halo effect.

• "Enshittification": how AI deployed to cut costs quietly makes the experience worse.

• The transparency line every company will soon have to draw — tell people when it's AI.

• The real danger of AI slop isn't bad content — it's "voluminous mediocrity."

Why You Should Listen:

"Should we use AI?" is the wrong question. This episode gives you the right ones — where AI genuinely serves your customer, and where it quietly erodes trust — plus a way to think about it that protects your brand instead of gambling with it. Fifteen minutes now could save you a very public, very expensive mistake.

Resources Mentioned

Data Center Watch — local opposition blocked or delayed $98B of US data-center projects in Q2 2025: https://www.datacenterwatch.org/q22025

eMarketer — visible AI in marketing is four times more likely to cost brands trust than build it (Klaviyo & Datalily study): https://www.emarketer.com/content/visible-ai-marketing-four-times-more-likely-cost-brands-trust-than-build

Emplifi — more than half of consumers would stop buying after an inauthentic experience: https://emplifi.io/press/emplifi-survey-digital-authenticity-ai-report/

Cory Doctorow — the writer who coined "enshittification": https://pluralistic.net/

Ryan Hamilton, The Growth Dilemma (Harvard Business Press): https://store.hbr.org/product/the-growth-dilemma

Duolingo's "AI-first" backlash — Fortune: https://fortune.com/2025/06/09/duolingo-ceo-surprised-backlash-ai-first-company-announcement/

About the Hosts:

Colin Shaw is a LinkedIn 'Top Voice' with a massive 286,000 followers and 89,000 subscribers to his 'Why Customers Buy' newsletter. Shaw is named one of the world's 'Top 150 Business Influencers' by LinkedIn. His company, Beyond Philosophy LLC, has been selected four times by the Financial Times as a top management consultanc