How AI is Reshaping Personalized Marketing

Chad Syverson, the George C. Tiao Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, explored AI’s potential impact on productivity growth amid a decades-long slowdown.

US productivity has declined by 1.2 percent annually since 2004 compared with the 1995–2004 period. This might seem like a minor difference, but Syverson noted that it compounds dramatically over time, resulting in approximately $21,500 of lost potential output per person every year.

This productivity slowdown isn’t isolated to America, Syverson added—it’s a global phenomenon affecting mature and emerging economies alike, with growth rates peaking in the early to mid-2000s before steadily declining.

Regarding AI’s potential to reverse this trend, Syverson cautioned against expecting overnight transformation. While he said AI may be “the most important technology in the century to this point,” he pointed out that its economic impacts will likely vary dramatically across sectors and unfold gradually.

He highlighted the “productivity J-curve” phenomenon, where new technologies’ benefits aren’t immediately visible in statistics. Companies investing in complementary capabilities—worker training, operational reorganization—record these as costs rather than investments, temporarily depressing measured productivity. 

“Even if the technology is having a big effect right now, it might not be showing up in the numbers,” Syverson said. “You’re building intangible capital. If you’re retraining your workers now to work with AI, that is not being put on the books as capital investment.”

Amy Carr, MBA ’04, chief marketing and digital officer at Thirdlove, an intimate apparel brand, shared insights into how her company is harnessing AI to transform its online presence. “I’d say this is our new frontier,” Carr said. “How do I create a personalized shopping experience in a digital world?” 

Thirdlove’s AI strategy aims to tackle a fundamental disparity between physical and digital shopping. In-store shopping tends to be fluid and conversational, creating what Carr called a “circular experience” involving personal interaction between customers and staff. On the other hand, e-commerce sites have much more linear, impersonal pathways—you see a banner ad, you go to the website, you pick your product, you check out. 

With the use of cookies being increasingly limited, Carr highlights the power of “zero-party data,” which is data that the customer voluntarily shares about their shopping preferences, purchase intent, personal context, and so on. Thirdlove is enhancing their site to capture this data. “You’re going to see questions pop up,” she said. “That’s us trying to re-sort the site, behind the scenes, based on what you answer.”

Carr identified two shifts poised to disrupt e-commerce. First, as consumers increasingly use AI chatbots over traditional search engines, companies will need to adjust their search optimization strategies. A second concern is the advent of AI shopping agents. Carr predicts that soon we will be able to give our smart-home devices our credit card information and ask them to do our shopping for us. 

“Today, if a bot hits my site, I want to call it fraud and shut it down,” Carr said. “In the future, I have to be ready to accept these bots that come on to shop for people, and they may or may not be real. That keeps me up at night.”

A excerpt of this story focused on Andy Narayanan appeared in the Fall 2025 print issue of Chicago Booth Magazine.