Once a signifier of luxury or novelty, custom products and services are now within reach of the everyday consumer, thanks to the rise of artificial intelligence, algorithm-led platforms, and the COVID-era digitisation boom. Today, everyone wants to be the main character of their brand experience.

The mainstreaming of AI is setting a new precedent for how people relate to non-human sources of intelligence. While automation on a consumer level has typically focused on specific tasks like replying to emails or budgeting, it’s now swiftly expanding to a more dynamic range of applications.

Ad-free search engine Neeva has launched a ChatGPT-like AI feature that answers users' questions with conversational text rather than lists of links. With people wanting more personalised experiences, the feature could represent a major paradigm shift in how we use the internet.

After rocketing into mainstream online discourse, OpenAI is poised to become the next major tech player with ChatGPT Professional. The popularity of ChatGPT signals that people are hungry for tech innovation they can relate to, but whether their trust in Big Tech will increase remains to be seen.

For book publishers and authors, marketing is a crucial step in reaching new audiences – but the way people discover titles remains something of an enigma. Tertulia is looking to tackle this problem with an AI-led approach that aims to better serve readers' needs with personalised recommendations.

What will be the impact of lateral communication? Is influencer culture dead as we know it? What does brand empathy mean to people? In this part of the 2023 Expert Outlook, we speak to three experts about how the search for control and connection is shaping the Communications sector.