How AI can help you build trust

There’s been so much talk about AI in sales, marketing, and customer success. It’s time to get serious. Time to move beyond ideas and sharing prompts. We need real tools and real integration with our products, data, and the platforms we use to do our jobs.

And most importantly, we need to understand where the line is between what AI can actually do to build (and maintain) buyer trust, and where we still need humans in the loop. Not only today but six, twelve, twenty-four months from now.

Let’s dive in…

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Everyone's talking about AI in customer success, but I don't see anyone talking about this…

Yes, agents and chatbots will impact customer support, and generative AI makes common issues simpler to resolve and repetitive tasks less expensive to complete.

But many customer success motions, e.g., account management, consultations services, and adoption assurance, may be slower to follow because they rely on relationships. Especially with high-end commercial and enterprise accounts.

Why is this? Because relationships are still built on trust. One of the first books given to me as a professional was The Trusted Advisor by David Maister. In it, he defines trust as a combination of four discrete elements:

• Credibility

• Reliability

• Intimacy

• Self-orientation

These elements interact in a mathematical way (don't worry… basic math) to form the basis of a trust relationship. Here’s Maister’s Trust Equation:

At least for now, trust is still largely built by and between humans.

But we humans can benefit from assistance. And while artificial intelligence may never completely replace the human elements of trust, it can—and already is—enhancing our capacity to build it.

Let's break down each element of Maister’s trust equation and where AI fits in…

Credibility — All about words. Credibility is earned when what you say is accurate, clear, and valuable. How do you build it? Speak plainly, avoid hype, admit when you don’t know, and be genuinely knowledgable and helpful.

Where AI helps: A co-pilot can offer data and insights on-demand, making it easy to share accurate information quickly.

This is, perhaps, where AI can make the biggest impact now. Customer-facing teams need deep knowledge about the product, related business processes, and industry that customers operate within.

AI co-pilots can deliver these insights in real-time during conversations and in written conversations. You already see AI co-pilots popping up in Zoom meetings and your email client to offer this type of support.

Reliability — All about action. Reliability is follow-through. You earn it by being consistent, meeting deadlines, and sticking to your word. Showing up consistently and doing what you say you’re going to do matters more than making big promises.

Where AI helps: AI agents can complete actions on your behalf. Do a job.

Automate reminders, tasks, and follow-ups, freeing you up to focus on building rapport and strategic account planning. Eventually, every product will behave as a service or an employee. We tell it what we want done and it will report back to us when the task is complete or ready for validation.

Intimacy — All about emotions. Intimacy is connection. It’s listening and making a customer feel understood. This comes from empathy, candor, and asking deeper questions that show you understand and care about their outcome.

Where AI helps: AI can free you up from administrative tasks, giving you more time for real engagement and conversation.

It can also suggest the next best questions to ask to probe deeper. One of my favorite ways to end a ChatGPT prompt is “Before you respond, what additional questions can I answer for you to best respond?” AI is excellent at this, but only humans bring the empathetic engagement that true intimacy requires.

Self-Orientation — All about motives. Self-orientation is where motives show through. It’s obvious when someone is “selling” instead of listening. Low self-orientation means putting the customer’s needs first, staying curious, and letting them talk.

Where AI helps: AI obviously cannot solve this completely. But it can bring customer insights, so you ask better questions and focus on what’s relevant to the customer. It’s up to you to steer the conversation and avoid talking over the customer. A co-pilot "coach" comes to mind for me here.

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The result of these elements? Smoother, more efficient customer interactions without sacrificing the central element of business: trust.

Are you using AI co-pilots and agents to improve the trust you’re building with prospects and customers today? If so, hit “reply” and let me know what tools you’re using and how you’ve implemented them?

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