The AI bandwagon is speeding through town, so do you get on board or let it blow past you?
To find out, we asked 351 people who have previously ordered customized products how they would feel about using AI for that ordering process. We specifically asked about generative AI: AI that creates images or copy in response to prompts, including ChatGPT, DALL-E, Copilot, Gemini, and Grok.
We learned that on the whole, people are cautious about using AI to order promo products – even for tasks they think it’s good at. Oh, and who do you think they blame for AI mistakes getting onto their finished purchases? Here’s a clue: It’s not the bot.
Customers Are Sort-Of Interested in Using Generative AI for Logos
The asset our respondents would most like to use AI for when ordering their promos was logos.
People are open to using AI to order promo products, if not exactly wildly enthusiastic.
When we gave them a list of assets they could hypothetically generate using AI, the most popular answer, chosen by 42.45% of respondents, was logo placement. That was followed by logo color with 39.32%, and design creation with 37.04%. Only 9.69% said none of the above, although three of the four write-ins also amounted to this. This all suggests that the majority of people see a use for AI in ordering promos, and there’s particular interest in using AI to create, color, and position logos on products – but that interest comes from less than half of all our respondents.
We were surprised by this lukewarm response to AI-generated logos, because it clashes with the results we got from another question. In that one, 72.65% said that AI is as good or better than people at creating logos – yet we’ve just seen that only 37.04% would be happy to use an AI-generated design on promo products. And it’s not just about promo products! From another question, we learned that only 41.31% would use AI to make logos for their business.
TL;DR: Promo customers are open to using AI to place, color, and create logos. However, demand isn’t high – and while most people say AI logos are at least as good as those made by people, the number who would actually use AI logos for their business or promo products is much lower.
Don’t Subject Your Customers to AI Customer Service
We got a clearer response when we asked people about the aspect of ordering promo products they definitely don’t want handled by AI: customer service.
If you’ve ever had the misfortune of calling an airline, internet service provider, or government agency, you can understand why customer service by AI is not generally popular with your human customers. This held true in our survey: Given the choice of human or AI customer service agents, 73.22% of our respondents said they would always prefer a human.
However, that doesn’t mean AI can’t have any role in customer service. On top of the 18.80% who said they would always prefer AI customer service, 7.98% said it depends on the circumstances. Most of these “it depends” people said that they would prefer simple FAQs to be handled by AI, and human support for complex questions. That combines to make 26.78% – close to the 27.92% of people who said that they would trust AI to answer questions when ordering promos.
TL;DR: Almost ¾ of people always want to talk to a human for customer service, but the remaining ¼ would be happy to have at least straightforward questions answered by AI.
When AI Makes a Mistake, It Doesn’t Take the Blame
You can’t spell “mistAIke” without AI. You’ve probably seen the awkward errors AI makes: bad medical advice, inedible recipes, and loose interpretations of what human hands look like. But if they make their way from AI’s machine brain onto a promo, guess who takes the blame?
That’s right, it’s the promo company! At least as far as the majority of our respondents are concerned. People may not be totally on board with using AI over human talent, but they’re also less likely to blame it for mistakes.
Over half (51%) said that a mistake made by an AI that gets printed is the printer’s responsibility. Insert side-eye emoji. Another 31.62% said it’s the responsibility of the person who ordered the products.
Only 17.38% would fault the AI. That correlates closely with the 17.09% of respondents who rated their comfort level with AI extremely low, 0 to 3 out of 10. Since I’m not an AI, I know that correlation is not causation and these could be different people. However, it could also be a core anti-AI group.
However we feel about these answers, it’s a good reminder that if your customers are using AI to generate content for their promo products, and even if that AI content is nonsense, they’ll still blame you if you print a design that turns out to contain an error. So make sure they have the proofs checked and approved by a person!
TL;DR: While most people are hesitant to use AI-generated logos, most also don’t blame AI for any mistakes that end up printed: Over half would blame the printer! So don’t leave your proof approvals process up to AI.
Conclusion: Customers Still Prefer People to AI When Ordering Promos
AI developers will proudly tell you the AI revolution is here, but promo customers aren’t so sure.
Around 90% of our respondents see generative AI playing some role in ordering promo products, but they can’t agree what. Most don’t want it in customer service, although some see certain scenarios where it could be helpful. Nearly ¾ think it can create logos equivalent to or better than those made by humans – but wouldn’t use AI-generated logos for their business or promo products. And if you do print the AI-generated error your client sent you, the majority of customers think it’s your fault!
The feelings are as confused as an AI trying to understand where on the human body the arms are supposed to go. (One from the neck, one from the stomach, and a third coming out of the left kidney just to be safe.) Right now, most promo customers have some curiosity about AI, but when it comes to placing an order, they’d prefer to stick with what they know.
Natasha Lavender
Natasha is an experienced writer and editor who has covered topics including technology, health and safety, business, and pop culture. Her work has been published by Good Housekeeping magazine, Forbes, Success, and more.
