I know what you’re thinking; what the hell is “Hyper-Personalization?” The literal definition is “…a form of marketing that uses artificial intelligence (AI) in conjunction with real-time data to create products, services, or content that is customer-specific and highly granular.” My personal definition is: curated, highly-customized marketing specifically constructed by Generative AI to make the consumer [you] feel stupid for not clicking on what is being promoted. Essentially, Hyper-Personalization represents the next evolution in personalized marketing, offering advanced strategies for organizations to anticipate your needs and preferences. Comedian Ronny Chieng humorously visualizes this future here. But it begs the question, how far will this personalization go? Will we reach a point where algorithms dictate our behavior, leading to a society where actions are governed by computers rather than individual thought?

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking recently on how to use Generative AI to start a business and some of the ideas I’ve had so far include, but are not limited to:

• A crappy Generative AI blog that uses new technology to help me proofread content and increase SEO optimization
• A customized healthcare chatbot built on open source LLMs to provide hyper-personalized recommendations on how to optimize health based on inputted parameters (age, gender, conditions, etc.)
• An AI model trained on historical health data from around the world to provide real-time recommendations on how to optimize health based on inputted genetic data (from 23andMe, Ancestry.com, etc.)
• A Youtube automation business where LLMs write short form scripts, I upload those scripts to online plagiarism checker tools to confirm authenticity, I upload those verified scripts to text-to-video generators, and I post that content on platforms like Youtube Shorts, TikTok, Instagram Reels, etc.

As I was brainstorming these ideas, I came across the concept of “hyper-personalization” and realized that the majority of my business ideas centered around this topic; providing incredibly personalized information to individuals with distinct backgrounds. Without AI and Generative AI, I would not be able to provide these hyper-focused and specific solutions. This led me to question when personalization transitioned from a human touch to machine-driven. It appears that as hyper-personalization expands with Generative AI, the human aspects of subjectivity, emotion, and error diminish. In essence, we’re on a trajectory towards a future where the “individual” merges with an algorithmic prediction of “individual behavior”. We risk becoming mere data points in a vast system.

I write this point not to scare you, but to awaken you to the reality that is taking place under the surface. Data has been likened to the new oil for some time now, with companies and organizations exploiting it to manipulate consumers into purchasing frivolous and, frankly, stupid shit. This data will fuel hyper-personalized campaigns aimed at individuals, unlike the group targeting strategies of today. Soon enough, we won’t even know why we are acting the way we are; we just will be. So the next time you see an ad pop up on your Instagram or Facebook feed that seems a little bit like your computer or smartphone was listening to you talk about Crocs with your friend the other day, think about what the future of personalization holds and what part you play in it.