Intelligence is the journey
The world is changing. It always changes. But change comes faster now than before. There is a new intelligence in our world, permeating every aspect of our lives, reshaping and intermediating how people discover, decide, and buy brands.
For car manufactures, the familiar, universal path from awareness to purchase is no more. The customer journey has both collapsed and atomized into an infinite number of complex and unpredictable journeys across brought, owned and earned media. A media ecosystem that is algorithmic, with interfaces that are increasingly adaptive, generative and agentic.
Yet, amid the AI and the agents, the end consumer remains us. People. Carbon-based, opposable-thumbed, social, irrational and emotional beings. Understanding our hardwired motivations (and how AI refracts them) will define how car brands earn more sales, more quickly, over the next five years.
The human in the loop
Even as AI companions learn our tastes, compare options, and navigate us toward purchase, our deep-rooted, immutable human instincts remain the same.
- We’re curious, drawn to novelty and discovery.
- We seek community, wanting to belong and signal identity through what we drive.
- We crave agency, the freedom to choose for ourselves.
- We pursue mastery, the satisfaction of understanding and control.
- And we search for meaning, aligning purchases with personal values and purpose.
AI will let brands meet these motivations with more relevant experiences across the journey, but ultimately it will be their ability to build emotional desire through community and culture that will influence purchase behavior.
Dreams don’t form in isolation
Every car journey begins long before a test drive. It starts with a dream. Where aspirations and identity converge. When people picture themselves behind the wheel, living a slightly better version of life. Dreams don’t form in isolation. They’re shaped by the people and communities around us - family, friends, colleagues, and digital tribes.
Culture provides the operating system for those communities, defining what’s admired, desirable, or acceptable. Media, traditions, values, and collective narratives determine and reinforce what is socially valued.
That’s why luxury SUVs thrive in some markets while minimalist electrics dominate in others. In Sweden, for example, the social code of Jantelagen (humility over excess) helps brands like Volvo and Polestar to thrive.
Car manufacturers have always known the value of cultural connection. Sub-brands like AMG, Type R and M-Sport don’t just sell performance; they sell belonging to an idea. Flagship models, celebrity partnerships and sponsorships of racing, fashion, or film all serve the same purpose: to embed the brand in culture and develop a shared value of the brand across a community.
Now, AI is transforming where and how those dreams are made.
Cultural relevance at the velocity of AI
Generative AI is already being used to create virtual brand ambassadors, produce limitless visual assets, and insert products into trending moments at lightning speed. Car brands can now “show up” at any culture moment — in sport, fashion, gaming, even fantasy worlds — instantly.
This new speed and agility to create and execute is powerful, but it also raises the stakes. When everyone can create quickly, where you appear, what you create and why become critical. Authenticity, trust and quality will matter more, not less. To stand out, to build brand desire, to build real cultural relevance, brand experiences will have to be expertly crafted, consistent and live beyond the algorithms in the unfiltered real world.
Companion AIs are becoming part of dream weaving, too, as they improve and learn what we like, such as aesthetic taste, brands we aspire to own. As we share more of our personal thoughts with them, they will know us as well as our friends and family and be able to shape which car brands we dream of owning. Increasingly, influencing the companion AIs will become as important as influencing people.
This is the first of our two-part series on changes in the car buying journey. You can find Part Two: A More Joyful Purchase Experience here.
