[safety1st]

We launched an AI feature and there was immediate blowback in the form of negative feedback.

We then rebranded it as "Advanced Search," kept the sparkle icon and everything, literally just a find-and-replace of instances of "AI" with "Advanced," pretty much.

The negative feedback stopped. The very next day someone wrote in and said it was an incredible feature.

Branding is wild. The modern media environment is wild. I'm not saying anyone is right or wrong to hate on AI. But when you use the term at least with some people it activates the "Those bastards are coming for my job" light in their brain, even if the discussion in question has zero bearing on their job. There's polling on this and job security is far and away the populace's biggest concern related to AI.

[devsda]

Is it possible that the team collecting the feedback is reporting specific feedback for 'AI' terminology ?

Renaming customer service team to customer success team and claiming customer service issues reduced is like corporate/leadership strategy 101.

[wavemode]

> But when you use the term at least with some people it activates the "Those bastards are coming for my job" light in their brain

I think even this view is missing the point.

My opinion is that most people are overcomplicating this whole issue. When people react negatively to the term "AI", it's simply because the vast majority of features branded "AI" in the vast majority of products, are pure garbage. Searching for some deeper cultural or psychological reason is a waste of time - let's just stop pushing garbage AI products, then maybe someday people's perception of the term will change.

Until then, just leave that word out of the marketing material. Nobody really cares how the product is implemented, just focus on what it does.

[dominotw]

every shitty feature has someone "writing in to tell you how "incredible" it is. Its not a proof that you think it is.

dont let that fool you into thinking "users were too stupid to undestand our awesome feature so we had to dumb it down for them"

[harimau777]

That sounds a lot like trying to deceive your users.