What Luxury Brands Can Teach Us About Human-Centred AI and Customer Experience

Janine Dormiendo
Sep 11
3 min read

Luxury brands do more than impress—they create experiences that feel thoughtful, personal, and human. Their approach offers clear lessons for AI-powered customer experience (CX), particularly when it comes to applying technology in ways that preserve empathy and trust.

This is digital humanism in practice: using human-centred AI to serve people, not the other way around.

1. Farfetch: AI That Understands Taste

Farfetch uses AI not just to recommend, but to refine. Its machine learning models quietly adjust what each customer sees—based on clicks, scrolls, and even what’s ignored. The result? A homepage that feels styled, not sold.

Farfetch’s Second Life programme lets customers trade in designer bags for store credit. Behind this is Luxclusif, a tech platform using automated pricing and authentication to assess condition and value—quickly and consistently.

What could feel transactional is turned into a seamless, trusted exchange.

Human-Centred AI Insight: AI helps Farfetch streamline resale without compromising care. Automation here doesn’t replace judgement—it supports it.

This is personalisation with restraint. Farfetch doesn’t push. It listens, adapts, and lets the customer lead.

2. Liberty London: Guided Discovery Over Algorithmic Targeting

Liberty’s site is designed less like a storefront and more like a publication. Through editorial edits, themed collections like The Liberty Edit, and visual layouts that feel more like moodboards than menus, it invites quiet exploration.

There’s no algorithmic overreach—just thoughtful curation that guides without pressure.

Human-Centred AI Insight:

Curation here replaces automation. Liberty proves relevance doesn’t need to feel algorithmic—it can feel like taste.

3. Fortnum & Mason: Designing with Ritual, Not Just Speed

Fortnum’s brings its in-store sense of occasion into its online journey. Even a hamper order becomes a small ceremony: customers can choose scheduled delivery, add a personalised message printed on signature stationery, and receive tracking updates with Fortnum’s unmistakable tone of voice.

This is logistics wrapped in care—a service experience that never feels rushed.

Human-Centred AI Insight: Ceremony can co-exist with convenience. When thoughtfully designed, even automated systems can express warmth.

4. Aman Resorts (London): Quiet Anticipation Through Context

Aman’s signature experience is defined by quiet luxury. Guests rarely need to ask for anything—because their preferences are already known. Behind this is a real-time engagement platform that unifies guest data across properties, enabling personalised service without repetition.

Working with Massive Rocket, Aman integrates tools like RudderStack, Snowflake, and Braze to combine CRM, marketing, and behavioural signals into a unified guest profile.

What kind of signals are captured:

Data from guest itineraries (booking patterns, property preferences)
Engagement behavior (abandoned cart—e.g. browsing wellness products)
Loyalty interactions (e.g. repeats, special offers redeemed)These feeds are streamed via tools like RudderStack into Snowflake and activated through Braze to automate journeys across email, SMS, app, and onsite touchpoints—with minimal manual effort.

Human-Centred AI Insight: Aman uses AI to remove friction, not insert itself. The technology disappears so that presence can take its place.

5. Ennismore: Intelligence Behind the Welcome

Ennismore uses AI to improve how its hotels listen, learn, and respond to guest needs—without compromising the warmth of the welcome.

Ennismore’s Use of AI in Context

Their AI-driven capabilities are well-documented:

Conversational AI (Quicktext): Ennismore uses Quicktext’s AI to power chat and messaging, enhancing CRM, enriching call centre responses, and personalising digital touchpoints throughout the guest journey.
AI-Powered Analytics (FLYR): By integrating FLYR Hospitality, Ennismore now leverages real-time, enterprise-level analytics for forecasting, pricing, and operational insights—all grounded in deep learning

A Simpler, More Human Future for CX

These brands don’t lead with novelty—they lead with intention. Their success isn’t about being the most advanced; it’s about using technology to enhance what people have always valued: care, relevance, and respect.

Human-centred AI asks us to design systems that elevate experience without overwhelming it. To scale service that still feels close. To keep the human in the loop—not as a fallback, but as the heart.

Quiet advantage: When AI carries emotional intelligence, not just logic, it becomes a force for dignity at scale.

A Framework to Go Deeper

The practices we’ve seen in these luxury brands aren’t one-offs. They reflect design choices that can be repeated, adapted, and scaled across industries.

That’s the thinking behind our AI-Powered Customer Experience Framework—a free, structured resource for organisations ready to align AI with real human needs.

Inside, you’ll find: – The five key pillars of AI-led CX strategy – Practical applications and best practices for each – A clear roadmap from early assessment to scaled implementation.

Whether you're just exploring AI or ready to optimise, this framework bridges the gap between vision and execution—with clarity, care, and calm.

Quiet power. Clearly structured.

Explore the framework →