{
  "title": "AI on the job: simulating a customer is not the same as consulting one",
  "url": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/ia-on-the-job-simuler-un-client-ne-remplace-pas-le-consulter-en",
  "language": "en",
  "datePublished": "2026-04-20",
  "publisher": {
    "name": "SHR — Swiss Human Resources",
    "url": "https://www.shr.swiss",
    "address": "Esplanade de Pont-Rouge 9A, 1212 Lancy, Suisse"
  },
  "summary": "Asking AI to play the customer can help prepare a conversation. It does not establish what that customer actually wants.",
  "section": "Research",
  "topic": "AI on the Job",
  "place": {
    "name": "Zurich",
    "region": "Zurich",
    "country": "CH"
  },
  "keyPoints": [
    {
      "heading": "What the literature establishes",
      "point": "Nicholas Epley, Boaz Keysar, Leaf Van Boven and Thomas Gilovich (2004, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology) show that understanding another person’s perspective can involve anchoring on one’s own perspective and then adjusting insufficiently."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Getting a perspective rather than imagining it",
      "point": "Tal Eyal, Mary Steffel and Nicholas Epley (2018, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology) distinguish the effort to imagine another person’s perspective from gaining access to it through conversation."
    },
    {
      "heading": "The premature conclusion",
      "point": "It would be excessive to conclude that simulating a customer with AI is useless."
    },
    {
      "heading": "What the evidence does not establish",
      "point": "These studies concern human judgment, not generative models’ ability to represent Zurich customers."
    },
    {
      "heading": "A practical check in Zurich",
      "point": "For a financial offering, an insurance customer journey, a tech service or a project led by a European headquarters in Zurich, record before the interviews the expectations AI attributes to customers and the decisions they might influence."
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "authors": "Gilovich",
      "year": "2004",
      "source": "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology"
    },
    {
      "authors": "Epley",
      "year": "2018",
      "source": "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology"
    }
  ],
  "wordCount": 420,
  "image": "https://www.shr.swiss/img/blog-editorial-2026-04-20-en.jpg?v=4",
  "translations": {
    "fr": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/ia-on-the-job-simuler-un-client-ne-remplace-pas-le-consulter",
    "en": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/ia-on-the-job-simuler-un-client-ne-remplace-pas-le-consulter-en",
    "de": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/ia-on-the-job-simuler-un-client-ne-remplace-pas-le-consulter-de",
    "it": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/ia-on-the-job-simuler-un-client-ne-remplace-pas-le-consulter-it"
  },
  "relatedPages": {
    "programme": "https://www.shr.swiss/formation/ia-on-the-job/zurich",
    "city": "https://www.shr.swiss/formations-ville/zurich",
    "blog": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog"
  },
  "citationPolicy": "Citation autorisée avec mention « SHR — Swiss Human Resources » et lien vers l'article."
}