A perspective from UnitEINS Dialog: what the new term changes, what it doesn't, and what really matters in customer dialogue now.

The short answer first

Whether you call it artificial intelligence or superintelligence, machines are writing, sorting and personalising communication faster than ever. That doesn't make direct marketing obsolete. It makes the difference between mass messaging and genuine dialogue more visible than ever before. Those who truly understand their customers will win. Those who simply produce more messages will be drowned out.

What's happening

In late September 2026, President Donald Trump proposed at the UN General Assembly that artificial intelligence should be called "superintelligence" from now on. The reaction was immediate: Slovenia's country domain .si became the trending domain overnight, with registrations rising from around 3,500 to more than 200,000 within days.

Whether the term will stick remains to be seen. What is certain is that the AI debate has reached a new level, and it affects every company that communicates with its customers.

Why this matters for customer dialogue

1. When everyone communicates with AI, communication becomes interchangeable

AI systems can generate letters, emails and ads in seconds, for anyone, at any time. The result is more communication, not better communication. And people's attention doesn't grow with it. The more messages sound alike, the more anything that doesn't sound machine-made stands out.

2. Trust can't be automated

Insurers, energy providers and telecoms companies sell products where trust drives the buying decision. A message can be perfectly personalised from a technical point of view and still feel cold. Trust is built when a company shows that it has understood the person on the other side. That isn't computing power. It's attitude.

3. The physical gains weight

The more digital and automated everyday life becomes, the more people notice what they can hold in their hands. A well-crafted mailing doesn't end up in a spam folder, doesn't get swiped away and isn't pre-sorted by an algorithm. It sits on the kitchen table. In the age of superintelligence, the letterbox becomes the channel with the highest attention per contact.

4. AI is the tool, not the sender

We use AI ourselves: for analysis, variants, testing and production. It makes campaigns faster and more precise. But it doesn't answer the decisive questions on its own: Who do we want to reach? What matters to these people right now? Which tone fits this brand? That remains the job of people with experience.

What this means in practice

• Fewer, but more relevant. 

Instead of producing more contacts, it pays to find the right occasion and the right way to address people.

• AI in the process, people in the message.

Automation where it saves time. A personal touch where it convinces.

• Connect channels instead of replacing them.

A mailing with a QR code, a landing page, a phone call: the dialogue runs through several channels, but with one voice.

• Test instead of believe.

Test variants against the existing solution quickly show whether an idea works, AI-assisted or not.

UnitEINS Dialog develops direct and dialogue marketing campaigns, drawing on more than 30 years of experience in direct customer dialogue, for insurance, energy, telecommunications and other industries. Want to know what your customer dialogue could look like in the age of superintelligence? Get in touch: +49 2853 730-8888 or kontakt@uniteins.de (By the way: if you arrived here via directmarketing.si, you've just experienced the trend yourself;)