To lead in the AI era, you have to keep moving. Expectations for customer experience are evolving at breakneck pace. And all that early excitement about AI’s transformational benefits, from hyper-personalisation to seamless interactions? Many of those first-movers have struggled to translate the technology’s potential into truly satisfying experiences.

Consumers have noticed and are frustrated by the gap between the promise of AI, and the reality. With AI setting a new bar for speed and personalisation, people expect experiences to have intelligence built in. But our research indicates the majority of consumers are dissatisfied with the current state of customer experience.

It’s not difficult to see why. When AI first emerged in customer experience, it was limited to automating simple tasks and often fell short of inflated expectations. But the landscape is shifting. Agentic AI – capable of reasoning and making decisions without human intervention – is changing the game. According to 87% of CX leaders, this kind of AI can now dramatically improve the quality of each customer interaction.