Dive Brief
- Nearly 40% of leaders reported experiencing unintended customer experience (CX) problems due to AI-driven decision-making, according to a recent TheyDo survey involving 1,000 business decision-makers.
- Among those facing CX challenges, about half noted an increase in customer complaints or support queries, while nearly half experienced confusing or inconsistent customer interactions.
- The research indicates that while AI can facilitate quicker decision-making, it may rely on conflicting data from various systems. “A customer journey crosses far more boundaries than any single dashboard, system, or department can see,” said Jochem van der Veer, co-founder and CEO at TheyDo.
Dive Insight
As customer journey data is dispersed across multiple back-end systems, making decisions based on isolated data points can inadvertently create friction in the customer experience. According to Julie Geller, principal research director at Info-Tech Research Group, “If the underlying data is incomplete, outdated, or biased, the recommendation will be, too.”
The study emphasizes the importance of context in aggregating these discrete data points. AI tools can provide useful insights, provided that their integrations are seamlessly linked to current and accurate data systems. However, it’s not sufficient to rely solely on AI-generated CX suggestions. Leaders are 3.5 times more likely to trust AI outputs when they can visualize the customer journey behind its recommendations.
Geller noted, “The real value is not having AI make the decision, but in helping leaders see what is happening sooner, understand the reasons, and decide where interventions will have the greatest impact.” The survey also revealed that nearly one-third of CX issues first become apparent during customer service interactions. “Service teams often recognize the repercussions of upstream decisions ahead of the broader organization,” van der Veer pointed out. These insights should inform the decision-making processes of product, marketing, and operations teams.
Despite the advantages of AI, its insights into customer feedback and behavior shouldn’t substitute the direct engagement of CX leaders who actively listen to and observe customers. Jon Picoult, founder and principal of Watermark Consulting, commented, “AI engines aren’t perfect at distilling key themes from all the data, and a skilled CX practitioner can delve deeper into customer motivations through qualitative research.”
