Although AI--generative, agentic and everything in between--is viewed as a tool that can improve customer experience there is the risk that enterprises may rely too much on the technologies.
At Constellation Research's Ambient Experience Summit 2025, we held a workshop on ways to think different about experiences and address one key challenge. Over-reliance on AI was a big theme as was disjointed customer journeys.
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One group noted that CX can be harmed by overreliance on AI. AI can only be so personal and the big workflow issue is figuring out where to insert a human into processes. To date, AI is viewed as a productivity enhancement that can add digital labor and in many cases replace humans.
Yes, CX leaders need to implement AI, but have no control about how it's deployed. In addition, the models can be experimental and simply off the mark. AI isn't a human replacement and it's a big reason why we're hitting #0 every time we call customer service.
Constellation Research analyst Liz Miller noted:
"Let's be honest, if we keep training AI on the nonsense that it's been trained on so far, it is going to get even worse. I do not want my customer experience to be over reliant on AI, because it can be unreliable, lacks human touch, and it is experimental, but it can help when it's deployed."
A few takeaways from the workshop:
- CX leaders need to think through AI's deficiencies and know the problems they're trying to solve. Is the issue cost efficiency? Is it growth? Is it boosting the lifetime value of the customer relationship?
- CX leaders need to think through the customer journey and where AI can help. Why are journeys mapped the way they are? It's quite possible that AI and workflow automation may make the customer journey even more disjointed.
- AI is going to occupy a larger chunk of the customer experience, but don’t go crazy. Humans will have to find the balance needed to blend AI with real-life touchpoints.
One company worth watching on this AI-CX front is Intuit. Speaking on Intuit's fiscal second quarter earnings conference call, CEO Sasan Goodarzi talked about how it was blending AI and humans to create experiences with Intuit Assist.
"We are making strong progress across our platform with our data and AI investments to deliver done-for-you experiences with AI-powered human expertise,” said Goodarzi. “Our focus is on automating tasks, end-to-end workflows, and entire functions, connecting customers to one of our more than 12,000 AI-powered human experts for that last mile or to complete all of the work."
Goodarzi said Intuit is seeing higher conversions across its product line with personalized product experiences. "With the scale of our data and AI capabilities, Intuit Assist is the control tower automating tasks and workflows, with human experts engaging where needed to deliver done-for-you experiences for our customers," said Goodarzi.
Intuit also highlights one of the key takeaways from our CX summit: Data quality is everything. Intuit has invested heavily in its cloud-based data architecture that set the stage for AI.
