What’s Next for Customer Experience in 2025?

What’s one major CX trend you predict will shape the industry in 2025? 

“I share this trend every year. Customers continue to be smarter about CX than ever and no longer compare you to your direct competitors, but to the best experiences they have with any brand they do business with. These rockstar companies set a new expectation you must meet.” 

What should CX leaders stop doing in 2025 to stay competitive? 

“Eliminate friction. The easiest company to do business with wins the customer.” 

What’s one common CX myth you think will be debunked by 2025? 

“AI is not the ultimate answer to a great customer experience. It will take the combination of AI and human-to-human interaction to create the best CX.” 

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to organizations trying to balance digital transformation with maintaining a human touch in their CX? 

“To start, give customers a choice: digital or live support. And if they go digital first and can’t get what they want, make it super-easy for them to connect to a live agent.” 

What’s one underrated CX technology that will be essential in 2025? 

“Using AI for employee support, which helps them give better customer support. AI is not just for the digital CX. Use it to create a better Employee Experience.” 

BONUS: What’s one buzzword in CX that you think will disappear by 2025? 

“Omnichannel – or at least I hope it disappears. It’s outdated and needs to be updated to reflect a better CX.” 

What’s one major CX trend you predict will shape the industry in 2025? 

“Business customers will accelerate investment in upskilling agents to boost EX and CX in 2025.” 

What should CX leaders stop doing in 2025 to stay competitive? 

“CX leaders should stop downplaying the importance of getting user buy-in before investing in new technology. For successful adoption in-house and an improved CX, both customers and employees must be comfortable with the technology and tools being used.” 

What’s one common CX myth you think will be debunked by 2025? 

“That AI will replace human agents. AI will augment human agents.” 

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to organizations trying to balance digital transformation with maintaining a human touch in their CX? 

“Focus on augmenting human agents in contact centers with technology rather than replacing them.  
 
When choosing technology, prioritize key factors like customer care, security, and reliability.  
 
Additionally, invest in effective change management to engage employees and support technology adoption during times of disruption.” 

What’s one underrated CX technology that will be essential in 2025? 

“Knowledge Management: It is not exactly underrated but it will be bigger than what it is in 2025. Vendors are likely to boost R&D investment in knowledge management for contact centers in 2025.” 

BONUS: What’s one buzzword in CX that you think will disappear by 2025? 

“The word bot(s) will be replaced by AI-based intelligent virtual agents.” 

What’s one major CX trend you predict will shape the industry in 2025? 

“Human-centered AI, where AI is used not just to automate and drop money to the bottom line, but used to service up insights to support team members and delight customers. I see generative AI with conversational context and tonal analysis as pretty critical here.” 

What should CX leaders stop doing in 2025 to stay competitive? 

“Stop seeing CX as a team. CX isn’t a team. It’s a mindset, it’s a discipline, and needs to permeate throughout the whole organization. We need to move past it being either the customer service or call center team.”  

What’s one common CX myth you think will be debunked by 2025? 

“Cost cutting doesn’t impact your customers. Too often CX is seen as disconnected from the kind of ability to maintain profitability. I think certain organizations are going to realize they cut too deep, went after shareholder value too much, and laid off critical value. Customers walking away are going to tell them they cut too far.” 

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to organizations trying to balance digital transformation with maintaining a human touch in their CX? 

“Simply put, if it’s not connected to the human touch, don’t do it. Digital transformation just for the sake of digital transformation or automation or benefiting the bottom line that isn’t connected to human experience isn’t worth going after.” 

What’s one underrated CX technology that will be essential in 2025? 

“Gamification. Hopefully, it’ll be rebranded and repositioned so that it doesn’t sound like frontline team members just playing candy crush all day, but the psychology of good mechanics, good game theory, are important parts of any human centered AI journey we need to go on in 2025.” 

BONUS: What’s one buzzword in CX that you think will disappear by 2025? 

“It’s a phrase, not a word, but single pane of glass. I’m so tired of hearing it. Can we move on from trying to unify everything into one place?” 

What’s one major CX trend you predict will shape the industry in 2025? 

“The future? Goodness, there’s so much, but I really believe 2025 is the year of community. We’re not just taking tickets anymore—folks we’re drawing people in, getting proactive, and co-creating with customers. Community will become a normal service channel, with customer service workers facilitating and adding value.” 

What should CX leaders stop doing in 2025 to stay competitive? 

“We need to stop building up our CX programs. Instead, make every leader a “CX leader,” driving toward an atmosphere of customer centricity. We can’t keep trying to build up CX for the sake of CX. Focus on delivering the brand promise consistently, even without explicitly calling it CX.” 

What’s one common CX myth you think will be debunked by 2025? 

“That surveys are dead. A well-timed, good UX survey still has its place. By adding new feedback mechanisms, we can iterate, grow, and paint a clearer picture of customer truth without discarding traditional methods.” 

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to organizations trying to balance digital transformation with maintaining a human touch in their CX? 

“The goal is faster, more effective resolutions. The digital wall is better now—way better—but it shouldn’t hide our people. While self-service works, sometimes customers seek creative, community-driven conversations, and those connections must remain accessible.” 

What’s one underrated CX technology that will be essential in 2025? 

“Knowledge management. So much is trapped in little data silos, and most organizations still have over 400 tools in their digital ecosystem. That’s a lot of trapped information. But when you have good knowledge management, it opens possibilities to do all kinds of amazing things.” 

BONUS: What’s one buzzword in CX that you think will disappear by 2025? 

“Journey mapping – 95% of the time when we go through a journey mapping exercise, it ends up in the trash. We need a fresh approach that visualizes the customer’s reality, moving away from rigid templates that simply don’t work. It’s time to rethink the process entirely.” 

What’s one major CX trend you predict will shape the industry in 2025?  

“AI-driven personalization will be pivotal in CX. By using data insights, brands can craft real-time, individualized experiences, turning customer interactions into seamless journeys.” 

What should CX leaders stop doing in 2025 to stay competitive?  

“CX leaders need to move beyond traditional metrics and general trends that don’t capture the full picture of each customer’s journey.” 

What’s one common CX myth you think will be debunked by 2025?  

“The myth that technology/AI is a quickly implemented CX superpower. Companies will realize that we can’t harness a lot of these gains without quality data that is clean and well-organized.” 

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to organizations trying to balance digital transformation with maintaining a human touch in their CX?  

“CX leaders should use digital transformation to enhance the human experience, not diminish it. Technology should allow agents to focus on building genuine connections where it matters most, providing customers with fast solutions when needed, and a meaningful human touch when it counts.” 

What’s one underrated CX technology that will be essential in 2025?  

“Customer Journey Mapping. In 2025, understanding your customer journeys in detail will become an essential roadmap to identifying your “moments of truth” that should drive your technology improvement and investments.” 

BONUS: What’s one buzzword in CX that you think will disappear by 2025? 

“Hopefully, Omnichannel!—I think CX will become less about individual channels and more about creating a smooth, experience-centered journey for customers wherever they interact.” 

What’s one major CX trend you predict will shape the industry in 2025? 

“Without question, AI is going to continue to shape the industry in 2025.  The ability to use agent-assist or smarter chatbots is getting better and better.” 

What should CX leaders stop doing in 2025 to stay competitive? 

“Relying on customer systems that are approved on a corporate basis but do not serve the contact center experience well enough to be successful.” 

What’s one common CX myth you think will be debunked by 2025? 

“I’m not sure if this will happen but I hope it does. Blaming the “new hires” for the lack of performance in every metric.” 

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to organizations trying to balance digital transformation with maintaining a human touch in their CX? 

“I’d advise not to think of this as an either/or balancing act, but to look at it from the customer’s perspective and identify what your customers want and then give it to them. It may be 50/50, or your customers may want 80/20, and that’s fine.” 

What’s one underrated CX technology that will be essential in 2025? 

“As we migrate to AI-assisted technologies, one of the essential areas is predictive analytics to ensure proactivity instead of reactivity in customer experience.” 

BONUS: What’s one buzzword in CX that you think will disappear by 2025? 

“By 2025 the buzzword omnichannel may be on its’ last leg.  Customers want their issues resolved quickly and accurately and they would prefer not to need to contact us in multiple channels that we can see at one time.” 

What’s one major CX trend you predict will shape the industry in 2025? 

 “For 2025, the main trend I’m watching is ‘AI agents’—bots powered by AI that are becoming more autonomous. Unlike basic responses, these AI agents can handle end-to-end customer interactions, reducing the need for human intervention. Expect significant developments from vendors.” 

What should CX leaders stop doing in 2025 to stay competitive? 

“In 2025, CX leaders should stop talking about AI. Most of us, unless we’re data scientists, don’t really understand AI. Labelling everything as ‘AI’ implies premium value, allowing vendors to overcharge, fuelling false hopes that AI is a silver bullet. Instead, CX leaders should focus on the business problems and outcomes they aim to achieve.” 

What’s one common CX myth you think will be debunked by 2025? 

“A common myth, likely to play out in 2025, is that AI is a job killer. In reality, when used correctly, AI enhances the agent’s role rather than replacing it. That’s the goal we’re hoping to see, though only time will tell.” 

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to organizations trying to balance digital transformation with maintaining a human touch in their CX? 

“Prioritize good planning with a customer-centric strategy that values customer outcomes over traditional KPIs. Focusing solely on contact center performance risks losing the human touch. Digital transformation can improve CX while preserving connection—if approached thoughtfully.” 

What’s one underrated CX technology that will be essential in 2025? 
“In 2025, video will likely gain traction in contact centers. While AI dominates, video offers real-time, personal engagement that enhances human connection in CX. Improved tech and growing comfort among younger agents and customers make video an emerging, underrated trend for customer service.” 

BONUS: What’s one buzzword in CX that you think will disappear by 2025? 

 “The contact center itself. In 2025, AI will reshape contact centers, challenging the legacy view that customer service is contact-center-centric. Businesses must rethink CX beyond the contact center, recognizing it as one part of a broader customer experience involving sales, marketing, and other brand interactions.” 

What’s one major CX trend you predict will shape the industry in 2025? 

“The global gap in skilled call center agents is growing. As AI handles simpler tasks, demand for expertise in areas like insurance and healthcare rises, creating the biggest need—and the biggest shortage—in higher-skilled agents.” 

What should CX leaders stop doing in 2025 to stay competitive? 

“Stop talking about AI. It’s like talking about the internet being a thing. It’s here. The better focus is start thinking about how AI enhances the lives of your team. So stop talking about AI and start doing something about it.” 

What’s one common CX myth you think will be debunked by 2025? 

“That customer experiences can be scaled without the need for humans. In call center markets around the world the biggest gap is business intelligence for managers who have been promoted from agents to leaders and training those leaders to scale their knowledge across departments.” 

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to organizations trying to balance digital transformation with maintaining a human touch in their CX? 

“Organizations must adopt innovative approaches to learning and business intelligence. Traditional, lengthy training methods are no longer effective, and companies that fail to adapt will face challenges in 2025.” 

What’s one underrated CX technology that will be essential in 2025? 

“Microlearning. Connecting the dots between learning and business performance is going to be the single most important thing for any organization to do in 2025.” 

BONUS: What’s one buzzword in CX that you think will disappear by 2025? 

“The one buzzword that should go away in 2025 is AI. Instead, focus on the value: large language models for predictions, real-time feedback for spotting trends or customer care improvements. Stop saying AI and highlight the business impact of the technology.” 
 

What’s one major CX trend you predict will shape the industry in 2025? 

“AI and CX will drive hyper-personalization, using consumer data to segment customers, deliver key messages, and provide fast, accurate responses. Technologies like chatbots and predictive analytics will close the gap between brands and consumers.” 

What should CX leaders stop doing in 2025 to stay competitive? 

“Move away from CX silos. Divided departments create fragmented customer experiences. For instance, product managers must know the complaints raised with customer support to deliver a unified experience.” 

What’s one common CX myth you think will be debunked by 2025? 

“Gen AI will replace human workers. People and AI both bring different expertise and skills to the table. While AI is fast and accurate, it lacks perception, emotion, and sensitivity. Both humans and AI bring unique strengths to CX.” 

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to organizations trying to balance digital transformation with maintaining a human touch in their CX? 

“Technology is an enabler, not a replacement. While automation can improve efficiency and scale operations, it’s the human element that creates deeper customer connections by adding warmth, empathy, and authenticity to interactions.” 

What’s one underrated CX technology that will be essential in 2025? 

“Many brands struggle to connect meaningfully with consumers, leading to lower NPS and missed opportunities. Traditional campaigns treat all customers as one group. Marketers are now using analytics and AI to anticipate needs, building trust and loyalty through personalized interactions that drive engagement and retention.” 

BONUS: What’s one buzzword in CX that you think will disappear by 2025? 

“Innovative – This term was once powerful but has been overused so often that it no longer has the same meaning. Consumers might look at this word, and they disregard it because it makes them feel ordinary rather than important. Replace the word ‘innovative,’ and say ‘New feature that saves you an additional xx% time.’” 

What’s one major CX trend you predict will shape the industry in 2025? 

“The blending of CX and EX will accelerate. The days of reducing friction for customers at the expense of employees are over. Indeed, because AI-enabled customer experiences often require AI usage by customer-facing employees, leaders will have to ensure a frictionless work experience to drive AI adoption and deliver value.” 

What should CX leaders stop doing in 2025 to stay competitive? 

“Stop assuming someone else will fix employee experience (EX).” 

What’s one common CX myth you think will be debunked by 2025? 

“Great CX is often said to be predicated on great EX, yet EX remains underleveraged to drive customer outcomes and business value. Role-specific, day-to-day moments aren’t yet holistically or systemically managed. There’s so much potential value to unlock if leaders recognize there’s still more to do.” 

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to organizations trying to balance digital transformation with maintaining a human touch in their CX? 

“Whatever ratio you choose, optimize it with the voice of your workers.  Employees often struggle to deliver the ‘human touch’ because something is getting in their way, that shouldn’t. The only way to know their needs is to ask.” 

What’s one underrated CX technology that will be essential in 2025? 

“Any technology that accelerates AI adoption for customer-facing teams.” 

BONUS: What’s one buzzword in CX that you think will disappear by 2025? 
“Big data may fade as the focus shifts from more data to the right data—essential for training models to enhance employee and customer experiences.” 

What’s one major CX trend you predict will shape the industry in 2025? 

“Gen AI will continue to be center stage, offering limitless possibilities to enhance digital experiences. AI will offer a more immersive and engaging technological gateway.”  

What should CX leaders stop doing in 2025 to stay competitive? 

“Rather than stopping, organizations should start focusing on making digital experiences more engaging.  We need to draw customers into digital experiences – attract them with a modern look and feel.” 

What’s one common CX myth you think will be debunked by 2025? 

“Customers are on the edge of their seat waiting to hear what you have to say. We need to learn about what’s important to customers by asking more questions.” 

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to organizations trying to balance digital transformation with maintaining a human touch in their CX? 

“Spend your time understanding your customers. Ask customers what they want from a digital environment before you begin your digital transformation.” 

What’s one underrated CX technology that will be essential in 2025? 

“Providing customers with a 24/7/365 opportunity to get answers to their questions. Making digital touchpoints more robust is essential.”  

BONUS: What’s one buzzword in CX that you think will disappear by 2025? 

 “We need to stop using the term CX. It’s software language.  We can’t use an acronym to describe a human experience.  We need to ‘spell out’ what we’re trying to achieve – a better human experience for our customers.” 

What’s one major CX trend you predict will shape the industry in 2025? 

Chhandak: “AI-driven predictive analytics will reshape CX in 2025, helping contact centers anticipate customer needs, external factors, and take proactive actions more accurately. This shift will keep leaders a step ahead, foreseeing issues before they arise and creating seamless, predictive customer journeys.”
 
Aishwarya: “As Gen AI exits the hype cycle and matures, agentic AI will be the next big thing that will start seeing demand in the market as enterprises look to reduce costs and enhance CX.”

What should CX leaders stop doing in 2025 to stay competitive? 

Chhandak: “CX leaders should stop isolating contact centers from other departments. Customer experience is increasingly cross-functional. In 2025, integrating CX insights across the organization will be critical to delivering seamless and cohesive experiences.”
 
Aishwarya: “CX leaders should stop having data in silos; too often AI programs fail or are not even able to take off because of lack of structured data; leaders need to clean their data and then apply AI to it to get the best value out of their AI pilots / POCs.”

What’s one common CX myth you think will be debunked by 2025? 

Chhandak: “The myth that Gen AI will automate all contact center interactions will be debunked. With advancements in Gen AI, automated solutions like chatbots will become smarter, handling inquiries more effectively, but contact centers will always need agents for complex decision making and drive interactions through empathy.”
 
Aishwarya: “AI will replace human jobs’ will be debunked as there is more than enough pie to go around. That being said, roles will evolve to become more complex and digital in nature and agents will need to be trained, recruited, and evaluated accordingly.”  

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to organizations trying to balance digital transformation with maintaining a human touch in their CX? 

Chhandak: “Focus on hybrid approaches that combine AI-driven tools with human empathy. Digital solutions should streamline routine tasks, allowing agents to focus on complex, meaningful interactions, creating a balanced, high-quality customer experience that retains a human touch.”  

Aishwarya: “ #1 First principles thinking: Fix what’s broken, then apply AI to enhance it. Don’t start with AI, start with solving the problem that needs to be solved. 

 #2 Snap out of the FOMO: Don’t run around with an AI hammer; your solution might not need AI. Evaluate the problem first and then look for the solution, not the other way around.”

What’s one underrated CX technology that will be essential in 2025? 

Chhandak: “Real-time language translation and accent-neutralization technology will be vital. It will allow agents to communicate seamlessly with customers globally, breaking language barriers and ensuring clarity, which will improve accessibility and customer satisfaction in diverse, multilingual markets.”
 
Aishwarya: “Data lakes, data pipelines, data platforms – any tech that helps streamline and structure data.” 

BONUS: What’s one buzzword in CX that you think will disappear by 2025? 

Chhandak “Multichannel interactions will fade as seamless integration becomes the industry standard. As channels converge and customers expect effortless switching, focusing on unified customer journeys across channels will make the term itself redundant.”

Aishwarya: “Cloud – because everything already is or will be on the cloud!”