For those able to make it to Nashville for the 2024 Forrester CX Summit North America, there was a lot to see, hear, and experience. The theme, centered around AI augmentation (rather than replacement) of human teams was woven throughout multiple days and sessions.
While the AI message was clear, the more pressing issue of the day(s) was the disconnect between what companies are saying versus doing in regard to being customer-focused. Let’s explore a few of these.
AI is ready for CX
While there were plenty of warnings about the unpredictability of some artificial intelligence implementations, the consistent message throughout the conference was that leaders need to start becoming more aware of AI’s potential.
One area highlighted is customer journey orchestration. For instance, Ajay Kapoor, Global Director, Performance Driven Marketing at General Motors spoke about how he sees journey orchestration as one way to harness real and immediate value from AI, even while others methods may be proving themselves out.
So, AI is ready for CX, but it remains unclear if CX is ready for AI. We will see a lot more this year.
We’re in a CX slump
Amidst the talk about CX that seems more and more pervasive, it came as a little bit of a surprise how Forrester’s 2024 CX Index showed its sharpest decline (1.6%) in the score in several years, with 39 % of brands dropping their scores and three-quarters of industries dropping overall.
Judy Weader, a Principal Analyst at Forrester, said that according to Forrester’s 2024 Digital Business Strategy Survey of global digital business strategy decision makers, only 26% CX leaders say executives behave like CX is important all of the time. So there is clearly some work to do here to “walk the walk,” so to speak.
Tie it all together
Brands that are doing it well are working together as teams, and that was clear from those that presented, from the award winners at Albertsons and T-Mobile, to presenters from General Motors and others.
Weader also shared that one of the biggest barriers to unifying teams is executive ego and the desire to get a big win on their own (or even for their particular team). Yet, the companies that have proved most successful are those where collaboration
As for how to do this well, the answer increasingly relies on AI-based solutions to augment teams by performing repetitive actions, supplying quick answers, and automating key processes. Yet, as with most technological advances, people—and specifically, leaders—need to drive the charge to back up talk with action.
