Waking up early and waiting in line outside a store for a must-have gift might be a thing of the past. This year, consumers – especially younger ones – are turning to AI to navigate the busiest shopping season of the year.
One-third of consumers plan to use AI for holiday shopping this year, according to new UserTesting research. The company surveyed 4,000 consumers across the United States, United Kingdom and Australia to gauge how consumers will navigate Black Friday and the holiday season against a backdrop of inflation, tariffs, and economic uncertainty.
AI usage will be higher among younger shoppers, with 56% of Gen Zers and 50% of Millennials planning to use it.
Shoppers say they’ll use AI for brainstorming gift ideas, finding the lowest prices, getting direct product links, and checking whether a deal is truly worthwhile.
“Think of AI as the holiday sidekick we didn’t know we needed,” Bobby Meixner, vice president of solution marketing at UserTesting, said in a statement. “It’s giving shoppers fresh ideas, uncovering smarter deals, and helping them put more meaning into every gift.”
Shoppers trust AI, but remain cautious
For many, AI has become a trusted advisor when it comes to making purchases. The survey found 64% of consumers trust AI tools as much as, or more than, friends and family for gifting advice. And more than half of respondents said AI eases the stress and fatigue of holiday shopping.
Most shoppers believe AI will transform how they shop within the next three years. And 74% of those who have used AI for gift advice said it has made them better gift-givers.
But even as more shoppers embrace AI, some concerns persist. A quarter of consumers said they worry about data privacy, 19% worry about scams, and 19% worry about the lack of human touch.
The CX Pod focuses on innovations happening within the world of customer experience, and there’s no other innovation more important than AI. So rather than just talk about AI as a concept, we are going to provide some real examples and use AI within this podcast.
This is the first of our AI produced podcasts that summarize and provide context to our Customer Strategist Journal content, and more.
We’ll be using Google’s NotebookLM tool, which is a great resource featuring two voices having a conversation about a specific topic.
Let us know what you think. Is it too creepy? Is it great and worthwhile? Or what other comments do you have? We’d love to hear them.
The following was generated by AI (Google NotebookLM):
TRANSCRIPT
Liz Glagowski:
Today we’re taking a close look at something that really touches every digital interaction we have fraud prevention. Apple recently shared some well, pretty remarkable numbers about their efforts.
They blocked an incredible $2 billion in fraudulent transactions last year alone, 2 billion just staggering. Yeah. And that brings their five year total to an astounding $9 billion thwarted. It’s a really compelling case study, I think, for any leader out there. Absolutely. And, you know, while that might just sound like another corporate announcement from, well, a tech giant, it actually offers far more significant, really actionable lessons for you, the listener, especially if you’re an enterprise leader grappling with digital trust and security.
This isn’t just about big tech’s bottom line. You know, it’s really about these hidden, constant battles behind, well, every single digital transaction we make every day. Okay, let’s really try and unpack this. The sheer scale Apple is operating on here is huge. We’re talking about a system handling transactions for what is it, over 813 million weekly visitors? Yeah, eight under 13 million weekly across 175 global regions.
So it’s not just a small problem they’re tackling. It’s like an ongoing global siege almost exactly. And what’s fascinating here, I think, is the sheer volume of malicious activity they’re actually dealing with right now. In just one year, they block nearly 2 million risky app submissions, 2 million apps. Wow. And terminated 146,000 developer accounts. Okay. And then on the customer side, they rejected a staggering 711 million fraudulent customer account attempts.
Just got 711 million attempts. Yeah, that’s incredible. And it doesn’t stop there. They blocked over 10,000 illegitimate apps on, like pirate storefronts. Yeah, those dodgy ones. Exactly. And stopped nearly 4.6 million attempts to install unauthorized apps through those kinds of channels. That’s a truly staggering amount of activity they’re fending off. But what’s really striking you mentioned this is how this battle goes far beyond just, you know, simple payment theft.
Oh, absolutely. What are the broader implications when these bad actors aren’t just after the money? That’s an excellent point, because this battle, it’s really multi vector. Mm. These bad actors, they’re trying to steal personal data, create fraudulent accounts for other purposes, and even distribute pirated apps containing, well, everything from malware to pornography and gambling content. So a whole range of nasty stuff.
Exactly. So this vigilance, it matters so profoundly because when fraud succeeds, everyone pays the price, right? Yeah. Legitimate businesses lose significant revenue. Consumers, well, they lose confidence in the platforms they use every day, which is huge. And those platforms in turn lose credibility. So Apple’s success here isn’t just about protecting its own revenue streams. It’s fundamentally about maintaining trust across an entire vast digital ecosystem.
And speaking of trust, it’s interesting to consider the strategic timing of Apple’s announcement here, right? It wasn’t just coincidental, was it, coming just days before their big developer conference, WWDC 2025? Yeah, And specifically right after that, Epic Games Legal victory. Exactly. That ruling prompted a lot of developers to seriously think about alternative payment methods, you know, outside of Apple’s system.
Yeah. And if we connect this to the bigger picture, Apple’s announcement, it suddenly reveals what you could call the invisible value. Its platform provides invisible value. Explain that a bit.
What’s fascinating here is that early data from companies like Revenue CAP, it suggests that many small businesses are actually unlikely to financially benefit much from switching to their own payment systems.
Really? Why is that? The primary reason seems to be the unexpected and often substantial fraud related costs and complexities. They’d suddenly have to manage themselves. Okay, so imagine you’re a small indie developer, right? Suddenly you’re faced with managing potentially millions in transactions and all the fraud risk that comes with it. Yeah, exactly. That’s the cold reality many are probably considering.
It really makes you wonder what other invisible value might you be benefiting from in other services or platforms you use every day, Things you might not have fully accounted for or maybe even realized was there in the first place? It’s a great question. So, okay, what does this all mean then, for your enterprise, for your leadership? It seems Apple’s anti-fraud success gives us, what, five critical lessons?
Lessons that are pretty universally applicable, I guess, regardless of your industry or scale. That’s right. Five key lessons. And the first one is crucial. Fraud prevention must be treated as core infrastructure. Core infrastructure, not just a cost center. Exactly. Apple clearly views it not as some necessary evil or cost, but as a fundamental competitive advantage. Think of it like a really robust foundation for a skyscraper.
Okay? You don’t skimp on it, right? Yeah, because it enables all the growth and innovation happening above ground. It maintains customer trust and operational efficiency. That’s a powerful analogy. So it’s not just about stopping losses, then it’s really about enabling growth. But, you know, for many leaders, fraud prevention probably still feels like a drain on resources. What’s the biggest mental shift needed to really embrace this essential infrastructure mindset?
That’s a challenge for sure. It requires seeing the long term value, the trust dividend, which leads us, I guess, right into lesson number two scale amplifies both opportunity and risk. Yeah, it’s a double edged sword. Obviously, Apple’s massive scale, you know, processing billions and transactions makes them an incredibly attractive target for fraudsters. That’s the risk part, huge target.
But then on the flip side, that exact same scale provides this enormous dataset, the raw material essentially to build those incredibly sophisticated detection systems. That’s the opportunity, right? The more data, the smarter the system can potentially get. So for any enterprise, it’s a reminder, isn’t it? As you grow and succeed, you should anticipate a proportional increase in fraud attention.
You really need to plan for it from day one, not just react when it happens. You absolutely do. Which brings us to our third lesson Multilayer defense is non-negotiable, multi-layered. So not just one big wall. No, definitely not. Yeah, Apple’s approach is really comprehensive. Think of it maybe like different security checkpoints in an airport. Okay. Like that, right.
There’s a check when you book your ticket that’s like account creation. Another when you check your bag app submission, a scan at security transaction processing makes sense and even monitoring for suspicious behavior once you’re on the plane, that’s post-transaction monitoring. So the point is enterprises need similarly robust, comprehensive strategies. You have to address fraud across all customer touchpoints, not just tack on payment processing security at the very end.
That makes perfect sense. It’s not a single point of failure, but a series of defenses. But for a smaller company, or maybe one that’s growing really fast, how do you even begin to identify all those potential touch points where fraud might occur, let alone build out a defense for each one? That sounds complex. It is complex, no doubt.
It requires really mapping the customer journey and thinking like a fraudster where the weak points. But it’s essential work right? And that point about the unseen benefits Apple provides, that really underscores lesson number four. Be aware of the hidden costs of going it alone. Yes, this is critical. The whole Epic Games situation really highlighted how seemingly expensive intermediaries like Apple’s App Store often provide this immense off invisible value like fraud prevention.
Exactly. So before you decide to, say build internal capabilities or switch providers because it looks cheaper on the surface, yeah, you absolutely need to fully quantify the total cost of ownership. Total cost meaning? Meaning factoring in not just the potential fraud losses you’ll now absorb, but also the operational overhead, the engineers, the analysts, the time and resources you divert from your core business.
Precisely. And even the opportunity costs. What could you have built if you weren’t fighting fraud fighters? That’s a sobering calculation for many. I bet it can be. And finally, that brings us to lesson number five. Trust acts as a powerful competitive moat, a moat like protecting a castle, essentially. Yes. Apple’s significant ongoing fraud prevention efforts create this powerful barrier around their ecosystem.
The more secure their platform is perceived to be, the more valuable it becomes Exactly to both developers who want a safe environment for their apps and for consumers who trust making transactions there. So the investment pays off in loyalty and usage. It does. And this means that investing strategically in security and fraud prevention can similarly differentiate your business in competitive markets.
It builds that long term customer loyalty. It becomes part of your brand promise. That’s a powerful idea. Building trust is a competitive moat. But again, for a smaller company, how do you even begin to measure that trust or, you know, know where to invest smartly to build that kind of barrier effectively, especially without Apple’s kind of resources? That’s the challenge, right?
It starts with prioritizing customer security, being transparent and investing proportionately. Even small steps Build trust over time. You don’t need Apple’s budget to make security a core value. Okay. So if we sort of connect all these lessons back to your broader context, the listeners context. Yeah. In this era where digital transformation is just constantly accelerating business processes, but also expanding the attack surface and massively expanding them.
Fraud prevention isn’t just some operational requirement anymore, is it? It’s rapidly becoming a core strategic capability for any enterprise that wants to thrive, not just, you know, survive. Absolutely. And this raises, I think, a really important question now. It’s no longer really about whether to invest in fraud prevention. Right. That ship has sailed. Pretty much. It’s about how to invest intelligently, because effective fraud prevention requires significant ongoing investment.
It needs sophisticated technology, yes, but also deep operational commitment. It’s not a one and done thing. Not at all. And the alternative just hoping for the best, exposing your business and your customers to potentially billions in losses. It’s ultimately far, far more expensive in the long run. It really shifts the perspective, doesn’t it? The companies that are truly thriving in this digital economy, they seem to be the ones that, like Apple, recognize fraud prevention as truly essential infrastructure.
Yes, what enables growth, it truly protects customers and ultimately it creates those sustainable competitive advantages we talked about. Well said. So I guess the core takeaway from today’s deep dive is pretty clear. Security isn’t just about protection anymore. It’s fundamentally about enabling prosperity. That’s a great way to put it, that $2 billion in potential fraud Apple blocked last year, that represents $2 billion that stayed in the pockets of legitimate businesses and consumers actually fueling the ecosystem, not draining it.
Exactly. Money that went where it was supposed to go. Right. So maybe for you, the listener, a final provocative thought to consider as we wrap up. How might you begin to quantify the invisible value of security and trust within your own digital interactions or maybe within your own business? How do you move beyond viewing it merely as a cost and start seeing it really seeing it as an investment in growth and stability?
That’s a great question to ponder. We really encourage you to reflect on these insights and perhaps delve deeper into your own digital security strategies.
Liz Glagowski:
Thanks for joining us for this deep dive. Thanks for listening. We’d love to know what you think about these AI produced podcasts and you can learn more about customer experience from TTEC.com or CustomerStrategistJournal.com.
When economic headwinds arise and the future is uncertain, many brands quickly look to cut spending – and the contact center becomes the main target. Often viewed as a cost center, the contact center often seems like the easiest place to cut expenses – but that can be a costly mistake.
Customer experience (CX) suffers when handle times grow and resolution rates drop, so brands must consider: is it worth cutting costs in the cost center if it’s going to damage brand reputation, frustrate customers and associates alike, and increase churn?
It’s a tricky balance CX organizations must strike, especially when:
Costs are rising, impacted by inflation and new economic variables
Achieving great service quality with tighter budgets has never been harder
Internal teams are stretched too thin, with limited bandwidth
Supply chain issues and workforce gaps strain CX delivery
To navigate a challenging economy, companies must adapt quickly, improve efficiency, reduce costs, and maintain strong customer experience. With the right tools, people, and strategy, it’s possible to ride out economic headwinds without sacrificing CX.
Make smarter decisions with AI-driven insights
Few things are more costly than uncertainty. When brands aren’t sure where inefficiencies lie, what to do about them, or which tools can help, it costs them time, money, and a lot of headaches.
AI-powered insights can eliminate guesswork and gauge exactly how customers are feeling and how associates are performing, in real time.
Use conversational intelligence to listen to and analyze 100% of interactions. Traditional quality assurance tools capture less than 3% of customer interactions, so brands still relying on those are missing out on valuable insights. New AI-powered tools can listen to conversations, detect when customer sentiment shifts, and even prompt associates with best next steps.
The more brands can understand customers, what they’re looking to achieve, what delights them, and what frustrates them, the better they can meet customers’ needs quickly and improve satisfaction and loyalty. AI-enhanced insights should play a key role in any CX strategy.
With the right AI-powered solutions, team leads get a clear view of where associates are succeeding and struggling, so successes can be replicated and training can be improved and customized as needed. AI also can give associates a holistic view, via real-time dashboards, of their performance compared to benchmarks, goals, and their peers. Having this visibility into their performance can incentivize associates and help them identify strengths and weaknesses.
Associate coaching becomes much more efficient when it’s guided by insights instead of trial and error. A major automaker made its coaching process 53% faster with AI-powered insights.
Take a fresh look at offshoring
Today’s outsourced CX markets are very different than the traditional call center of the past. Brands still clinging to an outdated view of offshoring should reconsider.
Offshore centers in the Philippines and India – along with emerging regions like South Africa, Rwanda, and Egypt – let companies tap into a highly skilled workforce while uncovering significant cost savings. With an educated labor pool and AI-powered tools, these sites offer the same quality CX as onshore centers, at a substantially lower cost.
Traditionally, many brands have struggled to find support in languages they need. The result? Many choose CX locations primarily for language, even if those sites don’t best fit their overall needs. But AI is helping to break down communication barriers.
Real-time accent softening and noise cancellation, for instance, help customers and associates communicate easily, regardless of where in the world they are located. And AI-powered voice translation has evolved to the point where it can serve dozens of languages in real time, translating conversations between associates and customers in less than a second.
These tools are opening the CX world up for brands, geographically and figuratively.
When a major U.S.-based retailer that sells home fitness equipment struggled to keep up with surges in demand around the holiday season, a team of 50 associates based in the Philippines generated 60% cost savings.
No matter where associates are based, harness the power of AI to put the information they need at their fingertips. AI-powered knowledgebases ensure they have quick and easy access to documents and answers they need for fast resolutions.
Give customers the tools to self-serve
In this economy, some brands are seeing an influx of inquiries to the contact center. Deflect the more simple, straightforward ones to chatbots, virtual IVRs, and other self-service tools.
Customers are increasingly comfortable interacting with AI agents and bots, as long as they can easily resolve issues, and self-service lets them find the answers they need on their own time.
Almost one-half of customers think AI agents can be empathetic during interactions
70% of CX leaders believe chatbots are becoming skilled architects of highly personalized customer journeys
69% of organizations believe generative AI can help humanize digital interactions
As AI agents and bots become more sophisticated and customers grow more comfortable interacting with them, it makes sense to delegate simple tasks to automation and free up associates to focus on nuanced interactions that require a human touch.
Navigating an uncertain economy can be daunting, especially when customer satisfaction and loyalty are on the line and financial pressures are mounting. It may be tempting to make quick decisions that seem like they’ll cut costs and boost efficiencies. But a more thoughtful strategy that prioritizes CX will pay off in the long run.
Tap into expert guidance to make the most of economic unpredictability. Working with a proven CX partner is an easy and cost-effective way to quickly gain access to the global workforce, cutting-edge AI tools, and proven best practices you need to thrive in any economy.
Timeshare companies sometimes get a bad rap as not being particularly customer centric. Many consumers associate them with high-pressure sales tactics meant to feed a volume business, rather than crafting hyper-personalized experiences that build loyalty. But Holiday Inn Club Vacations embraces a different philosophy.
Nicole Myers acknowledges the preconceptions people may have but, as vice president of customer experience for the brand, she leads a team devoted to elevating CX every day.
Florida-based Holiday Inn Club Vacations dates back to 1952 when the first Holiday Inn Hotel opened. It’s a resort, real estate, travel, and timeshare company that operates 30 resorts throughout the United States and Mexico and has more than 365,000 members and timeshare owners.
The company has always aimed to deliver great experiences for travelers, but CX efforts have really moved to the forefront since President and CEO John Staten joined the brand several years ago. Myers is the company’s first vice president of CX and has held the role for five years.
Nicole Myers, vice president of customer experience, Holiday Inn Club Vacations
“On our strategy roadmap, the No. 1 strategy pillar is growing guest love,” Myers said. “We are customer obsessed. At every interaction point, everyone understands how their role impacts the customer.”
The brand’s leaders view CX as a differentiator in their industry. In 2024, the company was recognized by J.D. Power for the third consecutive year for providing outstanding customer service via phone support.
Timeshare owners – many of whom have longstanding relationships with the company – expect a bespoke experience each time they visit a resort or interact with the brand, Myers said, so customer satisfaction requires constant attention and innovation.
Always listening and learning
The brand strives to gauge customer sentiment as often as possible, which involves collecting and analyzing a lot of data, Myers said. The company collects feedback on timeshare villas, down to specific rooms, through customer surveys and in-depth interviews with owners and visitors during and after their stays.
When a particular villa or collection of rooms performs well, the brand wants to know why. Conversely, when certain ones have challenges – visitors complain about outdated TVs, for instance – customer feedback helps identify problems and inform decision making. All sites periodically undergo major renovations, and guest feedback always plays an important role in those decisions.
“We do lots of testing like that so we’re able to figure out where to best maximize investments,” Myers said.
Customers and members typically are very willing to share data with the company if they believe that doing so will result in a better experience, she said. Among timeshare owners, the company has a 96% response rate to interviews and 34% response rate to surveys.
“They’re invested with us,” Myers said of owners’ willingness to share their opinions. “This is a long-term purchase for them.”
She noted that Holiday Inn Club Vacations isn’t just “listening for listening’s sake;” it’s turning insights into actions.
“We find major touchpoints throughout our journey” she said, gathering feedback along the way.
Knowing customers’ habits and preferences well is essential to delivering a great experience, and collecting so many data points helps the company market certain offers and resort locations to customers, creating a more personalized experience.
“We know who you are and what you tend to like,” she said. “We listen, we learn. We really dig into the data.”
Investing in AI-powered CX
Digital transformation is another CX priority for the company as Holiday Inn Club Vacations adapts to meet changing customer preferences.
Historically, many customers preferred to speak with someone by phone when they had an inquiry, Myers said, but modern travelers want more options. The company plans to add email and live chat support channels based on customer feedback.
As the company continually seeks ways to improve CX, AI plays an increasingly important role in the contact center.
The brand uses conversational AI to listen to customer interactions. Not only does it uncover how customers are truly feeling during conversations, but it identifies associates’ strengths and weaknesses that can then be reinforced or addressed as needed, Myers said.
“The greatness about that tool is it uncovers real-time sentiment,” she said, adding it also helps with compliance requirements. “It’s an amazing tool that allows supervisors to listen in real time.”
Team leads have dashboards that give them quick, easy access to huge volumes of data. They can see how associates are performing and identify patterns, including cues of when customers are frustrated. Then they can use those insights to hyperfocus and accelerate coaching and make it much more effective.
AI tools also let supervisors watch many associates at once, which is especially helpful because many Holiday Inn Club Vacations associates work remotely, Myers said. The company employs a mix of remote and on-site contact center employees, and associates must earn their way to a remote position after they’ve been with the company long enough.
With AI, supervisors can maintain a holistic view of how associates are performing, regardless of where they’re located.
The brand also uses AI to analyze sentiment, themes, and topics during interactions, and to identify key drivers – which can vary at each of its 30 resorts. The resulting insights improve contact center operations and informs the company’s marketing efforts as well.
Not all associates were quick to embrace AI from the outset, Myers acknowledged. Some were hesitant, or even skeptical, and questioned how it would impact their day-to-day jobs. But they’ve seen firsthand how things like real-time prompts and agent-assist tools have made their work easier and improved employee experience.
“(AI) just makes everyone’s performance better,” she said. “They love it.”
Customer centered, future focused
There’s always more work to be done when it comes to improving customer experience, Myers said. Looking ahead, she expects AI to play a growing role in CX efforts. In particular, the company aims to collect more customer feedback and sentiment during interactions and to enhance its knowledgebase so associates have faster, easier access to the information they need.
Short-term plans include adding more self-service support options, such as chatbots, and expanding omnichannel offerings.
The company’s mission is to be the most loved brand in family travel. At the core of that mission, Myers said, is delivering the type of personalized, exceptional experiences that keep customers coming back – one stay at a time.
When I first began working with contact center professionals over a decade ago, I received some great advice I still use. Whenever I call customer service, I remember the name of the associate when they introduce themselves so I can call them by name during our interaction.
Associates appreciate it because it shows that I see them as a person and not a faceless voice on the other end of the line. It also personalizes the conversation and makes it less scripted and robotic. Ultimately, I hope it makes the call a little smoother and gives associates more confidence because they are being seen.
It’s a very small gesture, but it goes a long way. Just like empathy from associates helps customers feel seen and appreciated. It’s a two-way street.
When a call goes well, I always thank the associate by name at the end of the interaction so they know I appreciate their help. Because while it’s important to build rapport, what I really want is my question answered or my problem resolved.
So while empathy and understanding are important, action comes first. Empathetic responses and apologies prolong resolution times, which can frustrate customers and do more harm than good if they just want a quick fix.
Our Customer Strategist Journal cover story dives into this notion in more detail, illustrating how the amount of empathy and effort you put into customer interactions is dependent on the types of calls and the expectations of different customers. There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to empathy. Also, advances in AI and customer analysis can help right-size the empathy equation for individual customers at scale.
One thing was clear at this year’s Customer Contact Week event in Las Vegas: AI has moved from the hypothetical to something that’s firmly rooted in contact center operations. Conversations revolved around balancing the human and tech elements now that AI is a coworker, not a concept.
Strong AI needs strong data Agentic AI was everywhere, as companies shared their latest virtual agent solutions and discussed ways to incorporate action-based AI tools into the contact center. The common denominator was a solid data foundation. “Everyone has AI, and people want to do it now,” said Scott Rohrer of Hexaware Technologies. “But it depends on if the data is ready.”
“Everything starts with data,” added Dexter Brown, vice president of global customer delivery at Dell Technologies. “The more we can curate it, the better our agents will be.”
There’s more to AI than just tech In these uncertain economic times, some brands are looking at AI solely to drive down costs. But that’s the wrong way to think of it, said Matthew Clare of Google AI.
“Cost cutting isn’t the best value proposition for AI,” he said. “The real business value is driving retention, loyalty, and improving CSAT.”
Korissa Singh of Ujet agreed. “Deflection and cost savings are still important but shouldn’t be the goal of AI investment.”
James Bednar, head of innovation at TTEC, encouraged CX leaders to rethink how they approach AI. “Manage your AI agents like your human agents, not an IT project,” he said.
Digital generated image of young japanese woman interacting with multicoloured message chat icons. Data personalization concept.
Traditional quality assurance (QA) tools have always had limitations. They typically capture less than 3% of interactions, which means there’s no way they can’t deliver a complete picture of customer sentiment, satisfaction, or what’s really happening in the contact center.
As consumer expectations rise, crafting a customer experience (CX) strategy around such a small sample size no longer makes sense. That’s where the dynamic duo of AI-powered insights and quality experts can help.
Suzi Sumango, executive director of quality insights and analytics at TTEC, and Gayathri Krishnamurthy, head of product marketing at Level AI, discussed the benefits of an AI-driven, expert-led CX strategy in the webinar, “AI masterclass: Moving the CSAT needle with CX insights.”
Analyze 100% of interactions with AI
Historically, brands have only gotten a small window into customer sentiment and CSAT. Standard QA tools analyze a very small share of interactions and rely on customers opting in to take surveys. This, Sumango said, produces skewed data; customers who choose to participate in surveys often are very happy following an interaction or very unhappy, so the results represent extremes.
With AI-powered tools like Level AI’s technology, brands get a complete picture of what’s happening in the contact center, during every interaction and across every channel. Conversational AI can listen to every interaction and provide data and analysis in nearly real-time (not the week or two lag time survey results typically take), Sumango said.
“In an AI world, you’re able to bring 100% of the conversations (into the fold),” said Krishnamurthy. Level AI’s “magic” is that it automatically mines conversations to pinpoint customer sentiment, she added. The result? Brands no longer have to guess how customers feel; they can know with certainty and adjust their CX accordingly.
What used to be a time-consuming and manual process of combing through interactions, mining data, and identifying trends and patterns, can now happen nearly instantly, she said.
Against this backdrop, contact centers are evolving into smart centers. They’re armed with insights and information that can reveal what delights customers, what frustrates them, potential obstacles, and best practices that should be replicated. AI can go beyond identifying what’s happening during interactions to uncover why things are happening.
“AI is really taking us to an unforeseen level,” Krishnamurthy said.
Experts elevate insights even further
AI-enhanced insights have tremendous potential to elevate CSAT and revolutionize CX, but only if brands have people who know how to put them into action, Krishnamurthy said.
Technology alone isn’t enough, Sumango agreed. Quality experts are a critical second layer, since they can transform insights into strategic next steps. By putting insights into context and taking other aspects, like a brand’s customer journey or culture, into account they ensure insights inform business decisions, associate training and coaching, and overall CX strategy.
TTEC Insights, our award-winning solution that blends Level AI’s technology with TTEC’s quality experts, has helped brands across various industries reduce handle time, improve first contact resolution, and elevate CSAT.
Insights that used to take quality experts months to mine are now served up within minutes via Level AI’s tools. As a result, experts can put those insights into action much more quickly.
“When we work together, it’s the art of the possible for all our clients,” Sumango said.
When it comes to revenue generation, every sale is important. The right sales strategy (and a team ready to put it into action) is critical to meeting business goals and driving ROI – but the sales landscape is evolving quickly.
AI-powered tools are giving sales teams more insights at their fingertips than they’ve ever had before. Using those insights to understand customers better, identify sales opportunities during service interactions, and improve associate coaching can help organizations drive revenue growth without sacrificing customer experience (CX) along the way.
Holden Olsen, TTEC’s vice president of global sales delivery, recently discussed why sales teams should harness the power of AI and CX with guest Seth Marrs, principal analyst at Forrester, during a LinkedIn Live event, “AI+CX: Secret weapons for sales success.”
Drive faster, better results with AI AI is enabling sales teams to work smarter by helping them know their customers better; identifying the right times and ways to sell; and taking on time-consuming, menial tasks.
In a study, Forrester asked sellers how much time they spend on various aspects of their job – sales enablement, engagement, administrative work, and relationship management – and how AI benefits those areas.
“The biggest area where AI is making an impact is in enablement,” Marrs said. Forrester predicts more than 80% of the time sellers spend on enablement will be impacted by AI, as AI tools take on some of the menial and repetitive parts of the process. “We’re changing the way those things work or have worked in the past.”
With so many tools to choose from, it’s important that organizations explore which ones will help sellers the most and determine the best way to operationalize them, Olsen said.
AI-powered solutions can uncover behaviors that lead to seller success, so teams can replicate those behaviors team-wide. Conversational AI, for instance, can comb through sales interaction transcripts and pull out actionable insights to inform training and best practices, Olsen said.
Even AI tools that have existed for years hold exciting potential as sales teams take a fresh at them.
“There are so many ways that you can use that simplest form of AI in these new ways to really accelerate the results that you’re getting,” Olsen said.
AI can mine content, summarize information, prepare emails, and perform other tasks. On average, AI tools saved sellers an hour of time each week in 2024, compared with 2023, according to Marrs.
Uncover sales opportunities in service channels Sales teams have long sought to maximize the value of every contact center interaction, but many have made the mistake of trying ill-timed sales attempts that feel forced and off-putting. AI can help here, too.
AI tools can ingest 30 days of call volume, for instance, and analyze interactions so teams truly understand customer intents, Olsen said. With those insights in hand, they can go intent-by-intent to build out a sales strategy that makes sense. In many cases, the sale can be part of a resolution.
“Customers are going to be willing to listen to you as long as they know that the questions you’re asking through the discovery phase are leading to the issue resolution, and that buys you the credibility to transition into a value-based offer.”
Make coaching more effective, efficient Another way AI can improve CX is by informing associate coaching. When sellers succeed, conversational AI can listen to interactions and tell you why, Marrs noted.
Sales leaders can then use those learnings to inform coaching and replicate successful behaviors. AI takes the guesswork out of coaching, showing precisely what works during interactions (and what doesn’t). Certain tools can even give sellers real-time feedback during interactions.
A growing number of brands are using AI to drive coaching methodology and seeing quick results, Olsen said.
A successful Customer Experience (CX) transformation program must be deeply integrated with the business strategy of an organization. Many companies fail at CX transformation because they treat it as an isolated initiative rather than embedding it into their core strategic goals. To avoid this, CX leaders must demonstrate that enhancing customer experience is not just about satisfaction but about achieving tangible business results—such as increasing revenue, improving retention, reducing costs, and strengthening competitive differentiation.
For B2B companies, the complexity of sales cycles, long-term contracts, and multiple decision-makers makes it imperative to align CX strategy with overall business objectives. This means ensuring that every investment in CX improvement is linked to measurable business outcomes, gaining leadership buy-in, and ensuring every department contributes to a unified, customer-centric vision.
Why CX Needs to Be Aligned with Business Strategy
CX directly impacts revenue – Companies with superior CX achieve higher customer lifetime value (CLV), lower churn, and increased cross-sell and upsell opportunities.
Customer expectations are changing – Today’s B2B customers expect seamless interactions, self-service options, and personalized service just like in B2C.
CX can be a competitive advantage – When products and pricing are similar, superior customer experience can be the differentiator that wins new business and retains existing clients.
Operational efficiency improves – CX improvements often streamline processes, reducing customer support costs and inefficiencies across departments.
So, how can a B2B company practically align its CX transformation with business strategy? Below is a step-by-step approach.
10 Practical Steps to Align CX Strategy with Business Strategy
Before implementing any CX initiatives, clearly define what customer experience means for your company. This should be a North Star vision statement that aligns with business priorities.
🔹 Example: If your company’s business strategy is to expand into new markets, your CX vision might focus on creating a seamless onboarding experience for new customers in different geographies. 🔹 Action Point: Develop a CX vision that directly ties into financial and operational goals (e.g., reducing churn by 15%, improving customer retention by 10%, increasing customer effort score (CES) by 25%).
Step 2: Secure Executive Sponsorship with a Data-Driven Business Case
To get C-suite buy-in, CX leaders must speak in business terms—showing how CX improvements translate into profitability, revenue, and cost reduction.
🔹 Example: Use hard numbers—such as calculating the revenue impact of improving customer retention by just 5%—to make the case for investment in CX. 🔹 Action Point: Present CX metrics alongside financial indicators to show the business case for improving customer experience.
Step 3: Identify and Prioritize Key Customer Journeys That Drive Business Outcomes
Not all CX improvements will have the same impact on the business. Identify which customer touchpoints are most critical to revenue generation, retention, and operational efficiency.
🔹 Example: A SaaS company may find that improving the onboarding journey reduces churn, while a manufacturing firm might prioritize faster issue resolution in after-sales support. 🔹 Action Point: Use customer journey mapping to identify the highest-impact pain points, then prioritize fixing them.
Step 4: Link CX Metrics with Business KPIs
To ensure CX is seen as a strategic priority, integrate customer experience metrics into core business dashboards.
🔹 Example: Instead of only tracking Net Promoter Score (NPS), also measure:
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) – Measures total revenue potential per customer.
Customer Effort Score (CES) – Measures how easy it is for customers to interact with your company.
First Response & Resolution Time – Shows service effectiveness and issue resolution.
🔹 Action Point: Develop a CX scorecard that combines customer experience data with financial KPIs.
Step 5: Build Cross-Functional Alignment and Collaboration
CX is not just a function of customer service—it spans marketing, sales, product, IT, and operations. To succeed, companies need to break down silos and create cross-functional collaboration.
🔹 Example: The sales team might promise seamless onboarding, but if the implementation team is overwhelmed, customers will face delays—causing dissatisfaction. 🔹 Action Point: Establish a cross-functional CX governance team that ensures alignment across all departments.
Step 6: Align Employee Incentives with CX Goals
To drive a customer-centric mindset, CX should be embedded into employee performance evaluations and incentives.
🔹 Example: If account managers are rewarded purely for new sales but not for customer retention, they may neglect existing customers, causing churn. 🔹 Action Point: Incorporate CX performance indicators into employee compensation structures across departments.
Step 7: Use Technology to Strengthen CX Strategy Execution
Technology enhances CX by providing deeper customer insights, streamlining interactions, and enabling automation.
🔹 Example: Implementing a Customer Data Platform (CDP) can consolidate insights from CRM, support tickets, and customer feedback, creating a 360-degree customer view. 🔹 Action Point: Ensure all CX-related technology investments align with overall business transformation objectives.
Step 8: Embed CX into Corporate Strategy Reviews & Planning
CX should not be treated as a separate initiative—it must be embedded into quarterly and annual business reviews.
🔹 Example: The CEO should review CX metrics in the same way they review financials, operations, and market expansion. 🔹 Action Point: Include CX discussions in leadership meetings and track CX progress in business strategy updates.
Step 9: Continuously Monitor & Improve CX Based on Data
CX strategy is not static—it should evolve based on customer feedback, competitive benchmarks, and emerging trends.
🔹 Example: A logistics company might use real-time customer feedback to improve delivery scheduling and shipment tracking. 🔹 Action Point: Create closed-loop feedback mechanisms where customer input directly influences strategy adjustments.
Step 10: Scale CX Improvements Globally While Adapting to Local Markets
For multinational B2B organizations, CX strategies need a global framework with localized execution.
🔹 Example: A tech company expanding to Asia might need localized customer support in different languages and time zones. 🔹 Action Point: Balance standardization with flexibility, ensuring global CX principles allow regional customization.
Conclusion
For CX transformation to drive business impact, it must be aligned with core strategic objectives. By integrating CX into leadership priorities, key performance metrics, cross-functional collaboration, and technology investments, companies can ensure CX becomes a driver of sustainable growth, not just an operational improvement.
Executives should embed CX thinking into every business decision, ensuring customer experience remains a top priority alongside financial and operational goals.
In Part 3, we will explore how culture and employee engagement play a pivotal role in sustaining a CX transformation—and how companies can build a truly customer-
Businesses across every vertical — from retail to banking, healthcare to high tech and travel — might want to take a cue from fraudsters. In a word: Data.
Scammers have been very successful at account takeovers (up 56%) and chargebacks (up 78%) in the past year, thanks to the robust data sets they are exploiting. Business would do well to step up their game and expand how they source and mine data, according to two experts sharing fraud mitigation insights and strategies on the LinkedIn Live webinar, “Securing trust: Tackling digital payment fraud while elevating CX,” hosted by TTEC and moderated by 1to1 Media’s Elizabeth Glagowski.
“When we ingest more robust information, our reporting gets to be more robust” and that leads to better insights and proactive decision-making by leadership, said Alexander Hall, trust and safety architect at AI-powered fraud platform Sift.
Rich, multidimensional data
There is a fundamental evolution under way affecting how companies approach fraud mitigation, said Hall. AI and machine learning play a key role, but equally important is the ability to leverage richer data sets — from within and beyond an organization, across platforms, networks, and even “inferred” data to make predictions — all while leveraging human capacity to detect and interpret nuances in ways that machines just can’t.
Gone are the days of using rigid rules to prioritize case investigation, triangulating 10-15 signals, and spending weeks to review, escalate, and respond to suspected fraud, said Philip Say, vice president, solutions and product management, TTEC.
“Now, one individual can process 20,000 signals almost instantaneously, triangulated against many factors, to produce a real-time rule score that’s transparent to upper levels of management,” he said. “It’s just night and day. We’ve gone lightspeed ahead with these types of capabilities.”
Context key for the right outcomes
The crux of the challenge, Say added, is balance: How to introduce fraud techniques without adding friction that harms the experience and alienates customers. It’s here that context comes into play.
“Humans are really great at determining context over machines. We have a great ability to identify anomalies,” he explained. “Machine learning can repeat the recognition of those anomalies but they are not really good at understanding context.”
For example, a human can understand that some high-value customers travel across the globe with great frequency and their patterns of transactions, while analogous, are if fact, legitimate, whereas an algorithm might generate false positives that flag these same transactions as suspected fraud.
“Good leaders, good managers can understand and can coach their teams to recognize these nuances,” Say said. “All these AI and ML tools can help our productivity, but we need to balance that with operational discipline and experience.”
Hall agreed: “There’s always going to be a human element to fraud prevention, no matter how much automation there is, no matter how much technology we’re leveraging.”
Say added that some executives view fraud management as a “set it and forget it” proposition, when in fact, the opposite is true: “The good news is you can get a lot of leverage from a very small team — but that team has to be empowered to do the right things.
“It’s no longer task-oriented style of work but more high-level decisioning, pattern recognition, interpretation, and anticipating where the business is growing and evolving. The good news is the industry has caught up, but the organizational models have to catch up, as well.”
Validate, verify, identify
Whenever rolling out something new — a digital form for customers to complete, a new buy-now-pay-later payment option, or a new app — anticipate that fraudsters will discover and target these customer-facing touchpoints.
Hall said it’s essential to validate newly created accounts, but that’s not enough. It’s crucial to go further, to verify that account creators are whom they claim to be. This is where device intelligence uses geolocation to flag suspicious activity, synthetic credentials, and bots used in account takeovers (ATOs).
Next: Identify, he said.
Companies need to analyze how users interact with their platforms to identify and understand what constitutes behavior of legitimate customers versus fraudulent behavior. This third step to identify good and bad behavior is what enables leaders to make informed decisions about workflows for handling activity that sends up a yellow, orange, or red flag.
“There’s a saying in fraud prevention that goes, ‘If you haven’t seen it, you haven’t seen it…yet,’ ” Hall said. “If a particular platform hasn’t seen it yet, the platform up the street has.” That’s the value of expanding data analysis beyond just transactions and accounts.
“We’re seeing social engineering of the consumer, of the platform, and employees of the platform pick up,” he said.
“We’re seeing all these very different, very expansive fraud methods taking off across the network. By plugging into cross-platform, data-sharing networks, we’re going to be able to proactively see [a threat] before it hits our platform. There’s tremendous value in sharing data across platforms.”
