How AI Agents Improve Customer Experience

Every delightful customer interaction begins with the marketer, and it can only be as powerful as the #CRM and #metadata underpinning it. With agents supporting them at every step of the customer journey creation process, marketers and #customerengagement teams can now create superior experiences shaped by intelligent and emotionally resonant conversations. At a cognitive level, the human brain no longer perceives AI as a “chatbot.” It perceives a relationship. This emotional shift fundamentally changes how consumers relate to brands, fostering deeper loyalty and trust. When customers interact with agents in a way that feels natural, their engagement deepens. The implications go far beyond engagement. Every AI-driven interaction generates a wealth of contextual data, far richer than what brands could ever collect from a single web form or survey. In one conversation, an agent can gather insights about a customer’s preferences, behaviors, and intent, building a more complete, dynamic customer profile. This continuous intelligence loop allows brands to maximize the value of every interaction. Let’s bring this to life with an example... Imagine Melanie, one of your many potential customers. She’s been thinking about joining Posh Fitness, a popular gym chain in her city. Instead of filling out a form, she decides to engage with the agent on their website. As they chat, it quickly feels more like a friendly exchange than a transaction. Melanie shares her fitness goals, whether she wants to lose weight, gain muscle, or improve flexibility, and the agent listens closely, asking the right questions to understand her needs and intent. The agent gathers valuable insights through this conversation that a simple web form could never capture. Melanie mentions her dietary restrictions, her preference for a supportive personal trainer style, and that she loves outdoor workouts but needs a flexible schedule due to her busy life. In just a few minutes, the agent collects a wealth of data about Melanie: her goals, preferences, and availability—all essential to crafting a personalized experience. And because the conversation feels human-like and emotionally resonant, it creates an immediate connection to Posh Fitness. By collecting this richer data early in the relationship, Posh Fitness can offer tailored recommendations and build Melanie’s loyalty well before she signs up. This isn’t just about closing a sale. It’s about building trust and delivering personalized experiences that evoke emotions and feel deeply human. Brands that will thrive in the era of #Agentic #AI are those that recognize the shift from transactional interactions to relationship-driven engagement. This isn’t just about personalization; it’s about creating experiences and dialogues that feel alive—where AI and marketers co-create journeys that adapt in real time, amplifying the impact of every customer moment.

While everyone's talking about AI replacing human agents, something more interesting is happening: technology and humans are forming a powerful partnership that's transforming customer experience. AI isn't stealing your agents' jobs – it's making them superheroes. At Callzilla - The Quality-First Contact Center, we've been implementing Agent Assist tools that give agents real-time support during customer interactions. The results speak for themselves: • Agent gets asked an impossible question? AI whispers the answer • Customer mentions an uncommon tech issue? Relevant articles appear automatically • Agent struggling to categorize the call? AI suggests the perfect reason code • About to make a mistake? AI catches it before it happens This creates a 'best of both worlds' scenario where technology handles routine tasks while agents focus on what humans do best: • empathy • genuine connection • creative problem-solving When to Automate vs. When to Humanize: • Let AI Handle: Repetitive tasks, basic info lookups, initial problem identification • Keep It Human: Complex problems, emotional situations, VIP customers who expect the red carpet treatment Pro tip: Give customers choice. Instead of forcing one path, ask: "We can have an agent available in 5 minutes, or you can chat with our AI assistant now who handles most issues. What works better for you?" Your tech should be: • Serving up answers faster than expected • Reducing agent cognitive load, not adding to it • Supporting natural conversation, not rigid scripts • Suggesting solutions, not just documenting problems AI doesn't replace your agents – it creates 'super agents' who resolve issues faster, with less effort, and greater accuracy. It's not about choosing between humans OR technology. It's about humans AND technology working together. The companies seeing the best results have figured out this perfect pairing – and their customers can't get enough. What's your experience with human-AI partnerships in CX?

AI agents are on the verge of transforming digital commerce beyond recognition and it’s a wake-up call for many companies, including Shopify, Intercom, and Mailchimp, as I outline in my new post https://lnkd.in/gZKzPURM In this new world, your AI agent will book flights, negotiate deals, and submit claims—all autonomously. It’s not just a fanciful vision. A web of emerging infrastructure is rapidly making these scenarios real, changing how payments, marketing, customer support, and even localization will operate: (1) Agentic payments – Traditional card-present vs. card-not-present models assume a human at checkout. In an agent-driven economy, payment rails must evolve to handle cryptographic delegation, automated dispute resolution, and real-time fraud detection. (2) Marketing and promotions – Forget email blasts and coupon codes. Agents subscribe to structured vendor APIs for hyper-personalized offers that match user preferences and budget constraints. Retailers benefit from more accurate inventory matching and higher customer satisfaction. (3) Agent-native customer support – Instead of human chat widgets, we’ll see agent-to-agent troubleshooting and refunds. Businesses that adopt specialized AI interfaces for these tasks can drastically reduce response times and improve support experiences. (4) Dynamic localization – The painstaking process of translating websites becomes obsolete. Agents handle on-the-fly language conversion and cultural adaptations, allowing businesses to maintain a single “universal” interface. Just as mobile reshaped e-commerce, agent-driven workflows create a whole new paradigm where transactions, support, and even marketing happen automatically. Companies that adapt—by embracing agent passports, machine-readable infrastructures, and new payment protocols—will be the ones shaping the next era of online business. More in the third post of my series on AI agents and their impact on the internet https://lnkd.in/gZKzPURM Also available as a NotebookLM-powered podcast episode (highly recommended)

There's one use case for AI agents not being talked about enough: volatile or seasonal industries. Think about what crypto, fintech, travel, and even retail have in common. Their surges in volume (some random, some not) and customer inquiries make it extremely challenging for traditional CX systems to keep up. But where legacy systems struggle, AI systems step up. Here's how: 1. Scalability When inquiry volumes spike, AI agents can handle the influx without missing a beat. There are no delays from hiring surplus human agents to handle more volume, making AI agents both cost- and process-efficient. 2. Consistency Whether it's 1K or 1M customer inquiries, AI agents guarantee the same level of accuracy and precision every time. Humans need downtime, AI doesn't. 3. Prioritization Customer inquiries come with varying degrees of complexity. While AI agents take care of the low-hanging fruit and repeatable tasks, human agents can focus on the high-touch cases that demand personal attention. Take Coinbase’s customer support, for example. They handle $226B in quarterly trading volume in 100+ countries. Their margin of error is slim, and CX mistakes could cost billions. Instead of leaning on human CX alone, they use AI agents to: • Handle thousands of messages per hour • Reduced customer service handling time • Improve search relevance for their help center The enterprises we work with at Decagon experience the same benefits using AI customer service agents—scalable support, no gaps in performance, and higher customer satisfaction. Just because your industry is volatile doesn't mean your CX should be.

Context Engineering: The Psychology of Exceptional Customer Experience with AI Agents A context engineering guide that will help you implement an AI Agent that customers actually love. Here's what nobody talks about: Great customer experience isn't about solving problems faster. 🤝 It's about being known. When your AI agent remembers that Sarah prefers email updates, hates small talk, and always asks about enterprise pricing—that's not just efficiency. That's recognition. And recognition builds trust. Context Engineering is the psychology of digital relationships. It's teaching AI agents to hold space for customers the way humans do: → Remember what matters to them → Build on past conversations → Anticipate their needs → Speak their language The difference? Customers stop seeing your AI as a roadblock and start seeing it as an ally. Most companies are still building "smart answering machines." The breakthrough companies are building AI that customers genuinely prefer over human support. Not because it's faster. Because it knows them better. Context engineering transforms AI from a tool customers tolerate into a relationship they value. That's the real competitive advantage. What makes you feel truly "known" in a customer service interaction?

For the past few months, I’ve been setting up AI agents for our customers. As we launched AI on chat, I understood something I didn’t expect... Chat AI agents are going to fundamentally change the way shoppers interact Here’s how my thinking evolved: 👉 Initial thought: AI agents were here to improve customer experience with instant responses. 👉 Next idea: Once set up, they could start turning support conversations into sales 👉 The real insight: There’s more than that. When I shop, I start with ChatGPT, telling it what I want to buy and getting personalized recommendations. I then provide feedback to narrow down the options. Once I’ve found what I want, I leave ChatGPT and head over to the merchant’s website. I beleive the in store experience we have when speaking with a store associate can finally have its digital equivalent. Drift pioneered this for B2B SaaS a few years ago, but back then you could only chat with SDRs, which eventually felt limited. Now, AI agents enable a whole new level of depth, that’s comparable to the quality of conversation you’d have with an associate, if not better. I think merchants need to provide this kind of experience on their websites. Having an AI agent on chat isn’t just about responding to existing conversations. 𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, which will likely result in 10x more conversations and an overall better shopping experience. I’m working with the GLAMNETIC team to implement this, and I’ll keep sharing my learnings as we move forward.

Last month, I met with four customers using HubSpot’s Customer Agent. Here’s what we learned about the state of agents in customer experience. 1. Agents solve capacity challenges for small and medium businesses. One customer is managing 120 brands with a team of one. Another is competing with big box stores as a family business. Customer Agent is resolving 65%+ of tickets automatically. There’s always more work than SMBs can do – agents provide the leverage. 2. Instructions are the unlock. One customer spent a full day mapping 20 categories and 200 questions into custom instructions. They taught the agent what to say AND what not to say. Now it asks the right follow-up questions, gathers context, and routes customers exactly where they need to go. 3. 24/7 multilingual support levels the playing field. Three time zones, multiple languages, 24/7 is no longer a feature list. It’s how small businesses compete with global corporations. For a family business, having an agent work Saturday afternoons when they’re closed helps them compete on a larger scale. 4. The bar for business AI is consumer AI. Customers use Perplexity and ChatGPT every day. They’ll only adopt business tools that match or beat that experience. Agents need to understand custom properties, ask intelligent follow-ups, and work across the entire customer journey, not just support tickets. What’s working (or not working) with AI agents in your customer experience? Let me know in the comments.

For decades, businesses have built call centers, service teams, and help desks to fix issues faster. Yet speed alone never created loyalty. The real measure of service has always been how it makes people feel: heard, understood, and valued.   Now, with AI transforming how we engage with customers, that emotional foundation is being redefined. 62% of customers now say they prefer chatting with a bot over waiting for a human, as long as it provides faster, more accurate service, according to Salesforce.   This statistic shows that people still seek empathy and understanding, but they also want quick, smart responses. That’s where AI chatbots and virtual assistants come in.    So, what is the role of AI chatbots and virtual assistants in improving customer support? Here are a few key roles they play: ▪Immediate Understanding: 🔅 AI can analyze tone, sentiment, and keywords to understand the customer's state of mind instantly. This allows responses to feel timely and considerate, not robotic. ▪Faster Resolutions with Context: 🔅 Virtual assistants can resolve repetitive tasks instantly while passing complex cases to human agents with full context, so customers never need to repeat themselves. ▪Consistency Without Fatigue: 🔅 Unlike human agents, AI doesn’t get tired or lose patience. It brings calm, consistent support anytime, in any language, across any channel. ▪Empathetic Language Modeling: 🔅 The latest AI models are trained to respond with warmth and tact, saying things like “I understand how frustrating this must be” or “Let me take care of that for you,” just like a well-trained agent would. ▪ Boosting Human Support: 🔅 By handling the routine, AI allows human agents to focus on high-emotion, high-stakes moments where real connection is needed, creating a more powerful hybrid model. Are chatbots naturally empathetic? Not yet. But they can be designed to behave empathetically, and that’s a game-changer for CX. Support today focuses on meeting people where they are, not just directing them where the system wants. In regions like Saudi Arabia, where expectations for digital transformation and real-time service are rapidly growing, support becomes a strategic necessity. When technology understands people and people trust technology, customer support becomes more effective. #Customerexperience #CX #AI #Chatbots #Virtualassistants

✈️ Just explored this incredible customer story at Dreamforce from Heathrow Airport that perfectly illustrates what the "Agentic Enterprise" looks like in action. Heathrow serves over 83 million passengers annually 👥, imagine trying to deliver personalized service at that scale! They've deployed an AI agent called "Hallie" 🤖 that's transforming the passenger experience in remarkable ways. 📊 The Results: 📈 40% improvement in digital contact efficiency ⏱️ 50%+ fewer chat exchanges needed to get answers ✅ 90% of chats resolved by Hallie without human transfer 🔍 What makes this work: Hallie pulls together real-time data from multiple sources 📡, including live security queue times, immigration wait times, flight statuses, gate changes, and beacon-based wayfinding throughout the terminal. It's accessible via WhatsApp 📱, making it incredibly convenient for travelers. 💡 Key insight from Peter Burns, Director of Marketing & Digital at Heathrow: "That's what Agentforce is going to deliver. It's effectively a digital concierge that holds your hand through your end-to-end airport experience." ❤️ The human angle: What I love most is that this isn't about replacing people, it's about elevating them. By handling routine queries, Hallie frees up Heathrow's team to focus on passengers with complex needs 🧑🦽. It's the perfect example of AI handling what machines do best, so humans can focus on what they do best. 🚀 The future of travel is looking smoother, more personalized, and decidedly more intelligent. #Salesforcepartnership 

What an incredible week it’s been at #CrestaWAVE. Onstage, I had the privilege of unveiling 4 of Cresta’s latest innovations that push the boundaries of what’s possible when humans and AI work together to deliver world-class customer experiences: 1. Real-Time Translation and Internationalization: Breaking down one of the oldest barriers in customer experience: language. Human and AI agents can now engage seamlessly with customers across languages via voice and chat — bringing accessibility, inclusivity, and reach to every interaction. 2. Agent Operations Center: The new command hub for modern contact centers. For the first time, supervisors can see and manage every human and AI-led conversation in real time, ensuring every interaction is accurate, compliant, and consistent across channels. 3. Automation Discovery: A smarter, data-driven way to take the guesswork out of automating conversations with AI agents. By combining conversation analytics with automation readiness scores and workflow mapping, Automation Discovery gives leaders clarity and confidence to prioritize the highest-impact conversations to automate and how to do it. 4. Prompt Optimizer: Building great AI agents shouldn’t be limited to technical teams. Prompt Optimizer makes AI agent design accessible to everyone by delivering guided recommendations and best practices to optimize AI Agent prompts. The energy and ideas shared at #CrestaWAVE are proof of the impact AI innovation is having on the customer experience. I couldn’t be prouder of what we’re building and the incredible community shaping this next chapter with us. Get a deep dive into each new product here: https://lnkd.in/eKi-Xbkw