CallMiner released its annual CX Landscape Report in partnership with Vanson Bourne, revealing that 87% of global contact center and customer experience (CX) leaders across financial services, healthcare, retail, and technology industries believe implementing generative artificial intelligence (AI) is key for their customer service and CX teams, and 91% agree that AI will help optimize CX strategies. 

The past two years have proven transformative for AI. When generative AI first emerged, organizations were quick to implement, sometimes without consideration for security, cost, and other factors. Today, including through advancements in education, organizations are becoming more intentional and strategic about AI implementation, focused on how the technology is going to drive business value. Yet, AI uncertainty and challenges remain. Twenty-seven percent of survey respondents indicated that they don't know how to measure return on investment (ROI) on AI technology. And while there has been some improvement in knowing which AI technology best meets business needs, 37% of contact center and CX leaders still struggle in this area (compared to 44% in 2023).

AI advancements have also led organizations to expand and redefine team structures, as evidenced by the rise in Chief AI Officer roles and specialty teams, like AI boards or committees that oversee policy creation and technology deployment. These changes have the potential to exacerbate existing issues, such as a lack of alignment on strategic goals, which 38% of respondents report as a current challenge. Additionally, this year's study found that 63% of CX leaders admit implementing AI was more expensive than anticipated, including the cost of the team to maintain AI (42%) and time to train team members on the technology (40%).

"AI is incredibly complex and wide-encompassing, impacting nearly every role, task, and strategic initiative within organizations across a range of industries," said Jeff Gallino, founder and CEO of CallMiner. "CallMiner's 2024 CX Landscape Report makes one thing clear - we're at an inflection point. There is lingering uncertainty around AI implementation, ROI and team dynamics, but there's also immense optimism for its potential to disrupt the contact center and customer experience. The organizations that can balance AI's promise with practical, secure execution will be best positioned to capitalize on its transformative power."

AI growing pains lessen as organizations embrace proven use cases

The report found that organizations are making strides in their AI adoption journey, with a majority showing notable progress. In fact, 62% of organizations report at least having partially implemented AI technologies, with only 24% remaining in the early stages of AI implementation. In these early stages, contact center and CX leaders are focused on foundational AI use cases that can quickly demonstrate ROI before tackling more complex applications. The survey revealed that primary motivators for AI adoption are the automation of tasks to improve efficiency and agent productivity (44%) and enhancement of CX using chatbots and personalized recommendation systems (43%).

Further, as the market becomes more educated and aware of AI's potential, fears surrounding its implementation are diminishing. CX and contact center decision-makers are increasingly confident in their ability to manage AI, with only 21% now viewing it as too complex - a significant drop from 31% last year. Additionally, concerns about AI exposing companies to security or compliance risks have decreased, with only 38% of respondents expressing this worry, down from 45% in 2023. 

AI's role in empowering employees to improve CX 

Across industries, concerns of AI replacing employees persist. However, the CX Landscape Report found that organizations are not focused on using the technology to replace human agents, but rather, leveraging AI to enhance and elevate their capabilities - with 90% of organizations believing that AI will be essential to unlocking the full potential of their employees. One of the primary ways organizations harness the benefits of AI is by automating repetitive, low-value tasks for employees, as reported by 43% of respondents. This allows employees to focus on more complex, strategic challenges. In fact, 37% of organizations are specifically adopting AI to increase their teams' capacity for higher-level work.

Further, there's growing recognition of AI's role as a productivity multiplier and a shift towards more data-driven, objective approaches to performance evaluation and employee support in customer-facing roles. For example, the report found that nearly two in five organizations (39%) use unbiased (AI-driven) scoring of customer interactions and agent performance, and 46% use AI-powered real-time guidance during live customer engagements. Rather than replacing human agents, it's clear organizations are strategically deploying AI to empower their workforce, enhance productivity, and deliver better CX.

The evolution of data collection and customer feedback

Organizations interact with their customers on more channels than ever, creating an influx of customer data - but not all customer data is created equal. Solicited feedback, collected by directly asking customers for input (usually via surveys or reviews), is often limited and polarizing, capturing responses on either end of the emotional spectrum. Unsolicited feedback from customer interactions (found within the contact center or social channels) is unprompted, and when combined with solicited feedback, can provide a more holistic view of an organization's CX efforts.

This year's report found that organizations are gradually becoming less reliant on solicited feedback, with 64% of respondents claiming the majority of their data is solicited - compared to 71% in 2023 and 79% in 2022. Further, 25% are collecting an equal amount of solicited and unsolicited feedback (compared to 20% in 2023), indicating more organizations recognize the value of unsolicited feedback in painting a more complete picture of CX.

As data collection becomes more comprehensive, three in five (60%) are using automated processes to help analyze this additional CX data, an increase from 55% last year. By leveraging automation, organizations can quickly uncover the most meaningful insights to fuel CX efforts across the entire enterprise. 

For more information on CallMiner's CX Landscape Report, please download the full report here.