Getting Real About AI in Customer Experience

By Luke Brewin, Operations Directors at Force24

 

 

Introduction: The Changing Face of CX

Customer Experience (CX) has become the defining battleground for businesses today. Gone are the days when it was limited to a customer service desk or the last few minutes of a sale. CX now spans every interaction – from the first ad someone sees, to how they are supported months after purchase. And in an age of shrinking patience and rising expectations, how we meet customers in these moments has never mattered more.

Yet while many organisations claim to be customer-first, their tools and thinking are stuck in the past. Rigid surveys. 1 to 5 scoring. Delayed feedback loops. That is why AI has become such a powerful disruptor in this space and not just because it is shiny, but because it addresses fundamental flaws in how most businesses still measure and manage experience.

What We Mean by Customer Experience

Customer experience, or CX, refers to the full range of interactions a person has with your brand across every touchpoint, department, and stage of the journey. It encompasses not just what a customer does, but how they feel. It is the difference between completing a task and remembering the interaction. Great CX builds trust, loyalty, and advocacy. Poor CX does the opposite, you’ve probably experienced it. It often takes just one moment to undo years of goodwill and loyalty.

Why Traditional CX Metrics No Longer Cut It

Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) scores and Net Promoter Scores (NPS) have dominated customer feedback for decades. But they suffer from several well-documented weaknesses:

• They rely on customers choosing to give feedback, often only the very happy or very unhappy.
• They flatten complex experiences into binary or linear scales.
• They are reactive, only surfacing issues after the fact – often too late to make a difference.

At Force24, we recognised that asking customers how they felt simply was not enough. It gave us a basic snapshot, but not the story. And in a world where loyalty is earned moment to moment, we needed a deeper understanding. Our CSAT scores were consistently high, often hitting 98% or 99%, but they did not show us where to improve. The data was only as rich as the customer chose to give. Often it came down to a smiley face which is helpful, but hardly diagnostic.

The Shift to AI-Powered CX

AI enables us to move from static measurement to dynamic understanding. Instead of relying on infrequent feedback forms, we can now use continuous, contextual signals to guide how we serve our customers.

Here is what that looks like:

• Live signal interpretation: AI listens to tone, language and pace across channels – surfacing friction, emotion and opportunity without a single form being filled in.
• Full interaction analysis: Every chat, call, and message becomes a data point – not just for outcomes, but for how those outcomes felt.
• Proactive resolution: By flagging moments of frustration, confusion or delay as they happen, we can intervene before it affects loyalty.

This shift allows us to optimise not just the outcome of support, but the quality of every conversation – and it does so without relying on outdated response rates.

Why Moving from CSAT to AI-Driven Insight Matters

Traditional CX metrics like CSAT offer a narrow and often lagging view of customer sentiment. At Force24, we found they only captured feedback from a small, often polarised, portion of our audience. What AI delivers instead is a real-time, holistic understanding of how each customer is actually experiencing our service. By analysing language, tone, response time, and behavioural data across channels, we get richer, faster, and more actionable insight without needing to ask a single question.

This shift means we no longer depend on outdated 1 to 5 scores. We see patterns as they emerge. We address pain points before they escalate. And most importantly, we respect our customers’ time by listening in ways that do not require them to do the work for us.

We have created overlapping AI models that assess everything from the number of support chats to the topic and resolution quality. Is the issue about training or product clarity? Are they asking for best practice or expressing confusion? These signals are now interpreted not in isolation but as an evolving story. We use this analysis to produce a full summary of every customer account and every common issue. This feeds into our reporting, drives content updates in our help centre, and identifies internal training opportunities. CX becomes an organisational feedback loop and not just a customer-facing statistic.

Interestingly, this shift has seen a temporary reduction in our headline customer experience score. But for the first time, we can see exactly where and how to improve. That clarity is a bigger win than a high but uninformative score.

How Businesses Can Start Using AI to Improve CX

For those looking to follow a similar path, here is a simplified framework we recommend:

1. Map Your Moments: Identify the critical interactions customers have with your brand from onboarding to support, renewals to exits.
2. Capture the Signals: Audit where you currently collect feedback or data. What is missing? What is invisible to your current metrics?
3. Layer in Intelligence: Integrate AI tools that can detect sentiment, behaviour patterns or delay points in real time.
4. Automate the Obvious: Use automation to handle predictable, repeatable issues – freeing up your teams for the high-empathy, high-impact moments.
5. Test Relentlessly: Treat every new insight as a chance to improve. CX should never be static.
6. Define the Purpose: Know what you want AI to achieve. Do not just swap one metric for another. Build for real understanding.
7. Balance AI with Human Insight: Ensure you have teams in place who can track frustration, interpret nuance, and escalate where needed. AI works best alongside empathy.

From Reactive to Relational

CX is no longer a postscript. It is not the department you call when something breaks. It is the totality of how someone experiences your brand emotionally, practically, and repeatedly.

By moving away from traditional metrics and adopting AI-driven insight, Force24 is not just measuring how customers feel. We are building a culture that listens better, adapts faster, and creates more meaningful connections.

And that is the shift we all need to make. Not because it is clever. But because it is human.

Closing Thought

The promise of AI in customer experience is not about replacing people. It is about giving businesses the tools to treat every customer like they matter – not just the ones who fill in a form. As technology continues to evolve, the brands who thrive will be the ones who understand that real insight does not come from a score. It comes from listening.

Let us build for that.