The Good And The Bad Of AI In CX And How To Get It Right

Insights from the CX-WISE podcast with Amanda Whiteside, Managing Director, Global Merchant Experience, Enablement & Growth at Uber. 

Let’s begin with an uncomfortable truth: AI isn’t always making customer experience better. 

In fact, a 2024 study by CCW Digital revealed that only 7% of customers felt their service interactions had improved recently — while a staggering 55% said their experiences had actually worsened.  

The reason? Over-reliance on automation and AI tools, that lack empathy and nuance. 

Chatbots that don’t fully understand the issue. Spammy outreach from AI agents. Frustrated customers jumping through hoops just to talk to a human. It’s no wonder nearly 40% of consumers surveyed, left negative reviews, and 48% even considered switching providers! 

So yes, AI has potential — but only when used with intention and thorough customer understanding. And that’s exactly what Amanda Whiteside explained in her conversation on the CX-WISE podcast. 

Automation is great — until it becomes spam 

Amanda shared a story that perfectly captures the risk of unchecked automation.  

A B2B company rolled out AI bots to handle outbound prospecting aiming to streamline lead generation. While the intent was solid, the execution fell flat. Customers received a flood of impersonal messages that burned through the company’s entire pipeline in just a month. 

The lesson here is simple: AI needs guardrails. Without human oversight, even the best intentions can backfire. Amanda emphasized the importance of checks and balances, especially in the early stages of AI implementation, to ensure the tech enhances the customer experience - not damage it. 

So then, what’s the good that AI can do? Amanda explains the areas where introducing AI can significantly enhance CX.  

Customer service: Where AI is already winning 

If there’s one area where AI is truly delivering value, it’s customer service.  

Drawing from her experience, Amanda shared how AI copilots helped support teams summarize tickets, route issues and extract key insights from long emails. 

As a result, the support teams became more efficient, customers got quicker resolutions and the overall experience felt more seamless and responsive. 

And let’s be honest — most of us are fine chatting with a bot if it gets the job done. As long as there’s a quick path to a human when needed, AI in customer service is a win-win. 

Seamless CX: The right mix of AI, data and unsiloed systems 

We all want to be proactive and personalize customer interactions. But here’s the catch: AI can’t predict or personalize anything if your systems are a mess. 

Amanda pointed out that many companies operate with siloed tools and disorganized data. Even when everything feeds into a central data lake, it’s often not structured in a way AI can interpret. Before expecting AI to deliver proactive or personalized insights, brands need to clean up their tech stack and ensure systems are interconnected. 

But even with the right data, delivery matters. Knowing where your customers are is a crucial piece of the CX puzzle which AI can help in piecing together.  

Here’s a line Amanda said in the podcast that stuck with me – “I don't think it's a CX team that knows AI. I think it's more of a specialist AI team that knows CX.” 

And I think that sums up why and where brands must introduce AI to deliver great CX. 

That’s the mindset shift brands need. While not every company can afford a dedicated AI-for-CX team, you can start small. Use AI to understand customer sentiment, then act on those insights in a way that makes your interactions timely, personalized, and human. 

Final thought: AI is powerful tool, not a shortcut 

Amanda said it best: “We’re in the early stages of AI, like the early internet days. It’s not perfect yet.” But with the right mix of empathy, strategy, and smart implementation, AI can help brands create experiences that feel more human, not less. 

So don’t just turn to AI for automation. Use it to make your customers feel seen and heard — because that’s what great CX is really about. 

Watch the full episode on YouTube and Spotify to learn how to do more with AI for CX.