Sprinklr CPO Karthik Suri on Why Creator Engagement is Becoming an Essential Part of CX Strategy

For years, brands viewed creators primarily as a way to reach audiences.

They helped drive awareness, influence purchase decisions, and expand the reach of marketing campaigns.

But according to Sprinklr Chief Product and Corporate Strategy Officer Karthik Suri, that view is becoming outdated.

In a recent conversation with CreatorIQ Chief Partnerships Officer Tim Sovay, Suri argued that creators are evolving from a reach and engagement channel into a trusted part of the customer journey itself. As trust in creators deepens, their influence has started to extend beyond marketing and into customer experience.

Social grew up. So did its job description.

Suri traces social's evolution across the decade and a half he has been deeply involved in it as three distinct phases:

• Engagement
• Influence
• Impact

"It started off as fun, then became meaningful and purposeful, and now it is a life companion," he says. Health and fitness regimens. Travel decisions. Even college admissions, where his two kids — "the screenagers" — weigh career choices based on the people they follow and respect.

The scale behind that shift matters for every brand leader. Suri notes that roughly two-thirds of the world's population uses social media, and that each person uses an average of seven channels. He counts himself in that number, describing how his own family used influencer recommendations to plan a recent food tour, street food to sandwich shops, and how, just north of fifty, he follows creators for fitness guidance tailored to his body type.

Where did this shift in our collective mindset occur? Suri points to the first three to four years of the creator wave taking off, and attributes it to one word: trust. Creators stopped being a digital town square and became a destination people go to for guidance and mentorship.

Creators are setting your service benchmarks now

Here's the shift most brands haven't factored in yet. Creators aren't only shaping what people buy. They're shaping what people expect after they buy.

"Creators are also now setting the benchmark for services and what to expect from brands," Suri explains. Their role runs "from marketing and demand gen to voice of the customer" all the way to "setting service level expectations."

His example makes it concrete. Picture a tech-centric creator with a tech-centric following, and a firmware upgrade that goes wrong. More resolution happens inside that creator's community than through the brand's point-to-point support conversations. The community helps each other. Problems get solved before they ever reach a ticket queue.

That's a significant shift.

Creators are no longer just helping brands acquire customers. They're helping customers learn, troubleshoot, and succeed throughout the ownership experience.

For CX leaders, that means some of the most important customer conversations may be happening outside traditional support channels.

Why creator strategy can no longer operate in a silo

Historically, many organizations treated influencer marketing as a separate initiative. Creator programs often sat alongside those functions.

Suri believes that model is breaking down.

If creators influence discovery, engagement, service expectations, and loyalty, they are no longer a standalone marketing tactic. They are increasingly part of the broader customer journey.

As Suri put it, creator strategy should not be viewed as a separate lane. Your creator strategy and your overall brand strategy are becoming one and the same.

Why unified data matters

That perspective also helps explain the strategic rationale behind the Sprinklr and CreatorIQ partnership.

Marketing leaders want to understand how creator investments contribute to broader business outcomes, from engagement and retention to overall customer experience. Yet creator data often lives in separate systems and workflows.

The goal is to create a more unified environment where brands can understand creator performance alongside paid and owned activity, connect creator programs to customer outcomes, and move more quickly from insight to action.

In Suri's view, the future may involve multiple platforms, but customers will experience them as one connected ecosystem.

The bigger shift

The biggest takeaway from the conversation wasn't about technology.

It was about how brands think about creators.

Organizations that continue to view creators primarily as a reach and engagement channel may be underselling their value. As trust becomes increasingly important in how customers discover, evaluate, and engage with brands, creators are becoming part of the customer experience ecosystem itself.

That's not just a marketing shift. It's a full-on business transformation.

Listen to the full conversation with Karthik Suri on CreatorIQ's Earned podcast for more practical tips and insights.

Not seeing the full impact creators have on your brand’s social performance? Consolidate siloed marketing performance data into one view with Sprinklr X CreatorIQ.