Editorial
The Gist
- Unified CX advantage. AI enables a unified customer experience by integrating data across channels, ensuring consistent interactions and personalized engagement.
- Omnichannel strategy boost. Leveraging AI helps businesses overcome challenges in omnichannel strategies, delivering seamless experiences and consistent brand messaging.
- Personalized AI insights. Generative AI enhances customer personalization by analyzing data in real time, tailoring interactions and improving overall customer satisfaction.
Customer experience (CX) is critical to success in any industry. Study after study has shown that when the buyer journey is smooth and enjoyable, sales increase, engagement skyrockets, referrals become more likely and customer lifetime value rises.
But knowing that CX matters and succeeding in delivering outstanding customer experiences are two different things.
One of the biggest challenges is delivering a consistently positive experience across multiple channels. A recent Salesforce study found that on average, consumers engage with companies across eight different channels, including social media, email, live chat and physical stores. The vast majority respondents (79%) expect consistent interactions across all those channels.
When they interact with a company representative, they want them to know their name, loyalty status and previous conversations. Almost three-quarters of participants say that all company representatives should have the same information about them, no matter what channel they use.
But companies aren’t succeeding. The same study reported that 56% of consumers frequently have to repeat themselves when they change channels, and 55% say they feel like they’re communicating with separate departments instead of one unit.
Fortunately, artificial intelligence (AI) offers a valuable solution to creating a unified customer experience. Today’s AI systems simplify and streamline data collection and management, furnishing real-time insights across the organization and across channels.
These insights don’t only help with customer-facing communications. They can also inform CX optimization efforts over time.
“AI analytics can monitor customer interactions in real time, identifying patterns and potential issues that may lead to inconsistencies,” said Matt Hasan, CEO of aiRESULTS. “By analyzing this data, businesses can adjust their strategies and training programs to address gaps and maintain a seamless experience.”
In another recent study, Zendesk found that 70% of CX leaders intend to integrate generative AI into their customer journey over the next two years, with the goal of delivering the unified customer experience that consumers crave.
Here are some places where they might start.
Creating Unified Customer Profiles for a Seamless Experience
Unified customer data is fundamental to any omnichannel strategy, enabling a unified customer experience. But while most businesses collect this data, they often manage each situation in isolation, causing fragmentation, inefficient service and disjointed customer experiences. AI makes it easier to integrate data into a single source of truth and automatically draw on this information to build unified customer profiles.
“By analyzing vast amounts of data from various channels, such as social media, emails and chat logs, generative AI creates detailed customer profiles. By integrating AI with customer relationship management (CRM) systems and customer data platforms (CDPs), organizations can deliver highly personalized and contextually relevant responses,” wrote Sharang Sharma, VP at the Everest Group, in a recent article.
“With access to more insights than in the past, brand touchpoints can be customized in a way that makes the customer feel seen, heard and valued,” added Josh Campo, CEO of Razorfish. “AI can process data more effectively and efficiently, making it impactful at creating detailed audience segments and providing opportunities for hyper-personalization. That personalization goes beyond the typical name references, content selection and product cross-sell because the actual content and narrative can be tailored to an individual.”
Related Article: Quest for Unified Customer Data: How CDPs Enter Mix
Personalization Across Every Touchpoint
Once your data is consolidated, you can use AI to apply to automatically personalize every customer interaction at every touchpoint.
“We all know that the new frontier for retail success is personalization, but we face digitally savvy shoppers with constantly changing preferences who expect shopping experiences that are tailored, instant and effortless,” observed Amanda Spencer, Global Industry Marketing Lead, Retail and Fashion, SAP, in a recent Forbes article. “AI is the ultimate tool for delivering on these expectations, with its ability to intuitively understand customer desires.”
This personalization can continue across web pages, chatbots, social media comments, emails and in-store experiences. With the help of AI, customers can receive push notifications on their phone with tailored product suggestions and customized promotions for items that are relevant to their interests.
“As customer interactions become increasingly complex, AI’s ability to understand context and sentiment at scale ensures that every customer receives a consistent and contextually-appropriate experience based on brand guidelines,” noted Damian Rollison, director of Market Insights at SOCi. “This approach not only enhances brand consistency but also strengthens customer engagement.”
Creating More in-Store Convenience
Long checkout lines and inefficient product scanners and self-service payment areas are major sources of frustration to customers. Video and sensor data, together with AI analytics, can allow customers to just take items off store shelves and leave the store. Computer vision AI platforms can then connect with digital payment methods to automatically deduct payment.
AI solutions also enable businesses to blend physical interactions with those that take place in the digital realm, creating seamless “phygital” experiences. For example, AI can push a special offer when the customer is standing in the relevant aisle or adjust in-store ad displays when shoppers pass.
Additionally, smart tags on each item can track how customers interact with products in the store, and then retailers can improve store layout and product placement.
Related Article: Navigating the AI Customer Experience Retail Landscape
Maintaining a Unified Experience Through Consistent Messaging
Customers want to encounter the same brand voice, messaging and information across every touchpoint. When channels don’t align, customers can be confused or even suspect that they’ve encountered a fraudulent replica.
“Tailoring content for different channels, without compromising the overall brand message and tone, is a challenge. Content must be optimized for each platform while ensuring a cohesive brand voice,” noted Yogesh Joshi, Head of Growth at Kommunicate, in a recent blog.
AI can coordinate all channels to ensure consistent messaging, tone, notifications and actions. All customer-serving employees can use apps that are integrated with the same data and systems. An AI-powered prompt gives them the information and guidance they need in real time, so they’ll maintain brand coherence.
Webinar
Sep
25
CMS Briefing: A Live Look at What’s Next in AI-Driven Platforms
Learn how leading organizations are using AI‑driven tools to publish faster, personalize smarter and stay secure.
Register
Webinar
Sep
25
Call Spoofing Trends Financial Institutions Can't Afford to Ignore
Don't let robocalls sabotage your customer relationships. Learn how to secure your voice channel.
Register
Webinar
On demand
Ready or Not: How Data-First Organizations Are Unlocking Agentforce Potential
Learn how to cut through the noise, activate Agentforce and build a Salesforce AI strategy that actually delivers.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
CX Reality Check: What Your Customers Are Really Thinking
Register now and get the insights you need to not just meet rising expectations, but exceed them.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
Content Leaders Collective: What a Good CCMS Actually Looks Like
Discover how content leaders transform clunky systems into growth engines — and why your competitors are ahead.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
From Hype to High-Impact CX Strategies That Actually Scale
Turn buzzworthy AI and outsourcing trends into measurable CX wins with fresh 2025 data.
Watch Now
Enabling Seamless Conversations for a Unified Customer Experience
When customers open a complaint or raise a query, they expect everyone they speak to to know their issue and customer history. They want to be able to switch between channels without repeating information, and they want to feel like they're having one seamless conversation even when it crosses multiple channels.
AI can produce real-time insights into customer needs and history and push the information to an agent, online chatbot or in-store kiosk. This streamlines customer tasks like browsing, purchasing or returns, and it empowers agents to resolve issues faster.
AI can also be adept at discerning emotions and tailoring messages accordingly, explained Joe King, CMO at WinWire. “For example, if a customer expresses frustration in a chat, the AI can immediately recommend or trigger a more empathetic and solution-focused response, ensuring that the communication remains consistent with the brand's commitment to customer satisfaction,” he said. “Without AI, the scalability and consistency needed to deliver these personalized experiences across diverse touchpoints would be unattainable.”
AI’s Role in Shaping the Future of Unified Customer Experience
AI technology is advancing rapidly, and so are customer expectations from brands. By the end of this decade, if not sooner, the average shopper won’t be able to tell whether they’re interacting with a chatbot or a human agent.
Brands that crack the omnichannel challenges will be able to deliver consistent CX throughout the entire purchase journey, with seamless handovers between agents, bots and platforms and without any discernible gaps between channels.
Learn how you can join our contributor community.
