Customer experience expectations changed already yesterday. A single channel improvement or campaign is no longer enough – new ways are needed to combine emotional intelligence, artificial intelligence, and data into one seamless service. Sitra’s recent megatrend map highlights how technology is merging with everyday life – and this requires companies to boldly build customer experiences that are more personal and precise than ever before.
Customer experience can no longer be discussed without a technology angle. Artificial intelligence is not just a background factor – it is rapidly becoming the invisible infrastructure of everyday life. And this increasingly shapes how people make decisions and expect to be served. Customer experience should consider data, AI, and emotions.
An intelligent customer experience emerges only when human motivations and technology move hand in hand. AI anticipates customer needs, but emotional intelligence determines whether an encounter builds trust and leads to action. Together, these two components create an experience nearly impossible to copy. A competitor can buy the same technology, but not the same understanding of the customer.
At the core of intelligent customer experience is a data ecosystem that doesn’t operate in silos. Customers do not distinguish between marketing, sales, and customer service – and neither should the organization. When customer information is unified and shared, every interaction strengthens the previous one.
The shift in customer expectations also underscores the importance of transparent, consistent data use. When data is reliable and accessible, AI can enrich it instantly and identify personal customer needs. AI also has an exceptional ability to predict demand and produce recommendations that enable the organization to act proactively.
One excellent example of this is the development of Chinese e-commerce, especially the speed of its service. Customer behavior can be predicted with such precision that couriers can be positioned in advance at specific locations before a major promotional campaign begins. And when the campaign goes live across different channels, logistics and deliveries happen within minutes.
When an organization begins developing its customer experience during a technological shift, the process is best advanced without rushing. Below are three steps that help steer development in a controlled manner:
Digia combines technology with human-centered business design to make the customer experience transparent, consistent, and intelligent. We create a unified customer and data view for the organization, build a scalable data and AI architecture, and help identify the development areas that generate the most value. At the same time, we ensure the success of a people-centric change process.
When the whole is built on a concept that integrates the company’s identity, data, technology, and change leadership, the result is unique customer experiences that create sustainable competitive advantage.
If you want to learn more about developing customer experience in the AI era and optimizing intelligent business, download Digia’s latest Intelligent Business whitepaper (in Finnish).