AI promises to make a big impact on the CX industry, with the implementation of chatbots and voice assistants, behavioral data and machine learning, real-time personalization and natural language processing, and more, already in the market. These advanced technologies deliver immediate insights to meet customer needs practically instantaneously.

Or at least that’s the idea. Opinions vary widely on how successful AI technology really is in delivering a better customer experience—especially among customers and the CX professionals putting it to use. We wanted to dig deeper to find out what is fueling this difference of opinion, and how it might be informing larger gaps in modern CX.

So we did what we do best: we asked. And our research revealed a surprising disconnect between what customers want and what many CX teams aim to deliver. Powerful insights around the evolving role of AI in the customer experience were also uncovered.

Here’s a look at what these findings say about some of the most significant gaps in CX today.

The value of AI is in the eye of the beholder.

While a majority of CX professionals are excited about the promise of AI, customers are mostly skeptical. The 32% of customers who think AI will positively impact their experience are overshadowed by 39% who believe it will have a negative impact.

Speed of service and personalization are the largest areas of disconnect between how customers and CX teams perceive the value of AI. Only 17% of customers agree with the 62% of CX teams that say AI has increased the speed of customer service, and only 15% of customers agree with nearly half of CX teams that believe AI delivers more personalized experiences.

These inconsistencies may be due to differences in how the two groups define AI or understand its behind-the-scenes use. For example, a CX professional leveraging useful data harnessed by AI will likely have a more favorable response to the technology than a customer interacting with a chatbot or other less successful replacement for what might otherwise be human interaction.

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Speaking of human interaction, that’s a hot-button issue in the world of AI, too. More than half of customers (55%) say they prefer human engagement, compared to only 13% who prefer self-service options. And nearly two-thirds (63%) prefer human-generated product or service recommendations over AI-generated recommendations. This type of living data will likely evolve in tandem with improvements to AI-generated options and recommendations. Therefore, we have to keep asking questions and gathering feedback to stay accurate.

Personalization is a paradox.

This brings us to personalization. Our study found that almost half of CX pros believe AI delivers more personalized experiences compared to only 15% of consumers. In fact, almost half of customers (45%) say their experiences have gotten less personalized over the past year, while nine out of ten CX pros believe their customers’ experiences are personalized! Not to mention the difference between the personalized experience CX pros believe they offer all of the time (40%) and the personalization customers feel they consistently receive (12%).

It’s a bit easier to account for this variation when you consider how subjective the concept of personalization is. For example, when asked what types of services would provide a ‘personalized experience,’ both customers and CX teams cited individual attention and tailored recommendations. However, 39% of CX teams ranked customizable products or services as important to personalize, compared to only 25% of customers.

There is no simple formula or one-size-fits-all approach for using AI to deliver a consistently satisfactory customer experience. To deliver more personalized experiences, brands must be keenly aware of their audience’s preferences and grapple with a great deal of nuance within those preferences—all of which require ongoing feedback.

Priorities and expectations are often misaligned.

Our study also shows many customer complaints don’t align with CX teams’ priorities. For example, CX teams are prioritizing more frequent customer communications (51%), integrating customer feedback into strategy (47%), and personalizing customer touchpoints (45%). These are uber-relevant things. But customers have more basic frustrations, including long wait times (42%), getting the run-around (35%), and unhelpful automated responses (40%)—this last one is a priority for only 25% of CX teams. Yikes!

There are more glaring disconnects, too. For example, 88% of customers ranked frustrating channel transfers a top-three priority, compared to only 28% of CX teams. And having to repeatedly explain an issue is a top aggravation for 31% of customers, but it’s a priority for only 15% of CX teams.

I suspect that customers may be hesitant to embrace something new—like AI—when something old still needs to be fixed. Our study found that time and friction points are top complaints for customers, but not as important to CX professionals, who focus more on delivering innovative, groundbreaking experiences (i.e., the things AI aims to deliver). But customers don’t need CX teams to exceed expectations if their basic problems aren’t being resolved. The majority of customers (61%) prefer their customer service interactions to focus on solving their immediate issue versus going above and beyond their original request.

Overachievers, stand down! The customer feedback speaks for itself.

Hurry up and wait no more.

Despite these gaps in modern CX, AI is doing what it does best—learning to be better, which will also ultimately help CX teams deliver better experiences. On a positive note, there is one thing customers and CX teams do agree on: reducing wait times is a top priority for both! Nearly four out of ten CX pros (38%) and customers (42%) say it is the biggest issue to resolve.

While customer priorities and CX delivery may never exist in perfect harmony, AI and other advancing technologies are constantly making progress toward that end. The more CX teams ask, listen, and then act, the more successful they will be in meeting customers’ needs. And the more forthcoming customers are with their insights and experiences, the more seamless their experiences will become

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