Qualtrics charts the future of XM with AI-powered “Experience Agents” at X4 2025

Qualtrics introduced its latest innovation, Experience Agents™, at X4 2025: The Experience Management Summit. The announcement marked a significant step in the evolution of experience management, signalling a new era defined by autonomous agentic artificial intelligence (AI).

CX Network was on the ground in Salt Lake City, joining thousands of senior executives, industry experts, and experience management (XM) professionals to explore the latest insights, technologies and strategies transforming the way brands engage with their customers and employees. From exclusive product reveals to candid leadership discussions, X4 offered a front-row seat to the future of experience.

AI with empathy

Headlining the event was the launch of Experience Agents™ - intelligent AI entities designed to autonomously engage with customers and employees across all channels with empathy, personalization and precision. Built on LangChain’s LangGraph platform, Experience Agents aim to revolutionize how organizations scale high-touch experiences without compromising quality or human connection.

“These AI-powered agents are not just automating tasks - they’re elevating experience interactions by listening, understanding, and responding in context,” said Qualtrics CMO Lynn Girotto. “This is the future of experience management: personalized at scale, with intelligence and care.”

Closing the strategy gap in AI adoption

In an exclusive chat with CX Network during X4, Isabelle Zdatny, head of thought leadership for Qualtrics' XM Institute offered deeper context behind the company’s recent AI research, conducted in partnership with McKinsey. One striking statistic: while 72 percent of executives believe AI will significantly transform customer experience (CX), only 12 percent have a centralized AI strategy.

“A lot of executives understand AI will be transformative in the medium-to-long term,” Zdatny explained, “but what that means in the next 18 months is much less clear. There’s a real fear of making big organizational changes without guaranteed outcomes.”

She pointed to the complexity of implementation: “It often requires top-down leadership, changes to tech infrastructure, legal and compliance oversight - it’s a heavy lift. There’s urgency, but not always clear intention. Everyone’s feeling the pressure to ‘do something in AI,’ but without a solid roadmap, it’s easy to get distracted by shiny tools rather than building toward real value.”

Another statistic stood out: only 15 percent of executives aim to be leaders in AI-driven transformation.

“We’re seeing the classic technology adoption curve,” Zdatny noted. “Even mature organizations are cautious because the reputational risk of getting AI wrong is high. Some companies rushed in after the release of ChatGPT - rolling out AI-powered chatbots without quality training data - and ended up delivering poor customer experiences. AI magnifies errors. And once customers lose trust, it’s hard to win them back.”

Quick links:

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