The highs and lows facing CX leaders in 2025

At the heart of all businesses, there’s a simple truth: if you don’t give your customers a good experience of your brand, you won’t succeed.

In our world of infinite choice, when your competitors are a mere swipe away, when switching service or product is as simple as clicking a few buttons, and when customer loyalty is the most fragile it’s ever been, CX is all that stands between you and the loss of your business. And by the same token, a brand that delights its customers, making them feel seen, known and served, is a brand that can count on customer retention and growth.

At the heart of every interaction, user journey and sale, there’s a human being – equipping your company to treat them like a person rather than a number makes all the difference to business success.

If all that’s true, shouldn’t CX professionals be their companies’ most prized possessions, trusted with the success of the enterprise?

Well, in some cases, yes – but as always, the year ahead holds both opportunities and new challenges for the CX profession.

To identify the key positives and pain points facing the industry, towards the end of last year,  Nextiva conducted research with more than 1,000 in-house CX leaders from across the UK, US and Canada. We asked them what’s driving success in their practice, what’s causing them headaches and where they see the big changes and evolutions coming up in 2025.

Here are four key things we discovered...

1. CX is riding a wave right now

To start on a positive note, the research showed powerfully that CX is no longer perceived as a mere cost centre.

In fact, a whopping 96 percent of CX leaders report that their company leadership sees customer experience as a key driver of business outcomes, with 79 percent reporting that their corporate leadership now view CX as a crucial revenue driver.

This shifting perspective is making it easier to get CX investments approved, with 67 percent of respondents reporting increased ease in securing funding compared to five years ago.

There are a few reasons for this shift in perception. Advances in CX technology and cultural changes have gradually improved the reputation of CX over the years. For example, nearly half of CX professionals (47 percent) cited their increased ability to track the business impact of their investments as a notable reason for the perception change.

Metrics like CLTV, CAC and retention rate can make clear to senior leaders how CX is adding to the bottom line. Additional factors cited by leaders were the ability to implement new technologies (43 percent), general changes in attitude (42 percent) and improved ROI metrics (35 percent).

2. Too much tech is the opposite of helpful

At the same time, more technology doesn’t necessarily equate to better performance. In fact, our research indicates that beyond a point, adding to your tech stack may actually drive down productivity.

On average, CX teams are juggling more than six different tools to manage customer experiences. This can make delivering a consistent, personalized service a challenge, as data integration becomes trickier and the learning curve for staff members grows steeper. 81 percent of CX professionals believe consolidating customer data into a single system would significantly improve CX.

Shredding tech debt and consolidating into a single CX platform is a trend to watch, as companies strive for better and more efficient customer experiences.

3. AI is coming, but it’s not mature yet

In the midst of that need to consolidate, there’s one tech investment at the top of every leader’s mind: artificial intelligence. However, good intentions in this sphere aren’t yet being matched by reliable frontline usage. As many as 92 percent of businesses said they are embracing AI to improve customer experience. Of those, 24 percent characterize themselves as ‘early stage’, 31 percent as ‘in process’, and 28 percent as ‘established’, but only nine percent called themselves ‘mature’ in their adoption.

The research revealed a raft of drivers behind this huge uptake of AI. In fact, 54 percent of CX leaders cited revenue generation as their primary reason to invest in AI, with process improvements/efficiency gains (46 percent), customer demand (40 percent) and competitive pressure (39 percent) following. Demonstrating innovation (35 percent) and curiosity (26 percent) were also cited.

Organizations reported a dozen different current and future use cases; using generative AI to write to customers (64 percent), agent assist tools (60 percent), self-serve (57 percent) and quality assurance (53 percent) were the most advanced use cases.   

To address the gap between early adoption and maturity, truly impact customers and win in the field of CX, businesses need to embrace AI tools that will help streamline operations and enhance customer interactions. We’re still in the early days of AI deployments, but businesses need to take steps now to ensure their AI deployments work hard for them and keep ahead of the competition.

It’s also important to be aware that challenges shift as companies mature in their AI journey – and each stage has its own hurdles. For example, our research found that data issues peak among ‘in-process’ companies (43 percent) before dropping among ‘mature’ organizations (31 percent).

Likewise, ‘early stage’ companies are far less worried about the regulatory landscape than their ‘mature’ counterparts (24 percent vs. 35 percent). And one in four (24 percent) of the least mature organizations cited a lack of time and resources for experimenting and learning, which was less of an issue for other groups.

4. The AI-to-human handoff needs to be better

One outworking of AI immaturity also came to light in the research. We found that out-of-kilter human-to-AI handoffs are holding back nine in 10 customer experiences. Almost all CX decision makers (98 percent) say a smooth handoff between AI interactions and human agents is essential, but 90 percent of those using AI for CX say they have struggled to make it a reality.

Employee resistance tops the list of barriers (36 percent), followed by customer resistance (29 percent). Technology issues are also a factor, with the lack of integration (29 percent) and legacy technology (27 percent) cited as issues. To resolve the hand-off issues, CX decision makers say their company would benefit if human agents could oversee AI interactions and assist as needed (51 percent).

Overall, CX professionals have a strong opportunity this year to consolidate their position within their organizations, capitalize on the benefits of AI and improve the interface between human and automated customer service. Success can be secured by those who make the right investments and focus on the right development opportunities.

Quick links

• Five insights on the state of CX in 2024
• How to prove your CX program delivers results
• Benchmarking contact center efficiency: Key metrics and best practices

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