Where Does GenAI Meet Customer Experience?

We’ve all been there, the memory of endless elevator music, the chatbot that loops you back to the start, or the form-letter email that feels entirely generic. These moments linger in our minds, not because of what was said, but because of how they made us feel: frustrated, unappreciated, unseen.

Bad service leaves a mark. It doesn’t matter if the product itself was good when support fails, it shapes our lasting perception of a brand.

In fact, research from PWC shows that 32% of customers will walk away from a brand they love after just one bad experience. That number jumps even higher for younger consumers, who expect immediacy and personalisation as the norm. That’s why the arrival of Generative AI (GenAI) in customer experience (CX) is such a big moment.

The stakes are clear: in a world where customers are less forgiving and switching costs are lower than ever, customer experience isn’t just a support function - it’s a growth engine, a retention lever, and often the deciding factor between success and irrelevance

Scaling without empathy has always been the Achilles’ heel of service models, but GenAI sits squarely at the heart of solving that challenge.

Why GenAI feels different

This isn’t your classic rule-bound chatbot that fires off prewritten lines. GenAI can actually create. It crafts thoughtful replies, distills long conversations, tailors responses to individual context, or even anticipates what a customer might ask next.

Instead of forcing people through rigid decision trees (“Press 1 for billing, 2 for tech support”), GenAI can adapt and respond with context. It understands nuance, tone, and history. In short, it makes customer interactions feel faster, more relevant, and paradoxically, more human.

And this is why people are paying attention: McKinsey estimates that GenAI could add up to $4.4 trillion annually in productivity gains worldwide, with customer operations being one of the sectors most impacted.

Early adopters are already proving the point. In financial services, NatWest has begun experimenting with GenAI to assist its contact centre teams, reducing call handling times while improving accuracy in regulatory-heavy conversations. In retail, Marks & Spencer has piloted AI-powered virtual assistants to handle common queries, freeing human agents to focus on complex or high-value interactions. And according to Gartner, by 2026 as many as one in ten agent interactions will be automated through conversational AI, up from just 1.6% today—part of a broader shift that's expected to reduce contact centre labour costs by billions. 

The B2C advantage: instant, empathetic support

For consumers, the expectation is sky high. Support must be instant, accessible around the clock, and sound like a real conversation, not a robot reading from a manual.

GenAI enables assistants that not only provide answers but do so in ways that feel conversational. They can solve common problems on the spot, and when an issue requires empathy or human judgment, they can smoothly escalate to a real person.

Think of it as a first responder for CX: quick, clear, and helpful. For customers, that means fewer moments of frustration, more seamless journeys, and more brand interactions that feel genuinely helpful. According to Hubspot, 84% of customer service reps who use AI say it makes ticket responses easier, and 64% say it helps personalise those responses. In other words: customers are already benefitting.

The B2B reality: relationships that scale

In B2B, the challenge isn’t volume - it’s complexity. These are high-value relationships where a single unanswered email can ripple into lost trust and missed opportunities.

GenAI can serve as a co-pilot for account managers and client-facing teams. By surfacing client histories, summarizing past conversations, and suggesting tailored updates, it ensures that every touchpoint feels deliberate and thoughtful.

Imagine walking into a client meeting where an AI assistant has already prepared a digest of the last six months of communication, flagged open issues, and suggested next steps. That’s not just efficiency - it’s relationship-building at scale.

The outcome? Stronger partnerships, faster responses, and a level of consistency that makes clients feel valued at every turn.

But let’s not kid ourselves

Of course, none of this is automatic. Misused, GenAI can produce the very outcomes it’s meant to fix: canned, disjointed replies, tone-deaf suggestions, or generic updates that erode trust.

There are also real-world impacts to consider. A Stanford and MIT study found that the introduction of AI tools reduced demand for entry-level call center workers, with employment for younger service workers dropping 13% in highly automatable roles. That reality highlights both the opportunity and the responsibility that comes with GenAI adoption: it should augment human work, not simply replace it.

Used responsibly, however, the upside is undeniable. Mckinsey reports that AI tools can save up to 1.2 hours per agent per day. BigSur.ai has found that GenAI slashes resolution times by 87%,
The biggest beneficiaries? Newer agents, who suddenly perform at the level of seasoned professionals with years of experience.

That’s not just a productivity boost, it’s a cultural one. Happier agents tend to deliver calmer, more empathetic service.

Traditional service vs. With GenAI

Here’s where the contrast becomes clear:

Laying it out side by side, the shift is obvious: what used to feel slow, rigid, and transactional can now feel dynamic, conversational, and human.

The Summary

For many of the industries we rely on every single day, from financial services and retail to telecoms and travel, Generative AI represents more than a new tool. It’s an opportunity to completely reimagine customer experience so it can scale at speed without losing the human touch.

The businesses that embrace this balance, where human empathy is amplified by intelligent automation will distinguish themselves in ways that extend far beyond efficiency metrics or cost savings. They won’t just reduce resolution times; they’ll craft experiences that people talk about, share with friends, and actively seek out again.

These are the moments that matter most:

• Moments of trust, when a customer feels reassured in a crisis.
• Moments of relief, when an issue is resolved without hassle.
• Moments of connection, when support feels personal and human rather than transactional.

Handled well, these experiences can transform frustration into loyalty, turning what could have been a negative interaction into a brand-defining one. Customers leave not only satisfied, but also feeling seen, heard, and genuinely understood.

Because ultimately, customer experience has never been about tickets, queues, or transactions, it has always been about people. And getting that right is what transforms service from a cost centre into a growth engine that drives trust, advocacy, and long-term relationships.

With Gartner predicting that 80% of customer service organisations will be using GenAI by 2026, the future is coming fast.