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Trend
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Businesses are heavily focused on being able to instantly modify user experiences, putting increased pressure on leveraging data in real time
It’s not breaking news that customers want immediate results—anyone who has worked in customer support knows all too well that consumers have fuses that get shorter by the year. And with the advent of AI, customers keep expecting more: lightning-fast responses coupled with tailored information that give a sense of being known and seen.
An even more challenging expectation has arisen—that companies anticipate and ameliorate problems before customers experience them. However, the expectations of speed, anticipation, and hyper-personalized delivery of relevant information go hand-in hand with the demand for quality experiences. In other words, it’s not enough to be fast.
62% of CX leaders feel they are behind in providing more instant experiences consumers expect
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Trend 5
![](./assets/images/pill_headers-3.0f56d6e80c75.png)
Businesses are heavily focused on being able to instantly modify user experiences, putting increased pressure on leveraging data in real time
It’s not breaking news that customers want immediate results—anyone who has worked in customer support knows all too well that consumers have fuses that get shorter by the year. And with the advent of AI, customers keep expecting more: lightning-fast responses coupled with tailored information that give a sense of being known and seen.
An even more challenging expectation has arisen—that companies anticipate and ameliorate problems before customers experience them. However, the expectations of speed, anticipation, and hyper-personalized delivery of relevant information go hand-in hand with the demand for quality experiences. In other words, it’s not enough to be fast.
62% of CX leaders feel they are behind in providing more instant experiences consumers expect
Here’s what CX leaders told Zendesk: while they feel like they’re behind in providing more instant experiences, they have plans to remedy that gap by leveraging AI tools. And customers are increasingly in sync with what those CX leaders plan to do: 51 percent say they prefer interacting with bots over humans when they want immediate service.
That preference means companies must focus on boosting their bot capabilities via AI, specifically using its power to capture and analyze sentiment and intent. Doing so will help businesses predict customer needs and resolve issues quickly and efficiently (including knowing when a bot needs to hand over an interaction to a human agent).
70% of organizations are actively investing in technologies and tools that automatically capture and analyze intent signals
Planned change in investment in tools that allow for predictive instant experience in the next year:
Somewhat Greatly increase increase
Total 38% 28%
Company size
<99 28% 15%
100–249 41% 21%
250–999 40% 30%
1,000–4,999 40% 33%
5,000+ 36% 34%
Region
North America 36% 28%
Europe, Middle East, and Africa 40% 27%
Latin America 43% 32%
Asia Pacific 38% 28%
However, while being able to track and act on customer intent plays an important role in helping deliver predictive and immediate experiences, it’s a steep hill to climb. Most businesses recognize the value in it, but actually implementing scalable, automated intent tracking systems has proven to be quite difficult.
The gap between knowing what’s necessary and actually doing it is stark. Just 30 percent of CX leaders indicate that they automate identification of customer’s intent through AI or machine learning. While they also state that they recognize the need to improve in this area to enable real-time decision making and more instant experiences, it’s clear that much work needs to be done.
But the writing is on the wall: the shift toward predictive, instant experiences—powered by AI—is reshaping the customer experience in profound ways. Whether it’s enhanced personalization, proactive service, increased efficiency, or a greater focus on robust data management practices, the entire fabric of the customer experience is undergoing sweeping changes.
Fortunately, CX leaders see that change coming and welcome it. They see clear benefits to delivering more instant personalized experiences: better customer service and experiences, enhanced customer loyalty and satisfaction, and an improved bottom line stemming from highly individualized and relevant recommendations. The question remains, however: will CX leaders have the vision and commitment to take full advantage of these tantalizing opportunities?
![](./assets/images/zendesk-spots-05.d14c0627cece.png)
However, while being able to track and act on customer intent plays an important role in helping deliver predictive and immediate experiences, it’s a steep hill to climb. Most businesses recognize the value in it, but actually implementing scalable, automated intent tracking systems has proven to be quite difficult.
The gap between knowing what’s necessary and actually doing it is stark. Just 30 percent of CX leaders indicate that they automate identification of customer’s intent through AI or machine learning. While they also state that they recognize the need to improve in this area to enable real-time decision making and more instant experiences, it’s clear that much work needs to be done.
But the writing is on the wall: the shift toward predictive, instant experiences—powered by AI—is reshaping the customer experience in profound ways. Whether it’s enhanced personalization, proactive service, increased efficiency, or a greater focus on robust data management practices, the entire fabric of the customer experience is undergoing sweeping changes.
Fortunately, CX leaders see that change coming and welcome it. They see clear benefits to delivering more instant personalized experiences: better customer service and experiences, enhanced customer loyalty and satisfaction, and an improved bottom line stemming from highly individualized and relevant recommendations. The question remains, however: will CX leaders have the vision and commitment to take full advantage of these tantalizing opportunities?
![](./assets/images/zendesk-spots-05.d14c0627cece.png)