Great customer expectations

A missed delivery. An account that can’t be accessed. A payment that won't go through. Every day, millions of people contact customer service in search of a simple answer: "How can you help me?"

But, behind every seemingly straightforward enquiry lies a web of technology, information, and people working together towards resolutions. A single call to customer service can trigger interactions across multiple systems, conversations between different teams, and decisions made in real time.

Take airlines, for example. A delayed flight might feel like a single problem to a passenger but, in reality, resolving disruption can involve rebooking connections, updating schedules, coordinating crews, and much more. For the passenger, none of that complexity matters. They simply expect the airline to understand the situation—and make it right.

For organizations built on layers of information and technology, delivering seamless customer experiences has become one of today's biggest challenges. Data is often spread across disconnected systems and teams, forcing agents to search multiple applications or rely on colleagues before resolving a single enquiry. Of course, customers don't want to repeat themselves or navigate chatbots, call menus, and departments. They want every conversation to pick up naturally from the last.

The challenge for businesses, therefore, isn't just solving customers' problems. It's making the complexity involved in reaching resolutions feel invisible.

It's easy to assume that customers have become more demanding. But perhaps they've simply become more aware of what's possible. Increasingly, in the experience economy, customers judge every interaction against the highest level of service they’ve experienced, regardless of industry. In fact, a recent report found that 92 percent of consumers surveyed expect every organization to match the best experience they’ve ever had.

As Louise Philips, VP of Customer Centers at Virgin Atlantic, puts it, customers now expect companies to anticipate their needs, remember their preferences, and solve problems effortlessly. She captures the shift perfectly: "It's not that customers are more demanding. They are just more cognizant of what is possible."

Agentic AI represents a significant step forward. Unlike early AI tools, which focus on automation, agentic AI is designed to pursue overarching goals and improve outcomes. Rather than waiting for instructions at every stage, it can reason through information, connect previously disconnected systems, and determine the steps needed to help move a customer's enquiry towards a resolution. The result isn't simply a faster route to the right answer. It's a more personalized and proactive customer experience.

Companies like Genesys are helping organizations build this more connected future. By bringing together people, systems, data, and AI into a single platform, Genesys enables context to follow the customer—whether they begin over the phone, via a chatbot, or online.

At the heart of this approach is agentic AI, which can operate independently to solve complex, unpredictable problems. Rather than simply responding to prompts, it can understand intent, coordinate actions across systems, and help guide customers towards a resolution.

Together, these capabilities transform what might otherwise feel like a series of disconnected interactions into one continuous customer journey. It’s an approach that increasingly aligns with customer expectations: 95 percent of consumers expect their information to carry across channels so they don’t have to repeat themselves.

As Chairman & CEO Tony Bates explains, "We're [moving] from transactions where you asked a question and it gave you an answer, to it proactively [knowing] ahead of time why you're calling in."

For Tony and his team, the challenge isn't building smarter AI. It's building technology that strengthens human connections. With AI handling repetitive tasks, driving towards outcomes, and surfacing the right information more quickly, human agents are freed up to offer the empathy, reassurance, and judgement that no technology can replicate.

All of which leaves customers with something truly valuable—the feeling of being understood.

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