AI in Customer Experience: How to Stay Ahead

AI, and especially AI agents, can go from buzz to bust, or from buzz to better business. It’s up to you. For those who succeed, it’s a genuine game-changer for customer experience. As businesses navigate the fast-paced digital world of customer service, AI agents have evolved from an emerging trend to an essential tool.

In 2025, we’ll see some innovations that will solidify its importance even more. In this blog article, I’ll explore how you can integrate AI into your customer experience strategy and start seeing real results.

What you’ll learn:

• The role of AI in customer experience
• Tailoring AI for different business models B2B vs. B2C
• Real-world use cases
• How to get started in AI with Salesforce
• Measuring success with business metrics and KPIs
• AI in customer experience predictions for 2025
• Set up for success

The role of AI in customer experience

First, let’s look at the different types of AI and their impact on customer experience. AI can be broken down into three main categories: predictive AI, generative AI, and AI agents. Each type brings its own set of benefits and applications that can improve how businesses connect with their customers.

• Predictive AI: This type of AI is useful for forecasting customer behavior, optimizing resource allocation, and enhancing operational efficiency. For example, predictive AI can help your business anticipate what customers might need, figure out the right number of staff for a shift, and predict the most common reasons for customer inquiries. It helps you deliver effective proactive customer service.
• Generative AI: Thanks to tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, generative AI makes interactions between customers and businesses more natural and engaging. It can create personalized content and responses, which enhances the customer service experience. For instance, AI can help your customer service reps by generating personalized responses, summarizing conversations, and providing real-time data insights.
• AI Agents: This is the newest and most advanced form of AI, and tools like Salesforce’s Agentforce are leading the way. AI agents go beyond traditional workflows by enabling large action models to carry out complex tasks. It can automate intricate processes, launch actions based on customer interactions, and seamlessly integrate various data sources — all within the guardrails your business has set. Agentforce uses Salesforce’s metadata-driven platform to ensure data trust and operational excellence.

Expert tip: AI agents can also interact with each other, opening up whole new possibilities for AI in customer experience that we’ve never seen before. (Back to top)

Tailoring AI for different business models B2B vs. B2C

AI in customer experience can vary a lot between B2B and B2C environments. Understanding these differences is crucial for businesses to make the most of AI.

In the B2B customer service space, personalization is a must. Our research backs this up: 81% of service pros say customers expect a personal touch more than they used to. Building deep, personalized relationships with customers is critical to driving loyalty. AI can help by providing detailed insights into customer behavior, preferences, and needs, allowing businesses to offer personalized solutions and proactive customer service.

Expert tip: Agentforce can insert your company’s tone, style, and brand into the AI-generated responses, making them feel more personal and consistent.

On the other hand, B2C companies often focus on operational efficiency and scalability, while still maintaining the appearance of a personal touch. AI helps by automating customer interactions, reducing the need for human intervention, and providing personalized recommendations based on customer data. For instance, AI agents like Agentforce can handle both routine and complex inquiries, process transactions, and offer product suggestions, all of which enhance the overall customer experience.

What B2B and B2C businesses share in common is the need to handle hundreds of operational tasks quickly, accurately, and at scale. AI can excel in this area, making life easier for everyone involved.

Expert tip: The Serviceblazer on Slack Community is an excellent resource for B2B and B2C customer service leaders to learn best practices for using AI in customer experience. It’s also a great place to find your next hires — join today. (Back to top)

Real-world use cases

Let’s look at three real-world examples of how AI is revolutionizing customer service in both B2B and B2C environments.

• Salesforce faced a challenge with its Help page, which receives over 60 million visits annually. Reps were overwhelmed with routine tasks like password resets, leading to delays in addressing complex issues. To improve efficiency, Salesforce introduced Agentforce, a 24/7 AI concierge integrated into the Salesforce platform. In just two months, Agentforce was deployed to handle routine inquiries, perform common tasks, and escalate complex issues to reps with full context. This integration with Salesforce CRM and Data Cloud allows Agentforce to access and analyze vast amounts of data, providing immediate, personalized responses. So far, 83% of customer queries on our site are handled by Agentforce without human intervention, significantly reducing the need for support tickets and wait times. By handling routine tasks and providing precise, context-aware answers, Agentforce frees up reps to focus on building deeper customer relationships, enhancing overall customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• A smart home security and automation company needed a scalable solution to handle the growing service demands from their expanding customer base. They turned to Salesforce’s Agentforce to provide 24/7 smart home device troubleshooting and enhance customer support efficiency. Initially skeptical about a prebuilt solution, the company realized that Agentforce seamlessly integrated with their existing systems, offering a robust and scalable alternative to their DIY approach. Agentforce autonomously handles routine inquiries and troubleshooting, pulling data from the company’s knowledge base, Service Cloud, and IoT devices to provide precise, context-aware responses. If an issue requires human intervention, Agentforce smoothly transitions the case to a live rep with full context, ensuring a seamless customer experience. This integration has allowed the company  to reduce handling times, improve service rep efficiency, and streamline costs, setting the stage for even smarter and more personalized customer interactions.
• A luxury travel company struggled to meet high customer expectations post-pandemic while scaling their services. With 80 customer service specialists managing nearly 180,000 annual contacts, they needed a more efficient system. In 2022, they introduced Einstein Bots, which resolved 10% of queries automatically. However, many personalized requests still required human support. To further enhance efficiency, the company implemented Agentforce, which automates routine tasks and simplifies workflows. Agentforce now resolves 30% of customer requests through live chat autonomously, allowing specialists to focus on more complex issues. This integration has led to faster, more efficient customer support, with the company building and launching their agent in just two weeks, compared to the six months it previously took. The result is a seamless, high-quality customer experience that meets the growing demands of their diverse customer base. (Back to top)

How to get started in AI with Salesforce

Before we go any further, here’s an insight on how to use AI agents productively, safely, and at scale: choose capabilities that are a part of a deeply unified platform that joins up CRM functionality, trusted data, AI, and analytics on a world-class platform. This is exactly what we have built at Salesforce, known as The Salesforce Advantage, and it’s why our customers achieve success with their AI programs.

Looking ahead, businesses need to identify which tasks and processes are suitable for automation and which require human intervention. Starting with simple automation and gradually advancing to more complex AI applications as proficiency grows is the way forward. This iterative approach enables businesses to build confidence in their AI systems and ensure they deliver the desired outcomes. To effectively integrate AI into your customer experience strategy, consider the following steps:

1. Identify key pain points: Start by identifying the most significant pain points in your customer journey. Use AI to address these issues, whether it’s reducing response times, improving personalization, or automating routine tasks.
2. Use Data Cloud: Ensure that your AI models have access to comprehensive and accurate data. Use Data Cloud to integrate data from various sources, providing a solid foundation for your AI initiatives.
3. Automate with workflows: Use Salesforce’s workflows to automate complex business processes. This will reduce the cognitive load on your customer service reps and improve operational efficiency, allowing them to focus on more strategic tasks.
4. Build trust: Establish a trust layer to ensure data security and reliability. This will build confidence in AI-driven decisions and actions, both within your organization and with your customers.
5. Personalize interactions: Use AI to provide personalized interactions at scale. Whether you’re in a B2B or B2C environment, personalization is key to building strong customer relationships and enhancing customer satisfaction.
6. Monitor and iterate: Continuously monitor the performance of your AI initiatives and iterate based on feedback and data insights. This will ensure that your AI strategies remain effective and aligned with your business goals.

AI in customer experience has the potential to reshape customer service by automating processes and reducing costs. However, automating a flawed process only scales inefficiency. For example, if you automate 80% of your customer service with a bad process, you’ll end up with dissatisfied customers. It’s essential to ensure that the processes being automated are fully optimized to deliver the best customer experience.

Expert tip:
Don’t work in a vacuum. Invite your customers to share their ideas and give them access to your plans. This is where knowledge management plays a crucial role. Without clear, available, and accurate information, your future efforts to enhance customer experience may be jeopardized. (Back to top)

Measuring success with business metrics and KPIs

To gauge the effectiveness of AI in customer experience, businesses should focus on these key performance indicators:

• Cost reduction: One of the main advantages of AI is its ability to reduce operational costs. By automating routine tasks, businesses can save on labor expenses and use resources more efficiently.
• Customer satisfaction: While cost reduction is important, it shouldn’t come at the expense of customer satisfaction. AI can streamline processes and provide quick responses, but it must also enhance the overall customer experience. Are customers finding the AI helpful, or are they frustrated with it? Regular customer satisfaction surveys and effective feedback management can help your business understand what’s working and what needs to be improved.
• Revenue growth: A main goal of many business initiatives, including AI, is to drive revenue growth. AI can contribute to this by improving sales processes, personalizing marketing efforts, and enhancing customer service. It’s crucial to track how these improvements translate into actual revenue. Are AI-driven recommendations leading to higher sales? Is personalized marketing resulting in better conversion rates? By closely monitoring these metrics, you can ensure that AI is positively impacting your business’ bottom line.

Expert tip: A fourth KPI is gaining importance: Agent Retention and Satisfaction. Just as companies measure customer NPS, top organizations are now tracking employee NPS. Effective AI use can offload repetitive and low-value tasks, reducing burn-out in your customer service reps. Agentforce also opens up new customer service roles and capabilities, such as AI data analyst, personalization expert, AI implementation specialist, and more.

Continuous improvement and adapting business metrics to reflect AI’s impact are essential. By regularly assessing what works and what doesn’t, companies can justify further AI investment in customer experience and refine their strategies for better results. (Back to top)

AI in customer experience predictions for 2025

As we look towards the next few months, the integration of AI in customer experience will continue to evolve. Here are four key predictions for how AI will shape customer experience by the end of 2025:

1. Increased adoption of AI agents: Businesses will increasingly adopt AI agents  to automate complex tasks and enhance operational efficiency. This will lead to more seamless and personalized customer interactions, and AI agents that ‘speak’ to each other on behalf of the customer
2. Enhanced personalization in B2B: B2B companies will use AI to build deeper, more personalized relationships with their customers. AI will provide detailed insights into customer behavior, enabling businesses to offer tailored solutions and proactive support.
3. Operational efficiency in B2C: B2C companies will focus on using AI to improve operational efficiency and scalability. AI will handle inquiries, process transactions, and offer personalized recommendations, enhancing the overall customer experience.
4. Evolving job roles: The integration of AI in customer service is not just about technology; it’s also about people. We are witnessing the emergence of new job roles such as AI customer experience strategists, AI data analysts, and AI trainers. Many companies are already creating engaging, tech-oriented positions that attract talent and drive innovation. This evolution in job roles underscores the importance of human expertise in managing and optimizing AI systems.

Expert tip: AI finds its voice: expect generative AI to speak in a human-like manner and understand the customer in their preferred language. (Back to top)

Set up for success

The future of customer experience hinges on the intelligent integration of AI. Salesforce has built that deeply unified platform to accelerate the use of all forms of AI across the business. This Salesforce Advantage is recognized by business and IT leaders as the key differentiator for a business. 

By understanding the various types of AI and their applications, businesses can deliver more personalized, efficient, and impactful customer interactions. Salesforce’s robust AI tools and framework offer the necessary support to navigate this evolution successfully.

Businesses that will thrive are those that embrace AI in customer experience. By taking action now, you can position your business at the forefront of the AI-driven revolution, ensuring long-term success and customer loyalty. (Back to top)

Rebecca Mackenzie contributed to this blog article.