Businesses talk customer experience but few deliver it, study finds
The study, conducted by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services in association with cloud communications platform Infobip, surveyed business leaders on the state of conversational experiences.
While 93 per cent of respondents acknowledge the importance of positive conversational experiences, only 36 per cent consider their organisations highly effective at delivering them, and just 11 per cent say they use AI effectively to enable human-like interactions.
"While everyone talks customer experience, almost no one delivers," Infobip marketing and growth vice president Ben Lewis said in a statement.
"When brands can't deliver meaningful, human-like conversations, they don't just lose efficiency, they lose trust. It's time to rethink what customer experience really means in the AI era," he added.
The report, Conversational Experiences: The Untapped Potential of AI in Customer Engagement, highlights key barriers, namely poor visibility across platforms, difficulty capturing data along the customer journey and challenges integrating AI-powered features.
Nearly half of respondents also cite a lack of best practices and underinvestment in advanced conversational technology.
Still, many companies are taking steps to close the gap. In the next 12 months, 50 per cent will focus on automation, 41 per cent on enhancing AI in conversations, and 39 per cent on platform integration.
Infobip is helping brands meet those goals. "This isn't about tools, it's about trust," said Lewis. "Every message, chatbot and notification should feel like it understands you. That's what we help brands deliver, across every channel, at any scale."
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