The Customer Experience: Balancing AI and Empathy
The modern AI-powered customer experience (CX) is shaped by automation and data-driven optimization. However, trust is not built with algorithms, but with empathy, creativity, and credibility. Companies are also clearly aware of this tension.
The customer experience: increasingly complex, increasingly personal
For a long time, the customer experience meant reaching customers on as many touchpoints as possible. Today, the customer experience is defined by an extremely dynamic combination of technology, data, and human emotions. AI excels at analyzing behavior, adapting content accordingly, and automating processes efficiently. But it does not understand why people choose a particular brand.
In these times of economic uncertainty and technological disruption, mastering this balancing act is emerging as the biggest challenge for companies: Brands that focus solely on efficiency risk becoming interchangeable. Brands that neglect humanity will lose their customers’ trust.
In her fireside chat “Adobe and IBM iX: Bringing Together Creativity, Marketing, and AI to Reimagine the Customer Experience” with Oisin Lunny (co-founder, Galaxy of OM) and Jay Trestain (executive partner and EMEA lead for marketing transformation at IBM iX), Claire-Louise Green (VP enterprise marketing EMEA, Adobe) emphasized:
“AI is really transforming the customer experience. It’s fueled by technology. It’s driven by creativity. But we have to make sure it resonates. And make sure we can really touch and earn the trust of our customers.”
The customer experience and AI: technology as the foundation, not the goal
Nowadays, the customer experience is based on automation and AI. AI agents are one of the most important tools for marketing experts, allowing them to personalize content in real time and run precise, strategically oriented campaigns. But this alone does not create purpose or a true brand essence.
Tim Ringel, founder and global CEO of Meet The People, summed it up nicely in his fireside chat at DMEXCO:
“Honestly speaking, AI doesn’t care if your brand exists or not. It has no emotion.”
AI detects patterns, not values. It understands behavior, not motivation. Brands’ true strength emerges outside the sphere of machines: It lies in their mindset and authenticity. Technology is the foundation on which the customer experience is built. But trust grows in those moments when customers feel that they are truly understood.
Brands therefore need to ask themselves three questions, says Claire-Louise Green:
1. How are customers going to find us?
2. How do we want them to engage with us?
3. How do we show up and build a genuine, trusting relationship that has real longevity?
The digital customer experience: People are needed to navigate the complex system
The greater the influence of technology on digital marketing, the greater the need for people who can see things from an overall perspective and are able to understand connections. The digital ecosystem of platforms, data, and channels is so complex that having a sense of orientation is vital.
Tim Ringel emphasizes this very point: “There are always going to be people who are needed to help brands navigate the ecosystem at large.”
These people are not AI’s opponents, but rather its translators and mediators. They connect analytical insights with market knowledge and cultural intuition. They are the best at evaluating which data is relevant, which channels really deliver, and which messages will create trust.
This approach is producing a new division of work between companies and agencies within the customer experience: Machines provide speed and scalability; people provide context and meaning. Brands that master this balancing act can navigate this ecosystem with their goals in sight, instead of floundering in it. Dr. Oliver Bohl (Triplesense Reply), chairman of the Digital Commerce Working Group within the German Association for the Digital Economy (BVDW), stresses this point:
“An excellent customer experience is created when data intelligence, creativity, and AI interact. The Netflix effect shows that customers expect relevance in real time. AI agents have to remain explainable, adaptable, and monitorable – this is how brands will maintain empathy and trust in the digital dialogue.”
People first in an automated world
When Tim Ringel founded Meet The People, he wanted to send a signal about the need for a human focus in the marketing world: “Let’s emphasize that, ultimately, it is still people behind the keyboards who are making sense of it all and creating the work.”
This mindset symbolizes the future of marketing: Technology will continue to be crucial, but it needs human guidance. AI can automate processes, analyze data, and predict results. But it can’t generate emotions, tell stories, or make a brand tangible.
People are still the most important interface. Brands therefore need people who ask: Is this campaign a good fit for us? Do our customers feel that we understand them? Empathetic strategies cannot be outsourced to technologies. This is also crucial in collaborations between agencies and companies: The former need to communicate clearly how they understand their role and why AI can’t replace them.
AI-powered customer experience disruption: Trust is the most valuable currency
Trust is created when technology and humanity are aligned with each other. When AI tools help to understand needs, and when people make sure that brand communication remains authentic. If your goal is to build trust with your brand, this means you need to master two aspects:
1. Data competence: This is the only way to produce relevant, useful results.
2. Emotional intelligence: This helps you foster proximity to your customers and communicate your values.
The ideal result is tailor-made, personalized content that is relevant and welcome instead of being intrusive. In this way, brands can use their digital tools to enable real dialogue. Because trust can’t be programmed. You have to earn it with every interaction.
Customer experience trends: The best of both worlds is the way forward
Tim Ringel compares the current crossroads to another major turning point:
“I think we are embarking on a journey over the next years that is going to feel extremely similar to the journey I embarked on with my very first business when I was 20 years old. That was when the Internet became a mass product and started to be commercialized.”
As was the case back then with the emergence of the Internet, companies are faced with the task of reinventing themselves. AI is set to transform marketing profoundly, but the technology will not replace the human X factor. Brands that master technology without losing their humanity will be the winners in this shift. After all, building the customer experience of the future does not mean pitting human and machine against each other, but rather combining them to earn the one thing that really matters: trust.
What will the AI-powered customer experience of the future look like?
The customer experience in the age of AI is a balancing act between data intelligence and emotion for brands. The technology can evaluate data and react to changes. But only people have a feel for the big picture. Marketing experts develop experience that has a unique value, is culturally significant, and gives content a human face. If you are using new technologies to optimize your content, you’re on the right track, and you’re positioning your brand perfectly for the future. Want to know what else you need to factor into your strategy? You’ll find all the recorded sessions from DMEXCO 2025 with valuable insights for your business’s future direction in the DMEXCO Community.
