CX Strategy in 2025: What Companies are Planning

In earlier articles, we looked at key developments in CX during 2024 and made some predictions of what might happen in 2025. We’ve seen that a strong CX strategy demands a customer-centric mindset and intensive planning, but when it comes to their own CX strategies, what are businesses looking at for the year ahead?

Recent surveys offer some eye-opening insights on how companies are refocussing CX strategy in order to address the challenges and opportunities anticipated during 2025 and beyond.

In 2025, AI is no longer a buzzword, but a reality. Two-thirds of CX professionals are incorporating AI into their CX strategies and more have plans to do so this year. While the technology and its applications in CX continue to develop, companies that were examining the value of AI in their operations last year, or experimenting with it, will now be looking to fully integrate the technology into their CX strategy to reap the benefits.

Data is the key to deriving more from customer relationships. Businesses understand this and are realising that the contact centre is the hub where data is made. Successfully unifying and democratising that data is the next focus for these businesses. And 81% of CX professionals believe getting the most from this data means consolidating it into a single system that can then be used for analytics and insights. The best CX solutions providers, such as DigitalWell, can advise on ways to do this, based on organisational needs.

Businesses now understand that agent engagement can make all the difference when it comes to customer satisfaction, and happy employees are more productive. Contact centre leaders are looking at agent-facing metrics in order to improve employee retention. They are also looking to empower agents with new-gen skills to work alongside AI in more complex, fulfilling customer service roles, participating in customer retention and engaging in knowledge management. 65% of CX leaders believe that AI solutions can not only improve agent performance but prevent burnout and reduce churn.

According to Alterian, Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) continues to be the most popular metric for measuring CX success, slightly down on 2023, however NPS (Net Promoter Score) comes a close second at 66% – over 10% up on last year. While the significance of individual metrics can be dependent on business model and strategy, with organisations now focussed on centralised data and new tools that can process vast amounts of data, metrics will be a key part of CX strategy.

Delivering service that’s better than the competition has become a very real differentiator. Understanding what customers want will be a priority for CX operations as companies aim to meet and exceed customer expectations. Investing in the tools now available will allow CX leaders to do exactly that. When it came to mechanisms for CX design and addressing customer expectations, respondents cited customer feedback as the most important element at 77.3%, mostly capturing via surveys.

Self-service adoption is increasing. AI is delivering more effective self-service options for customers, providing advanced chatbots and an AI-powered knowledge base that reduces tickets. In 2024, 72% of customers said they used self-service options and 55% used chatbots. With more customers using self-service options to solve their issues, agents free up time to work on more complex issues and productivity increases. This is why more CX leaders are looking to invest in AI-powered self-service options as a key component of a successful CX strategy.

As over half of customers use three to five channels during their journey, the omnichannel experience is now expected. However, many companies are still struggling to achieve a seamless experience across channels. So while most contact centres say that omnichannel is essential for growth, many are now actively looking for solutions that provide a cohesive journey across channels with full visibility on all prior interactions.