AI delivers the best customer support when it’s enhancing humans, study finds

“AI is most effective when human agents can use it as a ‘sixth sense’ or as an ‘angel on the shoulder,’” Verizon Business’ Daniel Lawson said.

By Bryan Wassel • Aug. 18, 2025

Customers still don’t love AI in customer service

While AI is making inroads in customer support, 82% of customers say they’d prefer human support even if wait times and time spent are the same, a Hubspot and SurveyMonkey report found.

By Kristen Doerer • Aug. 15, 2025

Explore the Trendline➔

Top 5 stories from CX Dive

The top stories from CX Dive look at customer experience trends, generative AI use cases and the components of a good tech stack.

By CX Dive staff

Over half of holiday shoppers plan to use AI to compare prices, search for products

Consumers are shopping earlier and leveraging AI tools to find the best deals amid a holiday season expected to be clouded with economic uncertainty, per a new report.

By Tatiana Walk-Morris • Aug. 14, 2025

Fast food brands fire up AI despite challenging backdrop

McDonald’s, Chipotle and Yum Brands are embedding the technology into workflows to streamline processes and improve customer and employee experiences.

By Lindsey Wilkinson • Aug. 14, 2025

Stitch Fix adds more AI experiences, but stylists aren’t forgotten

The AI Style Assistant helps clients articulate their fashion needs, while the Stylist Connect experience lets users chat with stylists between orders.

By Bryan Wassel • Aug. 11, 2025

Airbnb charts AI-first path as it expands customer service agent

“I think you can’t do travel planning without AI going forward,” CEO Brian Chesky said.

By Kristen Doerer • Aug. 8, 2025

Pinterest has ‘effectively become an AI-enabled shopping assistant,’ CEO says

The platform is focusing on AI-powered visual search and product discovery, leading to cumulative gains across the business, CEO Bill Ready said.

By Bryan Wassel • Aug. 8, 2025

Duolingo went ‘AI-first’ and then came the consumer backlash

CEO Luis von Ahn acknowledged that the company’s customer growth, while still impressive, was dampened by his AI commentary.

By Kristen Doerer • Aug. 8, 2025

Yum Brands turns to AI to aggregate social media, third-party reviews

The Byte system of AI technologies is helping power advanced voice of the customer tools while improving the drive-thru experience, executives said on a Q2 2025 earnings call.

By Bryan Wassel • Aug. 5, 2025

Etsy bets on its app as declines persist

The company’s ranking model has lost steam, so it is retooling its platform to leverage large language models and generative AI.

By Daphne Howland • Aug. 5, 2025

Ebay CEO: AI ‘continues to fundamentally change’ customer experience

Agentic commerce is a small part of the digital retailer’s business, but “it has a nice growth rate,” CEO Jamie Iannone said on a Q2 2025 earnings call.

By Bryan Wassel • July 31, 2025

Walmart bets big on AI with ‘super agent’ strategy

The retailer is centralizing AI capabilities to avoid fragmentation, noting that the technology is already being utilized by 900,000 associates.

By Dani James • July 29, 2025

Ulta Beauty eyes AI agents amid growth plans

The company is working on the tech foundation to enable adoption, which it hopes will lead to improved employee and customer experiences. 

By Lindsey Wilkinson • July 28, 2025

Why more CX leaders are looking to Africa for contact center agents

Perhaps most attractive is the continent’s untapped labor market, which largely comprises young people with an affinity for technology. 

By S.L. Fuller • Updated July 30, 2025

Guitar Center brings AI assistant to the store floor

The Rig Advisor tool compares gear in real-time and provides live inventory updates.

By Xanayra Marin-Lopez • July 25, 2025

AI shopping assistants have a trust problem

Skepticism about the tech is a major barrier to its adoption, as it ranks among the least trusted sources for shopping information, according to a new report.

By Tatiana Walk-Morris • July 24, 2025

How AI is changing expectations for customer support on social media

Only one-quarter of consumers say they prefer AI-powered support, but 71% are somewhat or very satisfied with AI support experiences, according to an Emplifi survey.

By Kristen Doerer • July 23, 2025

AI to bring ‘massive disruption’ to contact center workforces, Forrester says

The analyst firm expects virtual assistants to handle more complex customer inquiries. As a result, humans will provide more back-office support. 

By Michael Brady • July 22, 2025

How generative AI is reshaping the CX practice

From customer service chatbot to product discovery enabler, here are some of the roles generative AI has been playing this year.

By Bryan Wassel • July 22, 2025

3 trends shaping the future of customer service

“AI and rapidly changing customer expectations are driving the evolution of the customer service function,” Gartner’s Brad Fager said.

By Michael Brady • July 17, 2025

AI is wreaking havoc on mobile user experience, report finds

Error clicks on mobile skyrocketed 667% year-over-year, frustrating consumers along the way, according to a report by behavioral data company Fullstory.

By Michael Brady • July 16, 2025

C-suite leaders have a vision for where generative AI fits in CX

More than half of C-suite respondents said that generative AI in customer service and customer experience would be extremely important, per a Publicis Sapient survey.

By Kristen Doerer • July 7, 2025

Will AI ‘completely rewire’ loyalty programs?

Companies have been able to segment customer data for years, but AI takes it a step further, enabling brands to target offers to specific individuals through their rewards programs.

By Michael Brady • June 30, 2025

Customers value 24/7 self-service less than you think

The perception gap around AI-powered self-service may have more to do with poor execution than “a lack of interest,” Five9 research found.

By Michael Brady • June 26, 2025

Trust in AI is growing in finance, especially behind the scenes

The more complex or sensitive the task, the more consumers want to speak to a human or know that a human is in the loop when using AI, a TD Bank survey found.

By Kristen Doerer • June 20, 2025