Autonomous CX Is Coming. Are Brands Ready to Let Go?

Around 71% of consumers now want generative AI seamlessly embedded into their buying journeys. They’re not asking for chatbots; they’re demanding digital experiences that feel as intuitive and responsive as human interaction.

New Zealand-based luxury home appliances brand Fisher & Paykel now handles 66% of its website inquiries without human intervention, using Salesforce’s new agentic AI platform. Ozonetel, a provider of unified customer experience intelligence platform (oneCXi), recently announced the launch of CXi Agents, an innovation that enables organisations to build and deploy autonomous AI agents for transforming customer experience.

Here’s proof that the age of autonomous CX is moving in fast. And it’s quietly exposing a truth brands have long ignored: you can’t script or control every moment.

For decades, brands believed they could script every second of the customer journey — from the first click to the final survey. They trained armies of agents, wrote pages of polite responses, and measured loyalty in tidy scores. 

But the truth is, brands never really controlled it. Customers zigzagged through channels, skipped forms, ignored the scripts, and now, with agentic AI, the illusion of control is finally crumbling for good.

This quiet revolution is unfolding in how brands connect with their customers, and it’s being powered by algorithms. 

Today’s consumers don’t just want fast service. They expect it to be intelligent, personal, and always-on. In fact, according to a recent report, 71% of consumers now want generative AI seamlessly embedded into their buying journeys. 

They’re not asking for chatbots; they’re demanding digital experiences that feel as intuitive and responsive as human interaction, especially Gen Z and Millennials, who’ve grown up expecting tech to just know what they need.

Here’s the twist: for all the investment in smart systems and virtual assistants, what brands are really buying is an illusion of control. They believe if AI can answer faster, route smarter, and even “sound human,” then they can finally steer every touchpoint. 

But customers are outpacing those scripts. They zigzag across channels, blend online and offline moments, and expect brands to keep up and not control the flow. 

Sure, technology is catching up. From resolving basic queries to pre-qualifying leads, generative AI is stepping into roles that were managed by frontline teams. 

“AI can efficiently handle routine inquiries, gather initial information, and provide quick resolutions, allowing humans to focus on complex, nuanced, or emotionally sensitive cases,” says Lisa Khatri, Head of CX – GTM Strategy at Qualtrics.

Now, AI won’t just handle tasks, it will rewrite the entire idea of what “control” means in CX. If AI can answer, suggest, route, and even empathise, can it own the entire customer journey from start to finish? 

What  Does Autonomous CX Look Like?

CX is far beyond the game of polite service scripts and post-call surveys. It’s a place where loyalty is earned, or lost, in seconds. 

And while personalisation once felt like the pinnacle of CX sophistication, the industry is now eyeing something even more transformative: autonomy. Not just smart responses, but self-directed systems that anticipate, act, and adapt without constant human input.

From banking to retail to healthcare, companies are deploying intelligent AI agents capable of navigating the full arc of the customer journey. These agents don’t just react, they reason. They understand sentiment without being told, gauge effort without surveys, and adjust tone based on emotional cues.

Lisa adds, “We’ve made significant strides with Natural Language Understanding (NLU) where we can derive rather than ask customers what about their sentiment toward experience, the effort (how hard or easy something is) and the emotions they feel.”

One of the most visible examples of this evolution comes from Talkdesk, which launched its Customer Experience Automation (CXA) platform. CXA replaces fragmented, manual workflows with a system of autonomous agents that can handle complex journeys across touchpoints, channels, and contexts.

“The CX bar is higher than ever, and getting it right is no longer a differentiator—it’s essential for survival,” said Tiago Paiva, CEO and Founder of Talkdesk, during the launch. And he’s not wrong.

Autonomous CX doesn’t mean eliminating humans. It means giving them room to do what only they can, while intelligent systems take care of everything else.

The Limits of Algorithmic Empathy

A recent international study, published in Nature Human Behaviour, shows that people don’t just value empathy. They value who it comes from. When the same supportive words are attributed to a human rather than an AI, they’re consistently rated as more genuine, more emotionally satisfying, and more trustworthy.

The message from the research was very clear: people preferred emotional support when they believed it came from a person, even if the exact words had been generated by AI. In some cases, participants were even willing to wait days for a human response rather than receive an instant AI reply.

“AI may help scale support systems,” said Prof. Anat Perry of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, one of the researchers behind the study, “but in moments that require deep emotional connection, people still want the human touch.”

It’s a reality the CX world can’t ignore. While AI can handle volume, routine, and even nuance at scale, emotional depth still sits firmly in the human domain. 

As Lisa says, “Essentially, the handoff points are where empathy, critical thinking, and personalised judgment are needed—areas where human intelligence still outpaces AI.”

But the gap is narrowing. “Over the next few years, we expect AI to better detect subtle emotional nuances and context, enabling more meaningful and adaptive empathetic responses.” But she’s also realistic: for truly high-empathy interactions, human agents will remain irreplaceable.

For all its progress, AI still lacks lived experience—the kind that senses when someone’s silence says more than their words, or when a sigh carries more weight than a sentence. Algorithmic empathy may be impressive. But it’s still, in the end, an impression.

CX Has Evolved. Has Your Control Strategy?

CX isn’t what it used to be—and neither is control. For decades, brands have tried to script and steer every touchpoint and every interaction, believing that consistency and oversight were the keys to customer satisfaction. 

But in an age where AI is not just assisting but acting, that mindset is due for a reset. As per a recent Gartner report, agentic AI will autonomously resolve 80% of common customer service issues without any human involvement in the next three years. And it comes with big benefits: a projected 30% cut in operational costs. 

But it also raises a crucial question—if the AI is in control of the journey, how do you stay in control of the outcome?

It’s not about tighter scripts or stricter workflows anymore. The brands that will win are the ones that lean into trust, not micromanagement—those that teach their systems to understand rather than just respond.

“The companies that will succeed in this increasingly challenging environment are the ones able to translate a deep understanding of their customers’ needs, behaviours, and motivations into exceptional experiences that drive lasting trust and loyalty,” says Lisa. 

In short, perhaps the future of CX isn’t about holding tighter control. It’s about building smarter systems that know when to act, when to adapt, and when to hand over to a human.

The brands that will win are the ones who let loose of the old control and design trust into the system. Trust between people and technology, trust between what’s automated and what stays human. 

In the end, CX was never about control. It’s always been about connection.

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