Event Summary: Leading Audaciously in the Age of AI
What happens when 50 women gather to discuss audacious leadership in the age of AI?
We believe that in an industry filled with hype, it's time to cut through the noise and get to the heart of what really matters.
Technology and AI are rapidly evolving and changing how businesses connect with their customers. Yet few have mastered how to maximise the opportunity for CX and EX.
Many organisations make the fundamental misstep of focusing too much on the technology itself rather than the human needs we should serve. Too many look at AI as a way to remove humans from the equation and see self-service as a solution to deflect customers away from making contact, often without having helped them at all.
Undoubtedly, bad digital experiences are all around us these days, and at Women in CX, we believe there must be a better way.
That's why we partnered with Foundever, a global leader in the customer experience industry, to host an event exploring what it takes to lead audaciously in the age of AI. The event brought together an incredible group of female leaders from top Nordic brands.
“Many organisations make the fundamental misstep of focusing too much on the technology itself rather than the human needs we should serve.”
Held at the stunning United Spaces Gårdshuset in central Stockholm, the event featured an impressive lineup of speakers. Over 50 women from brands like H&M, Klarna, SAS, Telenor, and Skanska came together to connect and have thought-provoking discussions, gaining actionable insights to take back to their work. This event was the first of its kind and the first collaboration between Women in CX and Foundever.
At Women in CX, we have always been committed to fostering connections, sharing insights, and driving innovation within the CX space. With this new event format, we were able to expand our reach into the Nordics, bringing our signature blend of thought leadership and networking opportunities to women in the region. Although we had no network in Sweden beforehand, the event was sold out a week ahead of time, and we gathered a wonderfully engaged audience from across the region.
The half-day event featured a keynote on inclusive leadership and CX management, a masterclass on augmenting the agent experience with AI, and an expert panel discussion focused on decision-making in customer experience. With plenty of audience engagement, traditional Swedish fika, and thought-provoking discussions, the event proved to be a huge success for Women in CX, Foundever, our speakers, and the audience.
So, read on for the event highlights…
Leading with Inclusion
For the opening keynote, we brought our long-time community member, Stine Marsal, an expert on inclusion renowned for her hands-on approach. Working closely with cross-functional teams, she implements holistic CX programs.
“The most ambitious approach to customer experience work, is aiming to deliver inclusive and accessible customer experiences.”
Stine highlighted the critical connection between inclusive leadership and customer experience management, drawing from her extensive work with Copenhagen Airport and LEGO House. "The most ambitious approach to customer experience work," Stine noted, "is aiming to deliver inclusive and accessible customer experiences."
She shared insights from her own experience and offered advice: "Create seamless and fantastic customer experiences for those who have the hardest time completing your customer journey. If the experience is easy for them, it will automatically be easier for everyone and can achieve its optimal business potential across all customer segments."
Stine encouraged the room to set the bar high and consider these questions:
What hidden barriers make your neurodivergent customers turn away?
When do you deliver an excluding experience for your LGBT+ customers?
Are you accessible to customers with visual or hearing impairments?
Are you accessible to customers with mobility challenges?
Do customers of different ethnicities or cultural backgrounds encounter prejudice or bias when they shop with you?
According to Stine, "All of these groups, and more, make up a significant part of your current, or potential, customers. Neurodivergent people alone make up 20% of your customers and potential customers."
"It's not rocket science. It doesn't have to cost a fortune, either. It makes you more money while making the world a better place."
If you are ambitious about your customer experience and the business impact it creates for your company, Stine advises integrating a focus on diversity and inclusion. "It's not rocket science," she explained. "It doesn't have to cost a fortune, either. It makes you more money while making the world a better place."
When it comes to AI, Stine warns that the biases that exist today will be exacerbated if we don't act. Luckily, there's something we can do about it! She gave us three pieces of advice:
1. Whether we're training human or artificial agents, we need to be training for inclusion and diversity. For both training robots and real people, you have to make sure those representing your brand understand and properly serve the diversity they meet.
2. Listen and learn from diverse customer segments. Involve individuals from various demographics in research and user testing phases. Map your customer journey as experienced by diverse groups.
3. Conduct inclusion/bias audits and continuously adjust. Regularly audit experiences and AI systems for biases. Implement corrective measures to address identified issues. Allow users to personalise interfaces to meet specific needs, such as by adjusting text size, using voice commands, etc., and provide multiple ways to interact with AI systems: text, voice, and visual aids so users can choose their preferred method.
Leveraging AI to Augment the Agent Experience
Following the keynote, we were pleased to welcome Foundever's Mariana Diniz to the stage for a masterclass on AI and its transformative impact on agent experiences. Mariana shared practical strategies on how tools such as AI Copilot, AI Automation, and AI Trainer can be harnessed to boost workflows and ensure top-notch customer service.
Mariana kicked off her talk by highlighting the buzz surrounding Generative AI. We've all seen how much excitement the technology has created. Mariana highlighted how, from everyday workplace usage to its integration into marketing campaigns, AI's influence is vast: "It is already making a huge impact on the complete customer journey. From marketing campaigns completely generated by AI [...] to recommended ads and, of course [...] complete automation with chatbots and voice bots."
"It is already making a huge impact on the complete customer journey."
She went on to discuss how AI can play a key role in empowering human agents, exploring some of the ways in which it can assist an agent before, during, and after a customer interaction. "Chatbots and voicebots can do prequalification before transferring to an agent. They can also do real-time monitoring during a conversation, automated translation, and help the agent after the service has ended."
However, AI can't be your whole solution, and Mariana emphasised the need for a strategic approach. "So what do we need to do? In the same way that if you are building a digital channel, such as a voicebot or chatbot, you also need to understand [the challenges]," she advised.
Here, it's important to understand the primary hurdles that agents face in their day-to-day operations, such as:
Juggling different tools.
Navigating emotionally charged customer interactions.
Managing multiple simultaneous chats.
Meeting stringent average handle time targets while struggling to find information in knowledge bases.
"There are many different challenges here, and it is super important that you understand and consider them [when designing] your tool or your digital channel to help address them," Mariana noted.
Making Audacious Decisions
Industry leaders Karolina Boremalm (H&M), Helén Rigamonti (IHM Business School), Ana Athayde (Foundever) and Maria Harju (Foundever) came together for a lively panel discussion moderated by Clare Muscutt. The purpose was to explore the challenges of decision-making in CX, discuss unique leadership strategies, learn how to create win-win scenarios with AI and make smart decisions for the future.
When discussing leadership, Karolina Boremalm engaged us all with a relatable scenario: "As a female leader [...] how many times have your ideas been disregarded because you're female?" She shared an example of presenting an idea in a meeting, only to have it ignored, and then hearing a man pitch the same idea to applause. "I think this is something that we've all experienced," she told a room full of nodding heads.
During the panel, Clare asked a crucial question: "As we discuss integrating AI and new technology, what are some key considerations to ensure these advancements benefit both businesses and employees? Beyond just cost savings, how can we enhance employee engagement and customer value?"
Helén Rigamonti responded, drawing from her career and emphasising the significance of inclusion in making changes: "AI is like any other major change. [...] We're not going to create engagement and motivation by talking about cost-cutting. [It makes] nobody get up in the morning, okay? So that's not going to work."
"Why are we doing what we're doing? We're doing it to create great customer experiences"
"We have this superpower in CX that's really fortunate. [...] When we work with the customer experience, we can always create motivation and engagement to create great customer experiences. So, it comes back to that – why are we doing what we're doing? We're doing it to create great customer experiences."
Clare asked another important question: "How can we cut through the noise and buzz around AI to make smart decisions?" Maria Harju told her that AI is not going anywhere. She explained: "Use it wisely. [AI] is an enablement, and it's there to stay, so we might as well embrace it. But you need to know your strategy. You need to know what you want to retain."
"How can we cut through the noise and buzz around AI to make smart decisions?"
Ana Athayde also shared some wisdom about AI implementation: "It requires [us] to change the ways of working, build a much more collaborative path, and work top-down, listening to agents. [...] What we are going to achieve is, in fact, that humans will become trainers of our agents."
So, after an event packed with knowledge sharing, audacious conversations and new connections, what was the outcome?
The audience's top takeaways included the need for:
Clear business strategy
Aligned leadership vision
Focus on experience design
Intentionally inclusive practices
Prioritisation of agent empowerment
Balance between people/commercial priorities
Human-centred decisions about implementation
As women leaders, we can:
Lead authentically
Find strength in a community
Support and inspire other women
Be unafraid to challenge the status quo
Be aware of internalising systemic barriers
Prioritise learning and personal development
Clare is clear on her takeaways: "As women, we think and lead differently. We think about the long-term. We are collaborative and see success more holistically than just profits within this quarter. We value human capital, sustainability and the impact we have on the societies and communities we serve.
"Every woman who joined us in Stockholm has the potential to change the current trajectory, but when the patriarchal systems of traditional business feel set to hold us back - it's going to take audacity to step up and challenge the status quo. It will take courage to stand up for human-centred thinking.
"If we band together and lead audaciously as part of a movement for human-centred business, we will be heard. We will be seen. We will be listened to. This event was just the beginning."
At Women in CX, we have the perfect community to support you in getting where you need to be, both professionally and personally.
Members of the Women in CX community get access to exclusive events, in-depth thought leadership and learning resources.
Do you want to join us?
