WiCX Predicts: The CX Trends Shaping 2025
Every year, the Women in CX community comes together to gaze into the crystal ball of customer experience—minus the robes and wands—to share insights and predictions for the year ahead…
Alright, we know we’re not magic and don’t have all the answers (if only!), but with the collective wisdom of our brilliant members, we’re pretty good at spotting what’s next.
As we turn our focus to 2025, themes of empathy, human-centred design, and ethical innovation dominate the discussion. Below, our members share their predictions, offering a vision of how CX will evolve—and how we can lead the charge into the future.
The Year of Human-Centered Design
Clare Muscutt, CEO and Founder of Women in CX, predicts a year where empathy and innovation go hand in hand. “I think 2025 will be the year of disillusionment with the promises of AI and the year human-centred experience design becomes the most critical competency required for CX professionals. I believe the business needs will shift the focus of our roles from understanding, managing and improving 'current state' to defining and developing 'future state' visions and change plans that deliver consistently better outcomes for people and organisations.”
Clare predicts a growing focus on solving the problems created by "tech-led" digital transformations, emphasising the need for CX leaders to influence agendas and actively shape the future of AI and automation. She believes transparency and ethical design will be key to building trust: “Transparency will be a default setting in experience designs. Systems will be built to ensure that customers can easily understand how AI makes decisions, how their data is being used, and the measures in place to protect their privacy.”
“Transparency will be a default setting in experience designs. Systems will be built to ensure that customers can easily understand how AI makes decisions, how their data is being used, and the measures in place to protect their privacy.”
Ethics will also become a central pillar of CX design, according to Clare. She predicts that businesses will be increasingly held accountable for ensuring their designs are fair, accountable, and free from bias. This will require companies to conduct regular ethical audits and involve ethical considerations in every step of the CX design process. “Ethical considerations will be integral to CX design from the onset,” Clare notes. “This includes fairness, accountability, and the societal implications of automation, such as eliminating bias.”
Clare also believes that CX strategies will become more agile and forward-thinking. “CX 'future state' designs will not only respond to current trends but will also anticipate future shifts in technology and consumer behaviour,” she says, predicting that rather than simply reacting to current trends, businesses will proactively anticipate future shifts in technology and consumer behaviour. “Companies will investigate emerging technologies before they become mainstream, staying ahead of the curve in meeting evolving customer needs.”
The Role of Tech in Shaping Customer Expectations
"I second Clare's point about tech humanising interactions - I've already seen this happening to various degrees across industries and geographies. I feel that this will be the biggest overall CX shift in 2025," says Lara Khouri, Co-Founder, of The CEO Maker.
She believes that as technology becomes more integrated, customers will increasingly expect personalised, human-like interactions. “To be able to adequately meet these more mature expectations, the role of focus groups and test audiences will become an even more important and integral part of crafting customer experiences.”
She also notes that customers are becoming increasingly aware of the influence they wield, especially regarding environmental and social issues. This heightened awareness will hold businesses accountable for their impact on the world around them.
“This will lead to a challenge for organisations as their staff and customers hold them accountable in ways and for things they had not given much thought to in their operating context. The challenge will be for organisations to live up to ‘new’ customer expectations, and they will have to find realistic, sustainable ways of managing their business operations.”
“This can be done in part, I believe, through revisiting their basic PESTLE (Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal and Environmental) analysis to understand their ‘new’ operating context and determine what reformations they can successfully implement,” she says. She predicts that while businesses face challenges meeting these new customer expectations, ignoring them will no longer be an option. “Not addressing the big challenge is, I believe, becoming less and less of an option for business sustainability, not to mention growth.”
Customers Demand Real Action
Hannah Cornaby, Customer Experience Consultant at Simmons CX, predicts a shift in how businesses and customers perceive CX. “I believe customers will continue to become more aware of customer experience and develop higher expectations for both customer service and the overall experience they receive,” she says.
“I also think the phrase ‘Customer Experience’ will lose some of the buzz it currently has.”
However, Hannah foresees a drop in the term’s “buzzword” status. “I also think the phrase ‘Customer Experience’ will lose some of the buzz it currently has. Many businesses use the term interchangeably with customer service without fully understanding that it encompasses much more. Over time, I expect businesses to better grasp its true meaning and recognise the importance of integrating genuine customer experience strategies into their operations, rather than simply using the term as a buzzword.”
AI as a Global Connector
Leonora Gouveia, Senior Business Solutions Manager at SAS, is excited about the potential for AI to eliminate language barriers on a global scale. “AI will further eliminate language barriers, democratising real-time translation and even replicating customer service agents’ voices. This will allow contact centres around the world to serve any region,” she says.
However, she also warns: “While I predict organisations will use this to reduce costs in 2025, they must carefully consider the potential drawbacks, such as cultural differences and mismatched customer expectations.”
Leonora also anticipates a deeper integration of data across channels and brands, enabling organisations to achieve a unified customer view. This effort, she believes, will “provide deeper insights and enable more meaningful customer experiences.”
Customers Get Savvier with Generative AI
Jeannie Walters, CEO & Chief Experience Investigator at Experience Investigators, points out an emerging trend among customers: harnessing generative AI for their own needs. “I think customers will become a lot savvier about using generative AI for their purposes—looking up warranty details, finding competitive pricing, etc.—so they will be super informed before they call and expect those serving them to know those details, too,” she explains.
“I think customers will become a lot savvier about using generative AI for their purposes.”
Jeannie warns that customer service agents will face heightened expectations as a result: “Those knowledge bases for customer service agents better keep up!”
Breaking Down Silos Across Channels
For Jennie Lewis, Senior Manager of Customer Insights at Airship, unifying customer experiences across channels is a growing challenge and opportunity. She stresses the importance of creating a “single view of the customer” to deliver consistent and personalised interactions.
Jennie’s solution? “By prioritising customer-centricity, gathering zero-party data, and using owned channels effectively, brands can meet this challenge and improve the customer experience.”
Building Bridges Across Experiences
For Amélie Beerens, Leadership Coach and Human-Centered CX & EX Designer, the future is all about integration—bringing together CX, UX, EX, and more. “The game has changed, and the winners will be those who double down on creating bridges between all human-centred approaches,” she says.
“Empathy isn’t some ‘nice-to-have’ extra—it’s the loyalty magnet that makes brands unmissable.”
Amelie stresses that empathy-driven design will be essential: “Empathy isn’t some ‘nice-to-have’ extra—it’s the loyalty magnet that makes brands unmissable. In a world where tech evolves faster than most can keep up, human-centred design is what keeps brands human.”
She also predicts a shift in workplace cultures from productivity-focused to thriving cultures. “It’s about thriving, not surviving. Forget the hustle metrics—if your people aren’t thriving, neither is your business. Thriving cultures make room for emotional well-being, personal growth, and a real sense of belonging. This shift turns workplaces into communities where people actually want to be, where they contribute and innovate,” she shares.
For Amelie, 2025 will be a year where the role of technology in CX is further refined. Automation and AI are not about replacing humans but about empowering them. “It’s about making space for what only humans can do,” Amelie affirms. “Empower people with the right tools, but let the real connection set you apart. The ethical use of tech will be non-negotiable—how we leverage it to elevate humanity rather than reduce it will be the true marker of leadership. Robots? They’re here to serve, not take over.”
As AI and automation tools become more integrated into the CX workflow, Amelie sees a growing need for employees to develop new skills. “Robot-human synergy coaching will be essential—training employees to leverage tech effectively while focusing on where human touch truly matters.”
The Bottom Line: CX in 2025
As 2025 approaches, it’s clear that we face both challenges and opportunities. Whether it’s redefining the role of AI, integrating channels for seamless customer journeys, or embracing the power of empathy, the road ahead will require bold thinking and action.
As Clare Muscutt puts it, “We have the opportunity to intentionally craft AI, automation, and transparency to redefine interactions that meet the needs of people, but it will be critical that CX leaders influence the agenda and ensure we get skin in the game.”
What are your predictions for CX in 2025? Let us know in the comments!
Join the Movement
At Women in CX, we’re all about learning from each other. These predictions from our members show just how much there is to discover in CX, whether you’re new to the field or have been in it for years. Want to pick up more insights?
