This article was written by Greg Kihlström for CMSWire. As customer expectations accelerate, CX leaders are turning to synthetic research and agentic AI to test experiences before customers ever feel the friction.

Customers stay engaged when they can see progress. Open world games like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey excel at this through visible milestones, layered goals, and consistent reinforcement. Brands can apply the same mechanics by adopting clear progress indicators, cross-channel consistency, and reward structures that evolve over time. When customers feel their actions matter, retention, loyalty, and lifetime value all improve.

Most organizations would like to say yes. Most would be wrong. We’ve built environments where a probability score—designed to represent uncertainty—somehow becomes a verdict. The interface cleans it up, a dashboard colors it red or green, and before long, a 0.72 isn’t “moderately risky.” It’s “deny the transaction.” This shift happens silently, and it happens everywhere AI gets deployed at scale.

The story isn’t declining foot traffic — it’s the rise of informed, AI-empowered buyers who expect certainty and value in every interaction. This article was written by Greg Kihlström for CMSWire.

This article was written by Greg Kihlström for CustomerThink. With concerns about the economy among the factors causing consumers to cut back on spending, the quality of customer experience is a key factor to brands’ success and growth in an environment of uncertainty.

Expedia’s research reveals how emotion, authenticity and the right mix of video and human-guided content inspire traveler wanderlust and drive bookings. This article was written by Greg Kihlström for MarTech.

At Sitecore Symposium, AI wasn’t the future — it was the operating system. Here’s what changes now. This article was written by Greg Kihlström for CMSWire.

With significant investments into digital storefronts, complete with product storytelling and sophisticated customer acquisition strategies, brands are keeping up with their online competition, yet a critical factor is undermining their long-term success.

New Qualtrics research shows AI in customer service is falling short, with one in five consumers unimpressed. This article was written for CMSWire by Greg Kihlström.

Agentic AI helps brands anticipate needs, simplify journeys and blend human judgment with AI speed for faster, smarter customer experiences. This article was written by Greg Kihlström for MarTech.

This article was written by Greg Kihlström for CMSWire. Connected insights turn consumer understanding into faster cycle times, stronger ROI and lasting customer loyalty.

This article was written for MarTech by Greg Kihlström. SMBs are spending more on marketing but growing less confident in results, creating an opportunity for B2B marketers to step in with clear, data-driven solutions.

AI moved from hype to orchestration in New York, with Optimizely showing how agentic tools reshape personalization, search and the marketer experience.

This article was written by Greg Kihlström for MarTech. Marketing technology was already evolving at breakneck speed when generative AI entered the scene. Now, agentic AI — AI that can operate independently, execute multi-step tasks and continuously learn from interactions — promises to accelerate that evolution even further.

This article was written by Greg Kihlström for CMSWire.

Free shipping, easy returns and Buy with Prime drove record sales for Prime Day 2025. DTC brands must now meet these CX benchmarks year-round.

Mobile traffic is booming, yet the 2025 Fullstory Benchmark Insights Report delivers a reality check: the average smartphone session now looks less like effortless swiping and more like whack-a-mole with broken UI elements. After reviewing 9.5 billion web sessions, 4.1 billion mobile sessions, and a casual 945 billion events, the study shows mobile error clicks up 667 percent year over year and dead clicks hovering at 929 per 1,000 sessions—enough to make even the most patient consumer consider carrier pigeons.

Forrester’s 2025 Global Customer Experience Index (CX Index™) paints a concerning picture: customer experience quality is in a multi-year decline worldwide, reaching an “all-time low in North America.” Brands are feeling this, as customers continue to vote with their wallets.

This article was written by Greg Kihlström for CustomerThink. A well-educated customer is valuable in a myriad of ways to a brand. They tend to adopt products and services more quickly and easily, draw less on customer support services, and they remain customers longer. This makes an informed customer valuable to both the top-and-bottom line performance of a company.

This article was written by Greg Kihlström for CMSWire. About 1,500 customer experience, digital-business and B2C marketing leaders converged here in Nashville June 23-26 to better understand the secret to “faster revenue, higher revenue, and a better overall experience.”

This article was written for MarTech by Greg Kihlström. Want your ads remembered and acted on? Use these creative levers to boost distinctiveness, emotional impact and profitability.