Experts of Experience
Accenture Lead Explains Why Customers Are Leaving non-AI Companies
Wed, 12 Mar 2025
Every company claims to be “customer-obsessed”. Most are obsessed with their own internal metrics, not their customers. Kevan Yalowitz, Senior Managing Director at Accenture, explains why true customer obsession is rare, why AI won’t magically fix bad CX, and how scaling businesses slowly lose touch with the people they serve.We’re talking AI growing pains, internal silos, and the corporate illusion of putting customers first. Spoiler: If your “customer obsession” doesn’t actually involve listening to customers, you’re doing it wrong. Key Moments: 00:00 Who is Kevan Yalowitz, Software & Platforms Industry Lead for Accenture?02:21 Why You Should Care About Consumer Behavior Data04:55 Bias and Misinformation in AI06:46 Is AI More Creative Than Humans?08:17 AI in Customer Support and Experience12:30 Proactive AI Solutions and Customer Retention17:12 Connect Product and Support Teams with AI23:56 The Influence of AI on Purchasing Decisions24:23 The Importance of Aligned OKRs26:18 Customer Obsession in Large Organizations Vs. Start-Ups32:21 Implementing Agentic AI in Workflows35:45 Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up Approaches46:32 Key Advice for CX Leaders in the Age of Agentic AI –Are your teams facing growing demands? Join CX leaders transforming their AI strategy with Agentforce. Start achieving your ambitious goals. Visit salesforce.com/agentforce Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org
Chapter 1: Who is Kevan Yalowitz and what is his role?
Two thirds of the folks that we surveyed were actually comfortable with Gen AI. If you look at OpenAI and DeepSeek, the adoption of their specific apps have been really some of the fastest adoption ever. They feel like they are being bombarded by generative content.
The question of trust comes to mind. How can we trust that this is real? How do we know that what is being told to us is true?
Chapter 2: What consumer behavior data should companies care about?
60% said that they were concerned with bias and misinformation. 88% of those that we surveyed that use Gen AI weekly think that AI dramatically enhances their online experience. 83% of those folks think that AI can be more creative than humans. That statement should cause a little bit of pause in my opinion. I'm kind of already nostalgic for the old days.
It sort of places human-created content almost on a pedestal now, right? That actually can become the premium thing.
Chapter 3: How do bias and misinformation affect AI perception?
Consumers are now going to be looking for the human element. That human touch is going to be the differentiator. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Experts of Experience. I'm your host, Lauren Wood. Today, we are talking about one of the most important shifts happening in customer experience, the impact of AI on both businesses and consumers.
We know that the topic of AI is consuming all of us these days. And while the promises of AI bring efficiency, personalization, engagement, the reality is far more complicated. Companies are struggling with implementation, employees are wary of change, and consumers have mixed feelings about how trustworthy AI-generated content really is.
Chapter 4: Is AI more creative than humans?
So today we have Kevin Yalowitz, who truly has a front row seat to all of this as the software and platforms industry lead for Accenture. And while he is working with top organizations, navigating the complexities of AI tech and digital transformation, he is really getting to see the challenges of AI adoption, both inside and outside of organizations. Kevin, so wonderful to have you on the show.
Thank you for having me. It's great to be here.
Chapter 5: What role does AI play in customer support and experience?
So in our prep call, you shared so much incredible information, and we're going to try to cover as much of it as possible.
Let's do it.
First, starting with the consumer. I know that your team has been doing lots of research and studying the impact of consumer behavior and opinions when it comes to AI. And I'd love to just start off by asking, what are some of the most surprising findings that you are seeing?
Yeah, so this is something we've been tracking over the past couple of years. It's just consumer familiarity with AI. And frankly, what the tipping points are for when consumers are really, truly comfortable. What's interesting, though, is that
Chapter 6: How can AI solutions improve customer retention?
Two-thirds of the folks that we surveyed, and we surveyed consumers in 10 different countries around the world, including developed markets and developing markets. But two-thirds were actually comfortable with Gen AI. They're using it. They're comfortable with it, which is actually... if you step back and just think about it, that's a material amount of adoption in a short period of time.
And obviously, if you look at OpenAI and DeepSeek, the adoption of their specific apps have been really some of the fastest adoption ever, which is great. But the consumer comfort with that, we think is pretty darn interesting. Like 50% of the users that are that have adopted it are actually really comfortable with it.
And they're five times more likely to actually pay for it, which is another pretty big barrier. Because typically, at early days, people don't pay for it. They just play around with it.
I think the thing that's particularly interesting, though, is that if you look broadly across consumers out in the world, they feel like they are being bombarded by generative content, maybe even more so than they are. Like they think that 60% of their content in search is generative. 40% of the music they listen to is generative.
Very interesting data point, but we know that it's not that high, right? We are not to the point where that level of what you consume is actually created by Gen AI. So there's this bit of a mismatch or dichotomy in which people think that there's more of this happening today than maybe there is. And we're going to dive into that, I know, a little bit later, but it does set an interesting stage.
It's so fascinating because I find myself do that where I'm like, is this AI? I mean, it's been so fast where I remember... a year ago, seeing my, the first, maybe a year and a half ago, seeing the first AI generated image and being like, oh, whoa, that's crazy. But it also looks like a computer and, but now it doesn't. And it's, you know, how, like, how do we know?
And so I, the question of trust comes to mind of how can we trust that this is real if it's being said to be real? Yeah. Or how do we know that what is being told to us is true? And I think that there was also that happening in the background. I'm curious to know what you've seen in your findings. Yeah.
Yeah, well, there's also some irony in that statement because there's a lot of mistruth in what humans create, right? I mean, for good reason and for bad, that is actually not a new phenomenon in online content, but there's definitely a heightened awareness of this around Gen AI. So of the consumers that we surveyed, 60% said that they were concerned with bias and misinformation.
So that's big, right? That includes folks that... see the promise of gen AI and, and want to use it more. And what we found is it of that group that are actual users identifying that something is generative content massively increases the trust that exists there. Right. And, and I would argue two other interesting data points that underpin that specifically is,
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Chapter 7: How does AI influence purchasing decisions?
Completely. I mean, it makes me wonder about what's going to happen to creative industries, for one thing. And the concept of music creation, I think, is one where my mind goes. Where does AI play a role here in helping artists create music? But is music going to be enjoyable if computers are creating it?
Like, I mean, I guess it will be, but there's something like the magic kind of gets taken out of it if it's not like the genius behind someone who spent their entire life learning how to create this thing. Same with visual artists or even advertisers, you know, the creativity of how do we take these consumer insights and translate them into a like wow moment.
is I'm kind of like already nostalgic for like the old days a little bit.
Chapter 8: Why is customer obsession crucial in large organizations?
Yeah, no, I agree. I mean, one conclusion you could draw though is that users that want to be notified of something being generated content It sort of places human created content almost on a pedestal now, right? Like that actually can become the premium thing.
And I know we'll get into this a bit later, but I think that the human component there, there is not a broad dismissal that, well, AI is just going to be more creative writ large than humans. I think it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out. And we're not, we're not really at a point where we can predict exactly how it will yet.
We are so early.
Yeah.
How is this impacting consumers purchasing decisions?
Yeah, it's early days. I think what we're seeing is that there is an increased willingness of consumers to see, and this ties to experience, to see AI and gen AI as a means to improving the consumer experience to do a job that they would normally have to do themselves. So as an example, customer support is something that comes up continually.
Generally, we don't stumble across many companies that are wowing consumers and driving NPSs of 10 all the time, right? But I do think that we're starting to see the initial sort of vision of how AI can actually help consumers have just a better support experience when something does go wrong with a product. And that is by driving consumer behavior.
Like we did see that in our data that consumers are willing to gravitate towards services that are being innovative and helping them get to that resolution better. Which makes sense. That's intuitive, right? I mean, if you think about it, like, yeah, just as if you think about any company you've had a great experience with, like, if you have a problem, it gets resolved quickly, you're happier.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's so much low hanging fruit when it comes to post-sale support. Like, and we all know that no one wants to pick up the phone and call a company. I have like always, there's like a list of things when I call this company, call the bank call. And I'm like, I don't want to, because it's going to take half my day and it's going to be frustrating.
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