Who Owns Customer Experience? A Conversation on Empowerment, Ownership, and the Role of AI

I had a really nice time at the Elevating Customer Experience: Joining UX with CRM to Deliver a Total Customer Experience event on the evening of 3rd October at Fortnum & Mason in London, hosted by CACI. It was a great night, with a tasty three-course meal and interesting discussions. It was also great to see familiar faces like Danny Bluestone and Siji Onabanjo from Cyberduck, a CACI company, and learn from the expert panel with Matt Gibson from CACI, Emmanuelle Savarit, PhD from JustEat, Sandy Ghuman from EasyJet, and Ash Fisher from ASOS.

The panel shared good perspectives on customer experience (CX) ownership—whether it sits with marketing, customer experience teams, or somewhere else in the company. One key takeaway was the importance of empowering teams who deal with customers directly to align with the overall strategy. Without alignment, things can easily fall apart.

Ownership of Customer Experience: The Debate

Customer experience (CX) is more than just a buzzword—it’s the heartbeat of every successful business. But who really owns it? That's a big question being discussed in companies everywhere, and it's something that many leaders in different industries are trying to figure out.The panel helped us take a closer look at the changing dynamics of CX ownership, empowerment, and the opportunities AI presents.

One of the key challenges in customer experience is figuring out who actually owns it in a company. Is it marketing? The customer experience teams? Sales? It depends on the company—but one thing is always true: CX can't succeed without ownership that crosses departments.

If the people who interact directly with customers aren’t empowered or don’t support the overall strategy, the experience falls apart. Empowerment means giving teams the authority, tools, and understanding they need to make customer-focused decisions, bridging the gap between high-level strategy and day-to-day interactions.

Making Customer Experience Happen

Creating a great customer experience starts with your employees. The teams who deal with customers directly—customer service reps, sales associates, and support staff—play the most important role in how well a business serves its customers. But for them to really do well, they need to be empowered to own that experience. This empowerment starts from the top down: leaders need to understand what issues are happening on the ground, address them, and kick off initiatives to improve things.

Keeping teams engaged is also key. It's about getting them involved in the CX journey and showing them how their roles contribute to the future goals of the company. The ROI of customer experience initiatives is often important for deciding which projects to focus on—finding the right balance between investment and impact.

Empowerment in the Age of AI

AI brings powerful opportunities for companies to improve CX. It's about using AI so every part of the customer journey gets better. From chatbots that help support teams to predictive tools that figure out what customers need before they even know it, AI is changing how companies think about and deliver experiences.

With limited budgets, improving customer experience starts with understanding customers—doing research, finding out pain points, and making smart decisions. It also means understanding the whole ecosystem of users, including partners, logistics, and support teams, to make sure there's a smooth, frictionless customer journey.

The north star for experience should be reducing friction—connecting data points across different channels, giving teams a 360-degree view of the customer, and making sure all systems are ready to serve customers well, especially when things go wrong. When teams have full visibility and understand customer pain points, they can make better decisions, which leads to better experiences.

Challenges on the Path to the North Star

There are always challenges when trying to reach the CX north star. It’s about taking employees along for the journey—sharing the vision from the top down and being data-driven with the right systems and tools. Open testing and gradual change can help with resistance, but it’s not easy. Change also needs to come from the bottom up; employees live the experience and can give valuable insights into what's working and what's not. Understanding goals, KPIs, and building a culture of continuous improvement helps make sure there’s alignment across the company.

There’s no such thing as business as usual when it comes to customer experience. Expectations are always changing, and companies need to embrace continuous improvement to keep up.

The Future of Customer Experience and AI

Looking forward, AI will play a big role in customer experience. From automating routine tasks to finding trends in customer data, AI has the potential to simplify roles, allowing teams to focus on what really matters—building relationships and solving tough problems. AI tools can also support human capabilities, reduce human error in important sectors like healthcare, and make teams more efficient.

To use AI effectively, businesses need to understand what skills are needed to make the most of these tools. Efficiency is more than just using technology—it’s about enabling employees to predict, test, and learn all the time. As AI evolves, it will become an essential tool in the CX toolkit, driving efficiency, insights, and ultimately helping businesses serve customers better.

Summary

Customer experience starts with empowerment—from the top down, with leaders setting the tone, to the front-line teams interacting directly with customers. Ownership and alignment are key, and AI offers exciting opportunities to improve experiences everywhere. But success relies on a culture of continuous improvement, where every team member is engaged in delivering the best possible experience for customers.

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