The 4 Things CX Programs Need to Prove in 2025

The glass-half-empty way of looking at this trend is that it’s a flashing warning light for churn. If you prefer the glass-half-full view, it signals an opportunity to stand out in an underperforming field.

Either way, it should prompt brands to shift their strategy. They're currently falling into the “acquisition trap” —pouring investment into attracting new customers while deprioritizing the ones they have. That deprioritization of post-purchase experiences produces some damaging pain points: frustrating product support interactions, clunky bill-to-payment journeys, and ignored cross-sell/upsell offers, to name a few. These post-purchase pain points increase churn, dampening businesses’ overall revenue growth despite the gains they’re making in acquisition.

How are brands going to fix those “make-or-break" interactions to make their customers feel known, heard and understood?

2. Prove the benefits of AI to business and consumer

In 2024, AI adoption gained major momentum in CX programs. In a recent survey of CX leaders, 73% said investing in CX-focused AI technology is high on the agenda of their C-suite, with 21% saying it is "very high." An IDC study found that 17% of organizations globally have already introduced GenAI-enhanced applications and services into production. Employees are generally buying into using AI at work; in fact, they’re three times more likely to be using AI today than their leaders expect.

But what about consumers? Even as AI applications become more commonplace in their internet searches and mobile phones, it doesn’t mean they all trust a brand’s application of AI.

According to a survey by Gartner, 64% of customers would prefer that companies didn’t use AI in their customer service, and 53% of customers would consider switching to a competitor if they found out a company was going to use AI for customer service.

In 2025, how are CX programs going to satisfy the business imperative of AI—reducing opex and raising revenue—while satisfying customers who aren’t yet ready for it?

3. Prove the value of customer engagement platforms

In last year’s State of the Customer Experience Report , we covered the trend of IT departments taking over the martech stack. Organizations initiated this to make better and more secure use of the mountain of customer data they’re sitting on.

Another objective of the IT collaboration was for businesses to get more value out of their existing technology investments. This is going to be a difference-maker for CX programs in 2025. So many businesses remain encumbered by legacy tools that struggle to keep pace or expand outside their original purpose. As a result, businesses can't get a unified view of their customer insights, which creates disjointed experiences for customers.

How can businesses unlock the customer insights hidden in their legacy systems and drive the most value out of their existing technology?

4. Prove CX's impact to the business

What it all comes down to is showing value, and this is where CX programs often struggle most. They can make the right improvements to critical interactions to strengthen customer loyalty. They can apply AI in ways that meet business directives and customer expectations. They can connect their customer engagement solutions to uncover new efficiencies. But if leaders can’t connect those outcomes to business KPIs, they’ll still meet internal resistance when they try to expand those efforts.

According to Forrester, 60% of CX professionals surveyed said that linking CX to business metrics was a top-three challenge in their VoC/CX measurement program.

How can CX teams translate their traditional CX metrics—CSAT, Net Promoter Score (NPS), etc.—to key business objectives and convincingly demonstrate value?