As most people who have read some of my previous work know, I like to distinguish the sense from the nonsense, the hype from the value. And let’s be honest, if there is one hype today, it’s definitely Artificial Intelligence.
But what really is Artificial Intelligence? A chatbot? Workflow automation? Didn’t we already have that back in 1999 when I got my Business and IT degree?
And what is the link to Customer Experience? How realistic is the claim that almost all organisations are integrating AI into their core processes between 2025 and 2030?
These are all questions that played around in my head, so I thought, let me write them down and maybe this will inspire you and be helpful to place CX and AI in the most valuable context and application for your specific organisation.
To actually make a difference, not to just go with the hype.
Ready?
OK, let’s start with the very basic question: what is Artificial Intelligence?
Recognize posts like these a gazillion times in your LinkedIn feed?
I spent 100 hours a month replying to 4000 responses to my LinkedIn posts. Guess what? Thanks to AI it’s taking me less than 1 hour! Reply “teach me!” in the comments and I will share with you in the video exactly how it works!
This is not AI.
This is workflow automation.
Yes super helpful, super efficient, just not AI.
It is a fully predefined process that connects several applications, for example:
- Tool A recognizes the comment “teach me!” (and be sure to not make a typo or it doesn’t work anymore)
- Tool B has been instructed to find the contact on LinkedIn that has commented “teach me!”
- Tool B is also probably the one that can check if this person is a 1st degree connection or not (if not, it’s not possible to send you automated info in your DM)
- Tool C has access to the PDF and/or link that should be sent and a standard message that has been programmed something like “Hey [Zanna], here’s the amazing PDF I told you about! Enjoy and let me know if it works for you!” or something like that.
- Tool D then ensures that the message with the PDF is sent via LinkedIn DM to the right person
Super easy.
Super scalable.
Super efficient.
Just not AI, but workflow automation.
Ever called a contact center where you had to share your question via voice instead of choosing option A for Invoicing, option B for Sales etc.?
Same idea.
Yes, super relevant for efficient routing, but also here, predetermined workflows based on scenarios of customers dictating their questions.
How would AI fit in here?
The system is learning based on what customers say, connecting that to for example the highest first time fix scores from agents and learning from that data to automatically improve the best routing continuously.
Yes, now we are getting to AI.
A nice quick check thanks to chatGPT:
– If it learns → likely AI.
– If it just executes a branch in a decision tree → workflow automation.
– If it only reports numbers → BI/analytics.
Why does it matter to distinguish between what is AI and what is workflow automation?
Because just like nowadays everything seems to be labelled Customer Experience, labelling everything AI is just not helping to actually make a difference.
It makes people confused and that slows down the impact we want to make.
Because of course, one of the best applications of AI is to enhance both the customer as well as the employee experience!
But as will become clear during my AI blog rants, we are a very long way away from that stage.
This blog is part of a new blog series by dr. Zanna van der Aa
AI and CX: Demystifying the Hype
