The Customer Engagement Summit brought together industry leaders to explore the future of customer experience, from AI and automation to culture, training and wellbeing. While technology dominated much of the conversation, one clear theme stood out: the human element remains critical.
The human edge in tech-enabled contact centres
Our Head of Sales, Ben Scales, joined the panel discussion “The Human Edge: Training, Culture & Motivation in Tech-Enabled Contact Centres”, and hosted a roundtable titled “Customers Are Crying Out for Organisations to Invest in Their People, but Are You Going Far Enough?”
Both sessions sparked open and energising discussions around how organisations can strike the right balance between digital efficiency and human empathy. With contributions from AXA Health, NewDay, and insights from ContactBabel, The Harris Poll UK, and The UK CX Report 2025 (IPOS and Engage Customer), it was clear that the customer conversation has evolved.
As Ben summed it up perfectly:
“There’s no doubt AI is transforming CX, but what stood out was the appetite to balance that with a people-first approach. Our conversations showed that organisations know their greatest advantage still comes from skilled, engaged people delivering brilliant customer experiences.”
Why human interaction still matters
Despite the rise of automation, research shows that 77% of customers still value human interaction for complex or sensitive issues. As ContactBabel highlighted, customers are increasingly turning to the live voice channel when emotion or urgency is involved – areas where empathy, reassurance and trust matter most.
But there’s a deeper operational reason too. When employees lack confidence or clarity, small knowledge gaps can snowball into avoidable errors, repeat contacts, and customer frustration. That’s why competence and confidence aren’t just training outcomes but they’re core CX levers that protect both efficiency and customer trust.
The message is clear: businesses that rely too heavily on self-service or automation risk losing the personal touch their customers value most. The future of CX isn’t human or digital – it’s human and digital.
AI as an enabler, not a replacement
AI and automation have a valuable role to play, especially in helping agents work more efficiently. From automating post-call notes to summarising interactions, these tools can free up agents’ time to focus on what really matters: meaningful conversations.
This shift not only improves efficiency but also supports agent wellbeing – reducing stress, cutting down distractions, and giving employees the space to deliver better outcomes. AI works best when it empowers people, not when it replaces them.
You can’t train empathy, but you can enable it
A recurring theme throughout the summit was empathy: can you train it? Perhaps not directly, but you can recruit for it, nurture it, and protect it by removing unnecessary pressures from your people. When employees have the right tools, support and confidence, empathy comes naturally.
By closing knowledge gaps and reinforcing competence daily, organisations not only reduce costly mistakes but also give their people the assurance to focus on customers, not on second-guessing themselves.
Human first, always
The summit reinforced that technology alone doesn’t create exceptional customer experiences – people do. The challenge for organisations now is to harness AI and automation to support their teams, ensuring empathy and competency remain at the heart of every interaction.
When people feel confident and capable, customers feel it too, and that’s what drives lasting loyalty and measurable CX improvement.