Many interesting - and some surprising - results appeared in the CX Network's Global State of CX 2025 survey and report. The headline of the year is all about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) in customer experience (CX). The CX Network community is undergoing a monumental transformation driven by advanced technology. And the technology is having a domino effect on customers and their behaviors and expectations. Staying on the cutting edge is a challenge, but assessing the present and contemplating the future is vital to developing a thriving CX strategy.
Discover the most important takeaways from the Global State of CX 2025:
AI is everything everywhere all at once
AI is all anyone is talking about, and the CX professionals, who responded to CX Network's most recent annual survey, made the importance of AI in CX the headline. Among the top 10 trends that emerged in this report, AI-powered technologies for operations took the top spot. Four of the trends had AI in the title, and three others were relevant to AI (automation, data and analytics and digital CX).
Automation tops investment priorities
Twenty-four percent of respondents said that automation of CX and service functions is a top investment priority in 2025. AI/machine learning (ML) for business operations (20 percent) and customer engagement (19 percent) round out the top three.
Automation came up often in the report, in fact. Automation is fourth among the top 10 trends. Of course, it's relevant to AI. Dominik Olejko, retail and data specialist H&M, IKEA and Decathlon, explained the connection in the report:
"In 2025 and beyond, AI-driven CX will shift from experimentation to execution at scale,” Olejko says and this will see AI agents evolve from basic automation tools into proactive, context-aware assistants that can anticipate issues and personalize interactions in real time to provide 'seamless omnichannel support.' This will enhance resolution speed and accuracy, and free human agents to focus on tasks that demand 'creativity, problem-solving and emotional intelligence.'"
The automation talk begs the question: What role will humans play? Most in CX are saying that the technology will never replace the human touch because customers demand it, but at the same time Salesforce has admitted that it is already using AI to handle 85 percent of customer support. In many ways, this is a moment of truth and the data in the Global State of CX 2025 appears to prove this inflection point.
Demonstrating return on investment is imperative
Nearly 40 percent of respondents said demonstrating ROI is the biggest challenge to their investment priorities, and it topped the list. Finding budget (35 percent) and integration with existing tools (31 percent) are the second and third biggest challenges. This means CX leaders must continuously prove the value of their work both to prove ROI but also to get a bigger slice of budget for their initiatives.
Customer expectations are rising - fast
As CX Network has reported on AI in CX becoming more ubiquitous, thought leaders, practitioners, consultants and vendors have all expressed their concern that rising customer expectations are getting harder to meet. Now there is a data point to serve as evidence.
The top customer behavior that influenced CX planning in 2025, according to respondents and with 40 percent of the vote, is the expectation for instant service/delivery. As technology continues to advance, people expect the customer service to be resolved immediately. This is going to require CX leaders and their teams to be nimble and swift. They must leverage the technology wisely to ensure they are responsive at a rapid pace.
The top skill for the CX workforce is unexpected
More than 40 percent of respondents said that the top skill practitioners trained their workforce on in the last year was product knowledge. Customer journey mapping and soft skills came in second and third place respectively. Clearly, understanding the company's products or services is remarkably important when providing CX to people. Perhaps, what's more interesting is the education people are getting on customer journey and the soft skills, specifically emotional intelligence, empathy, adaptability and resilience. Empathy has been described as the greatest currency of humans in the age of AI. Raluca Berchiu, founder and CEO of CXM | Strategic, shared her thoughts in the report.
"Ask yourself: are you leading with purpose, creating connections that truly matter, and inspiring loyalty that stands the test of time? Because in a marketplace full of options, trust isn’t just a differentiator, it’s your ultimate advantage."