The next disruption in CX? It’s the customer themselves

When customers bring their own digital tools to the customer experience, everything changes

Hi everyone, thanks for coming back to Customer Futures.

Each week I unpack the disruptive shifts around digital wallets, Personal AI and digital customer relationships.

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Hi folks,

I’ve recently been working with UJET, a company rethinking what customer service looks like in a mobile-first world.

And we’ve been asking a simple question: What happens when customers bring their own digital tools to the customer experience?

When customers bring their own data. Their preferences. Even their own AI.

It’s what we believe is coming with ‘Empowerment Tech’. And is the missing link in CX evolution.

This post is the first in a new mini series exploring how CX is changing - and what’s coming next.

We dig into:

• Why today’s digital customer experience has hit a wall

• Getting customer context, on demand

• The new two-way street with customers

• How you should be thinking about what’s next for CX

So grab your favourite summer smoothie, and Let’s Go.

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Today’s digital customer experience has hit a wall

I’ve been tracking the evolution of customer experience for years now. Always looking from the customer’s point of view, not just from within the organisation.

How it feels as a customer to interact and transact across multiple brands, different services and changing digital channels.

And one thing’s clear. We’re still missing something.

Despite all the tech, the CRMs, the Customer Data Platforms, the AI chatbots, most experiences still feel… off.

Disconnected systems. Slow responses. Robotic services. The tools have changed, but as customers, we still wait.

Why? 

Because for years, CX has been designed for customers, not with them. Businesses are still guessing what customers need, instead of letting them share it.

But that’s what’s about to change.

Customers don’t ever show up empty-handed. They always bring data. Preferences. And real-time context. It’s just that almost all brands are blind to it. Or worse, they ignore it, asking customers for the same information time and time again.

It not only creates more friction and frustration, but fundamentally damages customer trust.

It’s like the business has customer amnesia.

Customer context, on demand

The problem is that most CX stacks rely on ‘lagging’ indicators. Things like historical clicks, inferred intent, and digital guesswork. 

But soon, customers are going to start bringing their own ‘Empowerment Tech’ (ET) to the party. Where brands can request rich personal information in real time, and just in time.

As a hotel guest, imagine pulling up to a hotel and your Personal AI has already checked you in, shared your room preferences, and scheduled a late checkout... all without filling in a single form. 

Here’s the thing. Customers expect recognition, not retargeting. They want services that just work. Not workflows that make them repeat themselves.

Empowerment Tech means that individuals can share their real-time, volunteered customer context. And right at the point when it’s relevant, not just retrofitted to whatever the business can accept at that moment, and in that particular CX channel.

ET means that customers can bring their own verified identity and reputation, in the right channel, at the right time, that suits them, and in that moment.

But what do we mean by Empowerment Tech?

It’s a set of new technologies that live on the customer side. Transforming how people interact with digital services, including:

• Digital Wallets: secure, portable identity and preference data

• Verifiable Credentials: digitally signed facts that customers can share without oversharing

• Personal AI Agents: tools to help customers decide, act, and automate their interactions

Together, these technologies give individuals more control, more privacy, and enable smoother experiences. 

But here’s the twist. It all happens before a brand even says hello.

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The new two-way street

When you zoom out, you’ll see this is a customer empowerment shift that changes everything. 

Where brands are no longer the only source of data. Where customers can bring their own context. And where businesses are expected to honour it.

Tomorrow, the most disruptive and valuable customer experiences will come from collaboration with the customer.

This won’t be about pre-defined customer journeys, blindly mapped out in a corporate boardroom. Where product and experience teams try to carefully stage-manage specific pathways and steps.

Because when the customer becomes an active participant, not just a ‘passive data subject’, CX not only looks different, but it feels different.

It’s when:

• The customer can skip the ID check because their device biometrics already confirmed it’s them

• The customer or employee can be onboarded without needing lengthy, complicated forms

• The loyalty program follows - and supports - the individual across different platforms and businesses

• The AI (and human) contact centre agents already know why the customer is calling

Empowerment Tech is being ushered in at a time of rising expectations around privacy. And with new data regulations making customer data portable.

Why should you care?

Because the brands that adapt now will earn more trust, get access to more data, and earn a place in the customer’s preferred tools and flows.

Put simply, Empowerment Tech is becoming a competitive advantage.

And for the brands that don’t switch gears with ET? They’ll become invisible, and won’t be getting that NPS feedback any time soon. They’ll just get abandoned.

‘Empowerment Tech’ isn’t a trend. It’s a new foundation for the digital customer relationship. Where the customer shows up equipped with rich, verified and secure personal data. And where the brand is ready to talk.

If you haven’t already started thinking about the future of your customer experience, you need to start asking some simple CX questions:

• Are you forcing the customer to repeat themselves across different customer journeys? Or are you requesting data you already have about them?

• Can you improve the customer experience by asking for less data? Could you collect it later?

• Is your business ready to request data from the customer’s own digital wallet, and their ‘reusable digital ID’? (Gartner says there will be 500M of them in use by 2026)

• What happens when the customer starts using their ‘Personal AI’ to manage their account with you? What are the risks? The opportunities? Is there a business case to help more customers do this?

Empowerment Tech is coming. And it’s going to fundamentally reshape CX. Disrupting your omnichannel strategies and hyper-personalisation plans. You need to be paying attention.

Are you ready to start building for the empowered customer?

As ever, you can always get in touch. Because we can help.

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OTHER THINGS

There are far too many interesting and important Customer Futures things to include this week.

So here are some more links to chew on:

• News: Delta plans to eliminate set prices - now an AI that decides how much you pay personally READ

• Idea: You are going to the wrong conferences (hint: it’s about digital ID) READ

• Article: The next web is the "thin-ternet" - a new way to think of commerce and advertising READ

• Post: Identifiers for Agentic AI READ

• Article: How will age verification for porn work and what about privacy? READ

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And that’s a wrap. Stay tuned for more Customer Futures soon, both here and over at LinkedIn.

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