We’ve just closed the curtain on CX Forum West, wrapping up an exhilarating month of CX events. It was a series of new beginnings: new host cities in Europe and North America and a smaller, more intimate format for our North America events. A huge thank you to everyone who joined us in Amsterdam, New York City, and San Francisco, as well as to the teams behind the scenes who made these transitions work so smoothly!

Across all three events, we focused on a goal that is both ambitious and achievable: building the human foundation for differentiated AI experiences. AI is quickly becoming table stakes, at least as a productivity play. The organizations that ultimately win will be those that combine AI with human judgment, creativity, and empathy to create better experiences — not just faster ones. We covered a lot of ground. Here are three lessons that stood out.

Take The Broad View Of Experience

Last year, we introduced Forrester’s Total Experience Score to measure both the promises that brands make and how well they deliver on those promises in the customer experience. Organizations that deliver a strong total experience can realize huge revenue growth — upwards of 6x in some cases.

This year, we added the Employee Experience Index to better understand how well companies equip their people to support that total experience. Strong EX isn’t just complementary; it’s essential to sustaining a good total experience.

Our latest research shows that total experience performance remains largely mediocre, despite modest year-over-year gains. That creates a clear opportunity for organizations willing to improve by focusing on building better experiences powered by people and AI.

Prioritize Trust

As my colleague Martin Gill wrote, AI only delivers value if customers and employees believe in it. Today, distrust is often the default. In fact, 72% of US online adults say they are concerned that companies will not use AI responsibly.

That makes trust a competitive differentiator. Organizations should make trust fundamental to experiences to ensure that AI-driven decisions are transparent, explainable, and fair. Without that, even the most advanced use cases will fall short.

Trust matters just as much internally. Employees need to perceive AI as something that enables them, not replaces them. That requires giving them a clear role in how AI is used, along with the skills to use it effectively and the space to innovate. As Colleen Fazio put it, “The winners won’t be the companies with the best AI. They will be the ones that put humans first.”

Reboot Your CX Vision And Practices

We’ve seen plenty of headlines over the past year declaring that CX is “dead.” Our own 2026 predictions warned that legacy mindsets and practices could hold CX teams back if they don’t evolve. AI creates a strong incentive to rethink that trajectory but only if organizations are willing to make real changes. That means shifting focus away from metrics for their own sake and toward what actually drives value. It means setting a clear, ambitious vision for experience that the organization can align around.

AI enables entirely new categories of experience, much as the internet and mobile did before it. Taking advantage of this opportunity means moving from one-time journey mapping exercises to continuous journey management and improvement. As organizations explore those possibilities, CX teams will play a critical role in keeping customers at the center.

Build On AI’s Human Foundations Now

Our CX events demonstrated that the human foundations of AI are alive and well. Empathy, creativity, and a willingness to make tough decisions came through during our workshops, roundtables, immersive sessions, and the many conversations we had throughout the month. Now’s the time to lean into those qualities to create extraordinary experiences. That work won’t always be easy, but you don’t have to do it alone.

Our CX, B2C marketing, and digital analysts are here to help. If you’re in the APAC region, join us at AI Forum Sydney, where we’ll continue this conversation in a dedicated track on building the experience that AI can’t. And for those in North America and Europe, we look forward to seeing you again next year.

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