7 customer experience trends to know in 2025
Customer experience trends like generative AI, proactive outreach and agent assist can all help organizations ensure they can attract and keep customers.
The customer journey is evolving rapidly, driven by advancements in technology and heightened expectations for seamless, personalized experiences.
Savvy CX leaders use technology to revamp operational processes to help address company problems or opportunities. In its "Customer Experience Optimization 2024-25" global study of 544 companies, Metrigy identified technology trends that will shape customer experience. From harnessing generative AI (GenAI) to integrating augmented reality, explore seven transformative trends to evaluate during strategic planning.
1. Voice of the customer using AI insights
Voice of the customer (VoC) programs have become increasingly important because of their role in customer interaction analytics. In 2025, Metrigy expects a measurable shift in the use of AI with VoC data.
Many organizations have begun to supplement traditional surveys and focus groups with sentiment analysis using GenAI. When asked about CX transformation projects, 37.5% of Metrigy's survey respondents cited VoC programs, and 43.7% of organizations currently use AI-enabled inferred sentiment to track CX.
GenAI also analyzes unstructured data in customer reviews to uncover nuanced insights about customer preferences and pain points. This ability lets organizations act proactively, refine their offerings and address issues before they escalate.
In 2025, businesses might begin to integrate VoC insights into every stage of the customer journey, from product development to post-purchase support, ensuring a customer-centric approach.
2. Digital avatars for personalized interactions
Digital avatars have begun to transform how customers interact with brands. These AI-driven virtual agents have lifelike appearances and conversational abilities, and they offer a new level of personalization and engagement.
In 2025, Metrigy expects organizations to increase their use of digital avatars on websites and apps -- particularly in retail, hospitality, education, internet and telecom. GenAI enables these avatars to adapt dynamically and create highly personalized conversations that draw on past interactions, preferences and customer profiles.
3. Proactive outreach with predictive AI
Though proactive outreach has been a staple of customer service for many years, AI can improve it, as it can analyze when to reach out to customers, on which channels and under which circumstances.
For example, GenAI analyzes customer data to predict when a product might need servicing or when a subscription is about to lapse. Organizations can send timely reminders or offers to prevent churn. Additionally, AI helps craft personalized recommendations or solutions, and better enable timely and relevant outreach. Of the 59.7% of organizations that do proactive outreach, 47.1% use AI, according to the Metrigy study.
Nearly one-third of IT and CX leaders expect customer service to shift from mostly inbound to mostly proactive outreach by the end of 2025. Another 37.3% of respondents expect that shift to take place between 2025 and 2028.
4. Social media as a real-time support channel
Social media will continue to serve as a platform to communicate with and support customers. Organizations have begun to integrate AI-powered tools to manage inquiries, complaints and feedback on social media platforms including Instagram, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter).
GenAI plays a key role in crafting timely, empathetic responses that address issues. Moreover, AI can identify trending issues or crises early, so an organization can act swiftly and maintain its reputation. Social media's immediacy and visibility make it a critical touchpoint in the modern customer journey.
5. Rising video and screen sharing demand
Just under half of organizations offer video as an interaction channel, and fewer than 40% use screen sharing. However, more than 90% of consumers want to use video and/or screen sharing, according to Metrigy's "Customer Experience Optimization 2024-25 -- Consumer Views" study of 504 consumers.
CX leaders should aim to make visual engagement an easier channel to use, as organizations that use it report a 41.4% improvement in customer satisfaction, a 40.6% boost in resolution time and a 33.2% increase in sales.
6. Agent assist for empowered support teams
Although automation is on the rise, human agents remain integral to CX. The focus for 2025 is on equipping support teams with AI-driven tools to enhance their effectiveness and efficiency.
Agent assist can help agents become more efficient, according to Metrigy. Agent assist technology uses real-time AI to analyze conversations, suggest responses and offer relevant information during customer interactions. This approach lets agents resolve issues faster while maintaining a human touch.
By blending human expertise with AI efficiency, agent assist tools elevate the quality of customer support.
7. Agentics: The AI-driven evolution of customer service
Agentics, a term that blends the words agent and analytics, could redefine how AI-powered virtual agents serve customers in 2025. Experts anticipate these more advanced and human-like agents will be better at fully automating customer interactions and assisting live agents.
GenAI is at the core of agentics, as it enables hyper-personalization during both live assisted and fully automated interactions. It helps the agentic agents make decisions and take actions. Several technology vendors have made agentic announcements, including Cognigy, Microsoft and Salesforce.
Organizations should evaluate which of these customer experience trends makes sense to address their problems or lead to new opportunities. Adopting some of these technologies could help organizations stay competitive or improve CX.
Robin Gareiss is CEO and principal analyst at Metrigy, which conducts research and advises enterprises and technology providers. She leads coverage into AI, customer experience and contact center operations.
