What does customer experience look like when AI starts acting on behalf of the customer?

As AI agents increasingly understand customer context, remember past behavior, and reduce friction, they begin to insert themselves between companies and customers.

That shift has major implications for CX, branding, differentiation, and how organizations stay relevant when customers stop visiting websites, apps, and even stores.

This conversation focuses entirely on the customer's perspective, not internal AI efficiency. It's about what happens when customers trust AI agents to search, filter, recommend — and sometimes even buy for them.

Best Quote from the Episode

"When your customer experience isn't good enough, you get replaced by something that is."

— Colin Shaw

Key Questions Discussed

• What happens to customer experience when AI starts making decisions for customers instead of customers interacting directly with companies?

• If AI becomes the primary filter of choice, how do brands stay visible — and avoid becoming invisible?

• Which parts of today's customer journey are most at risk of disappearing altogether?

Why You Should Listen

If you're responsible for customer experience, strategy, marketing, or growth, this episode challenges some deeply held assumptions about how customers discover, evaluate, and choose brands.

Rather than focusing on internal AI use cases, this conversation looks outward — at how customer behavior is shifting and what that means for organizations that want to remain visible, relevant, and chosen in an AI-first world.

This episode doesn't give you a checklist. It gives you something more valuable:

a new way of thinking about where CX is heading — and why waiting is risky.

Resources Mentioned

Colin Shaw - https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinrjshaw/

Professor Ryan Hamilton - http://linkedin.com/in/ryan-hamilton-49b3321

About the Hosts:

Colin Shaw is a LinkedIn 'Top Voice' with a massive 286,000 followers and 87,000 subscribers to his 'Why Customers Buy' newsletter. Shaw is named one of the world's 'Top 150 Business Influencers' by LinkedIn. His company, Beyond Philosophy LLC, has been selected four times by the Financial Times as a top management consultancy. Shaw is co-host of the top 1.5% podcast 'The Intuitive Customer'—with over 600,000 downloads—and author of eight best-sellers on customer experience. Shaw is a sought-after keynote speaker. Follow Colin on LinkedIn.

Ryan Hamilton is a Professor of Marketing at Emory University's Goizueta Business School and co-author of 'The Intuitive Customer' book. An award-winning teacher and researcher in consumer psychology, he has been named one of Poets & Quants' "World's Best 40 B-School Profs Under 40." His research focuses on how brands, prices, and choice architecture influence shopper decision-making, and his findings have been published in top academic journals and covered by major media outlets like The New York Times and CNN. His work highlights how psychology can help firms better understand and serve their customers. Ryan has a new book launch in June 2025 called "The Growth Dilemma: Managing Your Brand When Different Customers Want Different Things" Harvard Business Press Follow Ryan on LinkedIn.

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How are you really using AI — and how does that compare to others?

In this episode, Colin Shaw introduces a simple behavioural framework for understanding how people are actually using AI today — not in theory, but in practice — and why this matters enormously for the future of Customer Experience.

Rather than treating AI as a technology maturity model, Colin reframes it as a behavioural curve, shaped by confidence, trust, intent, and the consequences of being wrong.

Drawing on real usage examples, ChatGPT analytics, and current research, Colin outlines four AI usage patterns that people tend to move through over time. Most people touch more than one. Very few stay in just one forever.

The episode challenges listeners to ask:

• Where am I on this curve?

• Where are my customers today?

• And where will they be in 3–5 years?

This is Part One of a new AI series exploring the implications of changing customer behaviour — and what organisations should be doing now to prepare.

"This isn't a technology maturity model. It's a behavioural one. People don't adopt AI in a single way — they move through patterns depending on trust, confidence, and what's at stake."

Colin Shaw, Founder & CEO, Beyond Philosophy

If you're:

• wondering how AI will really change Customer Experience

• unsure whether your organisation is preparing for the right future

• or trying to understand how customer decision-making is evolving

…this episode gives you a clear, practical way to think about AI adoption — grounded in behaviour, not hype.

Resources Mentioned

Colin Shaw - https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinrjshaw/

Professor Ryan Hamilton - http://linkedin.com/in/ryan-hamilton-49b3321

About the Hosts:

Colin Shaw is a LinkedIn 'Top Voice' with a massive 284,000 followers and 87,000 subscribers to his 'Why Customers Buy' newsletter. Shaw is named one of the world's 'Top 150 Business Influencers' by LinkedIn. His company, Beyond Philosophy LLC, has been selected four times by the Financial Times as a top management consultancy. Shaw is co-host of the top 2% podcast 'The Intuitive Customer'—with over 600,000 downloads—and author of eight best-sellers on customer experience, Shaw is a sought-after keynote speaker. Follow Colin on LinkedIn.

Ryan Hamilton is a Professor of Marketing at Emory University's Goizueta Business School and co-author of 'The Intuitive Customer' book. An award-winning teacher and researcher in consumer psychology, he has been named one of Poets & Quants' "World's Best 40 B-School Profs Under 40." His research focuses on how brands, prices, and choice architecture influence shopper decision-making, and his findings have been published in top academic journals and covered by major media outlets like The New York Times and CNN. His work highlights how psychology can help firms better understand and serve their customers. Ryan has a new book launch in June 2025 called "The Growth Dilemma: Managing Your Brand When Different Customers Want Different Things" Harvard Business Press Follow Ryan on LinkedIn.

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Customer satisfaction has barely moved in over 30 years — despite enormous investment in Customer Experience.

In this episode of The Intuitive Customer, Professor Ryan Hamilton and Morgan Ward speak with Forrest Morgeson from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).

ACSI has tracked customer satisfaction continuously since 1994 using the same questions and methodology across the entire US economy. And the long-term data tells a story that challenges many comfortable CX assumptions.

Rather than steadily improving as CX practices mature, customer satisfaction rises and falls in cycles — heavily influenced by pricing, profitability, cost-cutting, and broader economic forces.

This episode explores why satisfaction scores stagnate, why record profits often coincide with declining customer satisfaction, and why CX leaders need to think beyond journey maps and empathy training.

Best Quote from the Episode

"Customer satisfaction isn't a straight line. It moves in cycles — and when companies start squeezing for profit, customers feel it."

Forrest Morgeson, American Custoimer Satisfaction Index

Why You Should Listen?

If you work in customer experience, marketing, or leadership, this episode will challenge some of the most widely held beliefs in CX.

You'll gain:

• A data-led perspective grounded in 30 years of evidence

• A clearer understanding of why satisfaction scores fall despite CX investment

• Practical insight into the economic forces shaping customer experience

• A more realistic way to think about CX performance and ROI

Resources Mentioned

American Customer Satisfaction Index: https://theacsi.org/the-acsi-difference/us-overall-customer-satisfaction/

Forrest Morgeson - https://www.linkedin.com/in/forrestmorgeson/

About the Hosts:

Ryan Hamilton is a Professor of Marketing at Emory University's Goizueta Business School and co-author of 'The Intuitive Customer' book. An award-winning teacher and researcher in consumer psychology, he has been named one of Poets & Quants' "World's Best 40 B-School Profs Under 40." His research focuses on how brands, prices, and choice architecture influence shopper decision-making, and his findings have been published in top academic journals and covered by major media outlets like The New York Times and CNN. His work highlights how psychology can help firms better understand and serve their customers. Ryan has a new book launch in June 2025 called "The Growth Dilemma: Managing Your Brand When Different Customers Want Different Things" Harvard Business Press Follow Ryan on LinkedIn.

Morgan Ward is an adjunct marketing professor, weekly expert guest on The Take—11Alive's in-depth news program that explores timely stories through expert insight—With over 20 years of experience advising clients ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500s and publishing in top academic journals, she's passionate about decoding the symbolic and cultural forces that shape consumer behavior. Her work focuses on status, identity, and decision-making across sectors like luxury, retail, and tech. Beyond consulting, Morgan serves as an expert witness in branding and advertising litigation, bringing academic rigor to questions of perception, distinctiveness, and influence.

Follow Morgan on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/morgankward-phd/)

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