newsletter

Purely AI-powered customer service is too low quality to be worth it

Covering Klarna walking back from its AI-first customer service strategy, people skills for airline customer support, and AI headlines.

Hope Dorman

May 09, 2025

4 min read

CX Insights

Klarna: Reversing course on AI due to “lower quality” experiences

Klarna is reversing its AI-first customer service strategy, with CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski announcing plans to hire more human agents after admitting AI-led support led to “lower quality” experiences. The move prioritizes customer trust and satisfaction by ensuring a human is always available.

It’s a notable reversal from the September 2024 headlines where he claimed AI could help cut headcount by half because its AI assistant did the work of 700 full-time customer service agents.

While the bot handled an impressive 2.3 million conversations in 35 languages within the month of launch, early tests found that it was just a filter, not resolving customer issues: it copied answers verbatim from documentation and quickly passed on customers to human support agents.

People skills drive experience wins for top airlines

New research finds that Southwest Airlines tops J.D. Power’s satisfaction rankings for economy flyers, while JetBlue leads in first class and Delta in premium economy. What sets them apart from the competition? People skills.

Whether it’s Southwest’s off-script charm or Delta’s data-driven personalization, airlines that train and empower staff to make customers feel valued consistently deliver a better customer experience, the report finds. One notable nugget: using a customer’s first name in an in-person interaction boosts customer satisfaction up to 5%

Investing in AI to handle easy customer inquiries and follow-up work will be critical to allow your team members to focus on the human element of delivering customer service.

Customer service robot coming to the Las Vegas Strip

For three days only: Realbotix is launching an AI-powered humanoid robot at The Venetian Resort in Las Vegas to assist customers with show ticket purchases. The initiative blends conversational AI with lifelike robotics to boost engagement, drive foot traffic, and test the potential of robots in frontline customer service roles.

It got me thinking: we’re so used to self-service kiosks. We’re used to automations in online customer service. Will an actual robot feel like an extension of that experience, or will it more closely emulate service from a human?

If you’re in Vegas May 27 - 29th, check it out and report back!

CX Quotation of the Week

A pertinent reminder given last week’s news threatening brand loyalty:

“Loyalty cannot sit in a silo. We can no longer have the mindset that marketing owns loyalty. It has to be embedded across the teams, and it has to be owned across the teams. So that means CX, product, frontline teams - everyone has to have a part in loyalty. Because if you think about it, what happens in CX, what happens in product, that in fact will impact if someone is loyal to a brand.”

-Tara S. Paton, CEO, Huemanize

Read more about loyalty from Tara’s session at the CX Summit ->

Join us in New York

Text says The CX Mixer Shuttle to Lead Summit Provided Exclusive Landmark Location 2nd Annual Network & Nosh May 28th 7:30 AM - 10 AM Open House Style

If you’re not in Vegas to see the robot, hopefully it’s because you’ll be joining us in New York!

We’re co-hosting a CX Mixer breakfast to coincide with the Lead Summit. Join me and the Kustomer team for networking and breakfast!

Wednesday May 28th
7:30 AM - 10:00 AM (open house style!)
Russ and Daughters Cafe

If you’re in the area want to connect with fellow e-commerce and retail folks, please plan to join us whether or not you’re going to the show. If you’re a merchant and want to attend the Lead, we have free tickets to share!

RSVP here!