Across B2B, retail and enterprise services, new research from KPMG, Deloitte, and PwC points to customer experience becoming a core operating discipline tied directly to growth, loyalty and performance.
In B2B environments, KPMG’s latest research frames CX as being at “an inflection point,” driven by “accelerating digitization, rising customer expectations and the rapid evolution of AI.” Traditional advantages are losing their power, the report notes:
“Product depth, contracts and even trusted relationships are no longer enough on their own.”
Despite heavy investment in digital tools, many organizations are still struggling to turn experience into measurable impact. KPMG’s research finds CX remains “fragmented, operationally siloed and difficult to scale,” with disconnected data and reactive journeys that fail to deliver business outcomes.
Leading organizations are taking a different path. KPMG describes a shift toward connecting “Total Experience—customer, employee and partner interactions—with Total Performance—orchestrating operations, data and AI around shared outcomes.” The payoff is “Total Value: stronger retention, higher lifetime value and sustained growth.”
As Walt Becker, Global Customer CoE Lead at KPMG International, put it:
“In the very near future, value will no longer be derived from experiences delivered by a single function—or even a single company—but from highly proactive, personalized experiences delivered by an ecosystem focused on shared customer outcomes.”
That ecosystem mindset is clear in the data. KPMG reports that 66 percent of B2B CX leaders cite “data access, quality and management” as their biggest obstacle. At the same time, 58 percent say they already have “significant or extensive use of autonomous systems,” with another 61 percent actively implementing agentic AI.
AI adoption is moving quickly, but governance, integration and coordination are lagging behind.
Rather than optimizing isolated touchpoints, B2B leaders are increasingly focused on outcomes. KPMG finds experience success is now measured through “customer lifetime value, retention, adoption and profitability—not satisfaction alone,” reflecting buying journeys that involve multiple stakeholders and require coordinated engagement across functions.
Retail Shifts Toward Personalization and Customer Trust
Deloitte’s research similarly describes a turning point in the retail sector.
“Changing consumer expectations, market uncertainty, and rapid technological advances are reshaping what it means to deliver exceptional customer experience. For luxury and premium retailers in particular, product quality alone is no longer the primary differentiator.”
Deloitte’s ConsumerSignals research highlights how fast expectations are shifting. “69 percent of global consumers want enhanced ultra-fast streaming capabilities on their smartphones,” while more than 60 percent expect digital tools that support in-store experiences such as “instant item location, stock visibility, and real-time assistance.”
GenAI is rapidly becoming central to meeting those expectations. Deloitte reports that “98 percent of retailers plan to invest in GenAI infrastructure within 18 months,” even if most are taking a cautious approach on spend.
Early adopters are already seeing results. At European footwear retailer Bata, “GenAI-powered customer segmentation has delivered a 50 percent increase in conversion rates.” Meanwhile, Dubai-based Majid Al Futtaim’s Lifestyle division has achieved “a 25 percent reduction in inventory alongside a 12 percent increase in revenue” using advanced forecasting and AI-driven personalization.
Yet Deloitte’s research also highlights a growing tension.
“[E]ight in ten consumers have little trust in retailers’ AI use. Furthermore, customer trust drops 144% when they become aware that a brand is using AI.”
At the same time, “trusted organizations outperform peers by up to four times,” and “trusted customers are 88 percent more likely to buy again.”
Trust is earned, not assumed, Deloitte notes. To build trust, retailers need to design and deploy their AI systems around human connection, transparency, capability and reliability.
Integration Puts Employees Back at the Center
That trust gap is one reason PwC and Microsoft emphasize integration and employee empowerment as the foundation of effective CX.
PwC notes that while “nearly nine in ten executives” have already implemented AI in customer-facing functions, only about half are measuring its impact through operational or effectiveness metrics. As AI adoption accelerates, the risk is that efficiency gains come at the expense of experience.
“What separates leading businesses is the ability to integrate technology, data, and workflows so employees can react more quickly and resolve issues more effectively.”
Rather than layering tools on top of complexity, organizations are working with PwC and Microsoft to build “a framework of connected systems that enable fast and consistent decision-making, helping elevate customer experience at every touchpoint.”
“PwC and Microsoft have developed an integrated strategy that uses AI to unify data, processes, and interactions into a single source of CX truth.”
The strategy uses Microsoft Dynamics 365, Teams, Fabric, and low-code automation through Power Platform to connect the front office, middle office, and back office in a cohesive ecosystem, PwC stated.
AI agents play a growing role in that model.
“These agents can continuously analyze customer interactions, operational patterns, and historical data to identify opportunities for improvement and recommend actions across the customer journey.”
Embedded copilots help employees “summarize conversations, update records automatically, surface insights, and prompt next-best actions in real time.”
The goal is not to remove humans from customer experience, but to give them greater leverage. AI agents can act as teammates to streamline workflows and reduce manual efforts, freeing up talent to focus on solving complex issues and strengthening customer relationships.
As the report notes, “employee empowerment and customer experience are two sides of the same coin.”
Experience as a Growth Discipline
Taken together, the reports point to customer experience moving away from ownership by individual teams and toward orchestration across ecosystems, platforms and partners. AI is moving beyond experiments and its value depends on integration, data quality and trust. And experience is being judged less by how it feels in the moment, and more by the outcomes it delivers over time.
For CX leaders, the message is consistent across industries. Experience has become a growth discipline. Those who can connect data, technology and people around shared customer outcomes are setting the pace, while everyone else risks being left with well-designed journeys that fail to move the business forward.
