By Day 3 of Cisco’s WebexOne, most tech execs were running on coffee, jargon, and blind optimism. Enter Ryan Reynolds: actor, investor, Wrexham football club saviour, gin merchant, mobile mogul, and now… keynote closer. Forget another demo of AI widgets — Cisco brought in Deadpool himself to torch the stage with humour, honesty, and a few life lessons that felt surprisingly on point for the WebexOne crowd.
Hollywood Meets the Helpdesk
Reynolds kicked off with a self-own (classic). When asked which role best prepared him for business, he deadpanned: “Green Lantern. Regret builds character.” Cue laughter — but also, point taken. CX leaders know the sting of failure. He spun it into a bigger truth: failure isn’t the villain, wasted failure is. Or in his words: “Make mistakes, just don’t waste them.”
If that doesn’t sound like CX transformation in a nutshell — where customer journeys are patched together like Frankenstein until someone admits the IVR is torture — nothing does.
Constraint is the Superpower
Reynolds’ biggest theme? Constraints. He’s obsessed with them. Budget cuts, tight deadlines, scrappy marketing — all the stuff enterprise leaders complain about. “Constraint forces you to think asymmetrically,” he said, before mocking studios that throw 50,000 CGI horses at a battle scene just because they can.
For CX pros, that’s the reminder that throwing more tech at a problem won’t fix the experience. Sometimes it’s about doing more with six horses — or in our world, six well-designed customer journeys.
Gut vs. Data: Fight!
Reynolds dismantled the myth of data-driven creativity:
“Our biggest viral hits? Data would’ve killed them. Gut will never go away.”
That’s a call-out to every CX leader obsessing over dashboards while ignoring the human. Numbers matter — but instincts, stories, and emotional connection win loyalty. And that’s what your customers remember.
Deadpool on AI (and Nutella)
Yes, he went there.
“AI is like Nutella for breakfast — too much and you’re going to feel sick.”
Cue knowing nods across the hall. He loves AI (it cleaned up his ADR when a marching band sabotaged a shoot), but he warned that optimisation without reflection kills originality.
For CX? Same lesson. AI chatbots, agent-assist, voice analytics — great. But if you don’t stop to actually listen to your customer, you’ll optimise yourself into oblivion.
Wrexham, Community, and CX
Reynolds’ most heartfelt moment came when he pivoted to Wrexham AFC:
“It’s not about me or Rob. It’s about the town.”
His point? True loyalty is born when people feel ownership. Fans became storytellers, authors of their own redemption arc.
CX leaders, take note: stop broadcasting, start co-authoring. Give your customers the pen, and they’ll write the loyalty story for you.
The Finale: Deadpool Meets Customer Experience
Reynolds’ keynote was part comedy set, part MBA crash course. But under the sarcasm, the message was deadly serious:
- Don’t waste mistakes.
- Constraints fuel creativity.
- Storytelling trumps analytics.
- Tech is a tool, not a religion.
- Community beats ego, every time.
In other words: business, Hollywood, and CX all run on the same script — humanity, humour, and the guts to break a few rules.
