AI is giving enterprises extraordinary power to personalise customer experiences. But according to Dan Balisteri, Director of Service Transformation at KPMG, that power comes with serious risks most organisations aren’t managing well enough.
The Line Between Helpful and Intrusive
Personalisation, done right, adds genuine value. Balisteri’s concern is what happens when enterprises cross into over-personalisation – and more critically, what’s driving it.
“The biggest problem is how much private data is being captured without people’s knowledge or consent,”
The analogy is sharp: over-personalisation feels like being followed around a grocery store. Uncomfortable. Excessive. And often built on data used far beyond its original purpose.
His advice to CX leaders is straightforward – honour opt-in permissions strictly, and only use customer data for the specific purpose it was granted. When organisations begin repurposing consented data for unintended use cases, trust breaks down fast.
The Empathy Deficit Nobody Has Solved Yet
The rise of agentic AI has changed how customer service systems look and feel. But Balisteri is direct about where they fall short – reading genuine human emotion.
“If my wallet’s been stolen, my driver’s licence has been stolen, and the police have called me because I supposedly committed a crime – machines have yet to capture that kind of emotion.”
The result is what he calls an empathy deficit – a gap between what AI can process and what distressed customers actually need.
He believes the industry is two to three years away from machines truly capturing caller emotion. Until then, the deficit remains a real vulnerability in any AI-led service model.
Human Touch Becomes a Premium
As agentic AI absorbs routine, transactional interactions, something is shifting in how human agents are valued. Balisteri sees a clear two-tier model emerging – AI for the masses, human touch as a premium.
“Concierge-type services, high stakes, high human involvement are purposeful,”
He said, pointing to banks managing ultra-high-net-worth clients as a prime example. The implication for CX leaders is significant – emotional intelligence and empathy aren’t soft skills anymore. They’re the product.
Why AI Deployments Keep Getting Pulled
Balisteri is candid about a pattern playing out across enterprises right now – AI deployed on Monday, recalled by Friday. The cause isn’t the technology. It’s the pressure.
“There is enormous pressure at the boardroom and Wall Street analyst level to show AI progress.”
That pressure drives rushed deployments built on happy-path pilots that collapse the moment real-world complexity hits. When they fail, they fail hard and publicly – and the finger-pointing starts.
His message is clear: agentic AI requires proper connection to back-end systems of record. That takes time. Shortcuts don’t just delay success – they create very visible failures that set programmes back further than if leaders had taken the time to do it right from the start.
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