The State of Customer Experience in an AI-Driven World

Today's customer journeys branch, loop and recombine. Less like a line and more like a graph. Our research shows buyers engage in seven meaningful interactions across different channels before making a purchase. They bounce between product pages and price comparisons, reviews and Reddit threads, influencer videos and in-store shelves. Moving across devices, customers expect brands to keep up and deliver instant responses, mobile-first experiences and a consistent voice everywhere. Brands that fail to do so are falling behind.

Just as organisations begin to adapt, an even bigger shift is underway. AI is transforming the very starting point of discovery — reimagining how journeys begin and where customers place their trust.

AI-powered discovery is quickly becoming the new front door to product and brand engagement. Instead of typing keywords into a search box, customers are chatting with AI assistants powered by large language models (LLMs) — advanced AI systems trained on massive amounts of text and language so they can generate natural responses. Tools like ChatGPT and Gemini are already reshaping how people find information.

For example, a consumer can ask an LLM, “What's the best hiking backpack for weekend trips under $200?” and get curated recommendations. Meanwhile, an employee can ask, “Show me last quarter's customer retention numbers in North America” and pull the exact data from internal reports in seconds.

LLM-based search is the most consequential shift in discovery since the introduction of the search bar. According to our research, global organic B2C search on LLMs is expected to increase 20x over the next two years. Brands that prioritise natural, credible content that reflects how people ask questions will earn discoverability and the trust of LLMs.

Even as content demand outpaces what most organisations can deliver, brands are preparing their content operations for volume by installing compliance and brand safety standards (Figure 3). Generative AI gives marketers a way to keep up by making it easier for teams to produce more content variations faster and deliver relevant, personalised experiences to customers at scale — but maintaining brand integrity is key.

Many teams still find themselves recreating assets from scratch. The more efficient option is to reimagine workflows around modular systems and break content into reusable components. With embedded brand and approval standards, along with established review processes, the path to generative AI adoption will be swifter.

Generative AI is accelerating work as well as redefining it. Nearly 90% of organisations are adopting, exploring or using generative AI for content creation, though most remain in a trial phase of strategising on governance, integration and quality control (Figure 4).

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Generative AI is already transforming content operations for organisations putting it into practice. Those moving beyond pilots are reporting measurable gains. Brands that are deploying it report:

The hardest part of generating AI content can be trusting it. AI speeds up creation, but if teams doubt its accuracy or compliance, everything comes to a halt. Early adopters are learning that the real unlock is governance. By embedding the right guardrails — like fact-checks, copyright scans and standardised templates — directly into workflows, organisations are reducing review times and building confidence in their AI outputs.

The research backs this up. The top three capabilities brands are prioritising to reduce review burdens are copyright and IP compliance scanning (61%), automated fact-checking and accuracy verification (59%) and preapproved templates for repeatable use cases (36%). Once this foundation is in place, the real test is in the channels where content must live and perform.

While established platforms still matter, most organisations are unprepared for the AI-driven channels defining what comes next. Mobile is the clearest example. Despite years of “mobile-first” strategies, our research shows many brands still haven’t captured their full potential (Figure 5).

The readiness gap is even wider in fast-moving spaces like influencer ecosystems and AI-driven discovery, where customer behaviour is evolving quicker than brand capabilities.

Marketing is under unprecedented pressure to deliver on performance metrics. The survey uncovered that 97% of organisations say their teams are being asked to become more efficient and the demands don’t stop there (Figure 6).

• 93% are expected to directly contribute to sales and pipelines.
• 89% see marketing tech investments prioritised by revenue impact.
• 85% say budgets are tied more closely to revenue than brand metrics.

This focus on performance is reshaping the role of marketers. They’re being held accountable for efficiency and sales impact and feel it’s now their defining priority, while traditional brand-building receives less investment.

Personalisation can’t deliver without orchestration, which is the ability to co-ordinate touchpoints across the full journey. Most brands don’t trust their tools to get them there. The research shows organisations are losing confidence that current platforms will meet their needs over the next 24 months as AI-driven customer experience accelerates. Only 28% of executives are confident in their measurement platforms, just 21% trust their personalisation and recommendation engines and a mere 15% believe their journey orchestration platforms will deliver (Figure 7).

Without reliable orchestration, it’s harder to connect marketing to real results, prove value and keep up with customer expectations. Brands need to take a look at their technology stacks and ask what can be upgraded, what can be integrated and what gaps must be closed to stay competitive. They also need to consider whether they have the staff and structures in place to make the most of the transformation.

Upgrading technology is only half of the battle. Executives consistently rank organisational and talent challenges above technical ones as the biggest barriers to transformation, with breaking down silos and finding or retaining talent with modern skillsets being their top priorities. The problem is misalignment. Leaders may have the right vision, but on the ground, teams are still divided by departmental functions and competing incentives.

It takes cross-functional collaboration, supported by structural changes and modern talent, to realise the value of new technology. Without the right people and team design, even the most advanced platforms underdeliver.

Executives keep saying people and talent are the number one priority, yet most of the changes planned in the next 12 months focus on technology (Figure 8). Over three-quarters of brands are planning new data and analytics capabilities or consolidating platforms, while far fewer are prioritising training, specialised roles or hiring from other industries.

According to the research, 30% of organisations plan to adopt agentic AI capabilities by 2027. The real opportunity lies in agentic AI’s ability to understand context, anticipate needs and help teams move faster while delivering better customer experiences. At scale, that means AI shifting from a support tool to an active partner in operations like handling routine processes, surfacing insights in real time and freeing people to focus on higher-value work.

But big opportunities often come with big risks. If trust and oversight are missing, agentic AI can create more problems than it solves. The right governance, however, transforms risk into reward.

AI without oversight exposes businesses to risk, yet most organisations still lack formal governance. Where structures do exist, they often prioritise compliance over enablement (Figure 9).

With the right leadership, governance is an incredible growth driver. Clear frameworks, accountability and ethical guidelines reduce uncertainty, giving both AI and teams the confidence to move faster. Organisations that put governance in place now will be the ones ready to scale agentic AI safely and competitively.

For The State of Customer Experience in an AI-Driven World, Adobe partnered with Incisiv to survey 3,467 senior executives across nine regions and eight industries. Nearly two-thirds came from billion-dollar companies and more than half held VP-level roles or higher, ensuring that we captured the perspectives of real decision makers. The result is a comprehensive snapshot of how organisations are approaching customer experience transformation in an AI-driven world.