Content area
Full text
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Customer experience is often discussed in corporate board rooms of large business firms in today's era of consumer empowerment has primarily resulted from the consumer access to free social media and the use of technologies such as artificial intelligence. This paper focuses on the changing nature of customer experience, including customer purchase journey and elaborates on the role of artificial intelligence in strengthening the customer experience, and in aligning the customer purchase journey. The paper assists future research in articulating the investigative associations between artificial intelligence and customer service excellence. The practitioners may benefit in acquiring an understanding of how to utilize the technological advancements to strengthen customer experiences.
Keywords: Customer experience, Artificial intelligence, Customer purchase journey
INTRODUCTION
The core thinking behind this paper is that (1) artificial intelligence can improve customer experience, (2) customer purchase journey is an important part of the customer experience that is impacted, and (3) if artificial intelligence is incorporated effectively by business firms into their operations, it should improve company competitiveness.
The organizational focus on customer experience (CX) has been rising given the current consumer empowerment which consumers have acquired through easy access to free social media, as well as rapid digital and technological advancements and disruptions (Batra, 2017). Among other things, free access to social media gives the customers power to express their negative experiences with brands and corporations easily, thereby jeopardizing the goodwill and reputation of those corporations. This potential threat has made it necessary for businesses to acquire a better understanding and grip of customers' purchase journeys. The technological advancements in artificial intelligence have facilitated this corporate task. This is one way as to how artificial intelligence has begun to strengthen the customer experience. This paper focuses on the elaboration of the role of artificial intelligence in strengthening customer experience and aligning the customer's purchase journey. This description may assist future researchers in articulating investigative associations between the different dimensions of artificial intelligence and customer service excellence. The practitioners may benefit in strengthening their understanding of how to utilize the technological advancements to strengthen customer experiences.
This essay is carved out as follows. First, the nature of customer experience and its emerging role in today's consumer empowerment era is discussed. Then, the changing...