The Gist
AI is a partner, not a replacement. Leading organizations are integrating AI to enhance — not eliminate — human roles.Empowered employees drive better outcomes. Whether redesigning service models or responding to crises, listening to frontline workers leads to smarter, more empathetic solutions.Implementation is an ongoing process. AI tools require continuous testing, feedback and refinement — proving that successful integration is less about perfection and more about evolution.
At this year’s Customer Contact Week in Las Vegas, one theme is clear: AI isn’t going anywhere — but you still need the humans.
When I attended CCW last year, I saw many people touting AI-backed solutions, claiming you didn’t need any human agent in the mix. It seems that we’ve collectively taken a step back, took a deep breath and realized that to succeed, we’re going to need a different approach.
At this year’s keynote, that human-alongside-AI element was a common thread among each speaker.
Your Strategy Should Put People First
“Take care of the associate, they’ll take care of the customer.”
This was the mantra of Mr. JW Marriott, one shared at this year’s Customer Contact Week by Frid Edmond, SVP, Customer Engagement Centers at Marriott International. In her tenure at the company, she said, she’s realized it has a people-first strategy. But what does that strategy look like in practice?
Here’s one example: their housekeepers kept running overtime, and management could not figure out why. So, they decided to spend time with those employees to see what was going on. And what they discovered? Housekeeping itself was changing.
More trash needed to be removed from the rooms, causing the overtime. That trash? Primarily to-go food items. And then the realization came: rather than order room service, customers were bringing in their own food.
“We couldn’t see it as leaders, sitting in our offices, having meetings. But when we got on the floor and started doing what they were doing, it all clicked.” By first approaching the problem as needing to reduce overtime, said Edmond, they realized they weren’t following through on their promise of taking care of their associates. Instead, they needed to reengineer their processes.
In the end, the company made a number of changes: redesigned housekeeping carts, adding cutlery to rooms ahead of time and eliminating room service in favor of a grab-and-go service.
You can’t forget that human element, said Edmond. “AI today couldn’t have told us that. We had to see it, touch it, feel it.”
Related Article: Creating Great Customer Experiences Starts With Employees
Want Employees to Use New Tech? Empower Them
To build trust with teams around new tech, like AI, it’s essential to talk to them and tell them that change is inevitable, said Neil Gibson, SVP of Customer Experience at FedEx. Beyond that, he added, you have to communicate to your employees how new technology is going to help the customer and, ultimately, the business.
Last year, said Gibson, Memphis, Tennessee faced a terrible ice storm, one that crippled ground transportation. And during that time, a mother called in because her son’s cancer treatment medicine was not going to be able to be delivered — something his life depended on.
Gibson’s team did get that medication delivered. But then they took a step back. “How can we anticipate that happening?” Working with their data teams, they now look at packages going into and leaving certain pharmacies, and ensuring those packages get delivered on time.
“That’s where technology played a role, and it had to change the way that our team members were working on a day-to-day basis.” But those team members, he added, now feel empowered, because they know they’re using technology to do these things.
Tech Integration Is Not a One-and-Done Process
When it comes to implementing new tech at FedEx, Gibson said they use a framework called ABLE — assess, build, launch and execute. It all starts with determining the problem you want to solve. When you get to the build stage, that’s when you start looking for the solution.
But this is an evolutionary process, he added. “FedEx delivers 15 million packages around the world every day. And when we woke up this morning, we had to do it again. And with that comes a whole new set of challenges.” That could be new tariffs, or new tech or different customer interests. “It’s constantly evolving… And I think once you put a solution in the marketplace, you have to continue to evolve it.”
Brian Sibbitt, VP of Infrastructure & Operations at Equitable Bank, echoed this sentiment. “AI is becoming increasingly sophisticated,” he said. It can do a lot more, understand context. But, he added, “just because AI can do something, doesn’t mean it should.”
His implementation strategy is an ongoing situation. It’s constant discussions, quality assurance and feedback from people who are on the ground, seeing it day in and day out.
Related Article: Stop Building Tech Stacks. Start Building Growth Engines.
The Evolution of AI Integration
If you’re thinking about implementing AI into your processes, Crystal Sullivan Sr. Manager of Customer Service at HumanN, has some advice: “Start with curiosity. If you know what the problem is that you’re solving for, AI can really change the game for you.
At her company, she said, they jumped right in — and involved employees.
There was some suspicion at first, she said, but reassured employees that their new AI agent, Hannah, was not here to take jobs. Instead, she involved them heavily in the building and implementation of the agent, testing her in real-life scenarios and asking employees for feedback. This process, said Sullivan, turned Hannah from a tool into a teammate.
Once Hannah was in place, the process wasn’t over. There was still some iteration involved, especially around tone and behavior. “It’s always a balance,” said Sullivan. “You have to make sure you’re consistently testing, you’re getting the feedback from the customers…”
One lesson they learned, said Sullivan? You have to be careful with the instructions you give agents. In Hannah’s case, her instructions were to serve, not just process. Her goal is to help customers and resolve issues. And one day, she was going to make a sale — something Sullivan and her team did not want.
Learning OpportunitiesView all
When it comes to AI tools, you have to do due diligence when it comes to creation and making guidelines. But it’s also important to remember that this is new to everyone — and we’re all still learning.
Keep Humans in the Loop — and in Charge
The message from this year’s CCW couldn’t be clearer: AI is powerful, but people remain irreplaceable. Whether it’s redesigning workflows at Marriott, rethinking crisis response at FedEx or training AI agents at HumanN, the companies finding success are those that treat AI as an augmentation — not a replacement. Real progress happens when teams stay curious, stay involved and stay human.
