Agentic AI, experience fulfillment, and keeping brand promises in an era of plunging customer sentiment

To quote baseball legend Yogi Berra, “It’s déjà vu all over again.” 

For the fourth year in a row, Forrester’s Customer Experience Index reported that U.S. and Canadian perceptions of CX (customer experience) quality have hit an all-time low. 

As a CX consultant, these findings didn’t surprise me. The reason? Too many brands just aren’t delivering on their basic promises. 

In today’s competitive landscape, brands must fulfill the promises they make to customers. Whether it’s “your refund will be processed in three to five days” or “your issue will be resolved on the first call,” these promises form the backbone of customer trust. But too often, brands fall short.

It’s not that brands want to break their promises, it’s more likely that their technology, processes, and departments aren’t connected or agile enough to enable them to follow through. If that sounds like a big, hairy problem – it is. But it’s also a fixable problem with an experience fulfillment strategy and intentional use of AI – especially agentic AI. 

What Is experience fulfillment?

We wrote an entire eBook about experience fulfillment (check it out), so I won’t get into too much detail here, but it is important to know the fundamentals. 

Experience fulfillment is the ability to orchestrate and automate front-, middle-, and back-office tasks so that customer interactions end on a positive, complete note. It’s not just about answering a question or logging a ticket, it’s about resolving the issue efficiently and seamlessly.

How does agentic AI power experience fulfillment?

Agentic AI represents a leap forward in automation and orchestration. Unlike traditional AI, which often supports agents with suggestions or knowledge surfacing, agentic AI can autonomously execute multi-step workflows across systems without human intervention.

For example, if a customer requests a new business expense card, agentic AI can validate training completion, initiate procurement, update personal information, and confirm shipment through a series of orchestrated micro-agents working in tandem.

Agentic AI orchestration is what transforms customer service from reactive to proactive. Instead of agents manually triggering each step, agentic AI handles the heavy lifting, allowing agents to focus on more complex or emotionally nuanced interactions.

This is where agentic AI becomes a powerful enabler of experience fulfillment. When integrated with CRM systems and connecting front-, middle-, and back-office functions, agentic AI can:

• Resolve issues in real time by accessing and acting on customer data across systems.
• Reduce friction by eliminating manual handoffs and delays.
• Personalize interactions by understanding customer intent, sentiment, and history.
• Ensure follow-through on brand promises like refunds, replacements, or service updates.

$3.7 trillion reasons to fix your CX now

Poor customer experiences aren’t a minor nuisance for brands. According to a 2024 Qualtrics survey, bad customer experiences cost brands as much as $3.7 trillion annually. 

With so much at stake, you can’t afford to wait to start repairing your CX. The key is to start laying the groundwork now. That means:

1. Breaking down silos between departments and systems. Experience fulfillment requires seamless coordination across the front, middle, and back office. But most organizations are still operating in silos with marketing using one platform, sales another, and service yet another. This fragmentation leads to inconsistent experiences and broken promises.

Agentic AI does best in connected environments. Many of the tasks agentic AI can automate, like updating records, initiating returns, or validating training, require access to multiple systems. Without integration, it’s harder for AI to act. That’s why now is the time to unify your tech stack and data flows.

2. Mapping CX processes to identify automation opportunities. Before you can automate, you need to understand. Mapping your customer experience processes helps identify where delays, handoffs, and manual tasks are creating friction. Start by analyzing your top 10 most frequent customer requests. Which ones are repetitive? Which ones follow a predictable path?

This exercise not only reveals where automation can have the biggest impact, it also helps build the business case for investment. Calculating the time and cost savings of automating a single high-volume task can unlock budget and buy-in for broader transformation.

3. Leveraging existing technologies more effectively. You don’t need to start from scratch. Most organizations already have powerful tools like CRMs, knowledge bases, and workflow engines. They’re just not using them to their full potential.

Modern CRMs, for example, can orchestrate entire customer journeys, especially when embedded with AI. Platforms like ServiceNow already offer prebuilt agentic playbooks for common use cases like dispute resolution or appointment scheduling. The key is to activate and align these tools around your CX goals.

4. Investing in change management to align teams. Technology alone won’t transform your customer experience. True change requires cross-functional collaboration and a shared vision. That means bringing together stakeholders from IT, operations, marketing, and customer service to co-own the customer journey.

Ready to keep your brand promises?

Customer expectations aren’t slowing down, and neither should your strategy. As the cost of poor experiences climbs and customer sentiment plummets, brands can no longer afford to treat CX as a siloed function. Experience fulfillment, powered by agentic AI, offers a path forward: one where promises are kept, issues are resolved proactively, and customers feel truly valued.

The technology is here. The playbooks are ready. The only thing left is to take the first step.