2025 CX vision: Top 12 resolutions for AI-powered excellence

The start of the new year offers a chance to reset. Whether it’s starting the year with detox cleanse, a plan to read more books or a pledge to cook more at home, new year’s resolutions give us the opportunity to start making new choices and bid farewell to old routines.

In 2025, business leaders can choose to take advantage of this pivotal opportunity to redefine customer experience (CX) strategies by realizing the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) across their operations.

With AI advancing at lightning speed, a new year brings a new opportunity to lead with innovation—enhancing workflows, empowering agents and optimizing knowledge. Drawing insights from three groundbreaking webinars held during NICE’s CX 2025 Strategy Week, we’ve compiled 12 New Year’s resolutions business leaders can adopt to start driving measurable results and lasting transformation in 2025 and beyond.

Amplify CX, skyrocket satisfaction and unlock next-level performance

Resolution #1: Commit to enhancing customer satisfaction

Data confirms what experts have always believed to be the case: customer satisfaction isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a bottom-line driver. In the opening webinar for CX 2025 Strategy Week, the discussion included the findings of the State of CX report as well as statistics from Aberdeen Strategy & Research.

One of the biggest findings in the State of CX report was how best brands excelling in customer sentiment outperform their peers by significant percentage points in stock returns over five years. NiCE’s analysis confirms an undeniable link between positive customer sentiment and stock performance with organizations that excel in CX outperforming peers by nearly 3.5x in stock value over the past year.

“Using actual customer data, we’ve proven that driving customer satisfaction is incredibly meaningful to the bottom line,” said Andy Traba, vice president of product marketing at NiCE. “And this isn’t just a long-term result. We also found competitive advantage still stays in sync over just one year with a remarkable percentage point gap from those top performers to the bottom performers.”

“Given all the competitive dynamics happening in the marketplace, customer experience is the one thing that companies are doubling down on to differentiate and excel,” said Omer Minkara, Aberdeen vice president and principal analyst. “It’s not just companies trying to grow stock prices. They’re not just trying to cut costs. They’re deliberately focusing on CX.”

• Actionable steps: Harness AI-driven analytics to track customer sentiment in real time and proactively resolve issues before they escalate.
• Outcome: Higher revenue growth, enhanced loyalty and a lasting competitive edge.

Resolution #2: Adopt AI for a competitive advantage

AI offers a definitive advantage. Organizations leveraging AI report significantly higher annual revenue growth and put themselves in a better position to leap ahead of competitors as a CX leader.

“AI is very much on the top of the list as the number one tool that companies are reporting is a priority,” Minkara said. As Aberdeen found, AI users have seen a 10.8% annual growth in revenue, as opposed to just 3.2% amongst AI non-users—or more than three times the growth in company revenue.

• Actionable Steps: Deploy AI tools to generate actionable insights, automate workflows and generate revenue.
• Outcome: Accelerated growth and CX leadership.

Resolution #3: Recruit top-performing agents

The right agents can elevate CX significantly, boosting sentiment by 38% and reducing talk time by 11% compared to their peers, according to Aberdeen research. As Minkara emphasized, “the right mindset, background and skills are crucial.”

Variable agent performances present a challenge. As the State of CX report found, agents in the lower half provide a vastly different experience to customers than those agents in the upper tier. But if their performance scores can be improved closer to the average, overall KPIs for CX and in the contact center will go up.

“Organizations that have higher productivity, higher revenue growth, but also happier customers—you're seeing that those companies are about 20% more likely to already have a process where they evaluate the agent’s soft skills. Are they better listeners? What’s their personality attributes like? It’s not something that you need to wait until you onboard the agents and figure out,” Minkara said.

Businesses can determine the attributes of their top-tier agents so they can replicate them across new hires, and also encourage the same skills for existing agents, he added.

• Actionable Steps: Identify high-potential talent and provide targeted training and AI-powered contact center tools that encourage soft skills like efficiency and empathy.
• Outcome: Seamless customer interactions and operational efficiency, reinforcing your brand’s reputation.

Resolution #4: Eliminate inefficiencies in agent workflows

Make 2025 the year your business eliminates inefficiencies and roadblocks to success. There’s plenty of room for a CX makeover with the State of CX report finding only 35% of agents’ time actively enhances CX.

After all, the majority of an agent’s time isn’t spent improving customer sentiment. The bulk of their time is focused on tasks that can ultimately test a customer’s patience that’s counterproductive to business goals since agents are often the only interaction customers have with your brand.

Aberdeen’s research further determined 12% of agents’ time is lost to information searches. That translates to $1.2M a year for a contact center with just 200 agents—and can be an exponentially greater impact for larger centers.

Agents must have the right AI tools at their fingertips to quickly assess, resolve and personalize interactions while adding a human touch. Inefficient interactions frustrate customers, and waste time that could be spent helping others, costing your contact center both opportunities and money.

• Actionable steps: Implement AI-powered knowledge bases and workflow automation to streamline operations.
• Outcome: Cost savings, improved productivity and enhanced customer engagement.

Innovate or stagnate

Resolution #5: Deliver seamless and personalized CX

Consistency should be a non-negotiable in every focus area of your business—especially customer experience. In 2025, customer expectations are rising as they expect to reach your organization on any channel, whenever they have a question or need.

In the second CX 2025 Strategy Week webinar, Mila D’Antonio, principal analyst at Omdia, and Michele Carlson, director of product marketing at NiCE, explored the latest CX industry trends to help organizations set new CX benchmarks by anticipating the latest market changes and the role of the latest tech to hit new business goals.

A key issue they zeroed in on was how inconsistent multi-channel experiences can dramatically drive dissatisfaction, with Omdia finding 33% of customers switch to competitors after negative interactions.

That can be resolved with intelligent technology.

• Actionable Steps: Leverage purpose-built AI to unify customer data across channels, ensuring every touchpoint delivers a consistent and personalized experience.
• Outcome: Strengthened trust, loyalty and customer retention rates.

Resolution #6: Revolutionize CX roles with AI

AI is rewriting the rules for how people work, turning employees into productivity powerhouses. From agents to CX leaders, AI copilots amplify communication, analysis and problem-solving skills. These intelligent tools are redefining customer service and operational efficiency to set a bold new standard for the entire customer experience ecosystem. By 2026, AI will enhance 100% of CX roles. (2025 CX Trends)

“I think in this current landscape, CX is no longer isolated. It’s part of the entire business ecosystem,” D’Antonio said. “We see companies really positioning themselves to thrive in this experience-driven economy.”

Omdia found 60% of businesses consider themselves advanced in transforming CX, with an additional 58% planning strategic or minor investments.

• Actionable Steps: Equip agents with AI-powered tools for real-time insights and comprehensive soft skills training.
• Outcome: Superior interaction quality and heightened customer satisfaction.

Resolution #7: Prioritize proactive customer connections

Customer service is evolving from “putting out fires” to sparking meaningful connections. By blending AI, digital tools and customer insights, organizations are shifting to proactive engagement—anticipating needs, resolving issues before they arise, and reaching customers through preferred channels. This approach boosts satisfaction, reduces inbound volume and enhances operational efficiency to create a new standard for customer experience.

AI truly shifts the paradigm from reactive to proactive, enabling businesses to address issues before customers even notice them.

“We’re already seeing impressive stats here and just how powerful AI can be to improving those CX outcomes where 39% of organizations Omdia surveyed have increased proactive issue resolution. AI can predict and identify potential problems before customers reach out, and this really allows businesses to address issues ahead of time,” D’Antonio said. “Imagine a world where customers don’t need to call about a delayed shipment because you know they've already received an apology or an update.”

• Actionable Steps: Invest in predictive AI-powered systems to anticipate and resolve customer needs seamlessly.
• Outcome: Elevated loyalty, reduced friction and a stronger brand presence.

Resolution #8: Adopt unified platforms

Integrating AI, knowledge management, and communication tools into unified platforms eliminates silos and accelerates success.

Of the 20% of organizations that have a CCaaS, 64% want a combined, unified communication as a service solution (UCaaS), with their contact center as a service solution, NiCE found. This strategy aligns with pulling together a business model that’s more holistic.

“CX strategies are shifting into a unified AI platform for that seamless end to end resolution. This is how we’re breaking down silos, reuniting teams across organizations with one singular place for complete orchestration of that customer experience,” Carlson said.

Doing so brings dramatic business benefits to turn the contact center into a profit center.

“It’s clear that AI’s promise is no longer about theoretical potential. It’s really about enabling that concrete bottom line impact—so the bar has been raised,” D’Antonio said. “If you want to stay competitive, it’s really time to focus on those tangible outcomes. The shift to profit-centered AI is the future. The businesses thriving in 2025 are going to be the ones that that turn AI potential into a profitable reality.”

• Actionable Steps: Transition to a unified AI-powered customer engagement platform (CEP) for a centralized, scalable approach.
• Outcome: Greater efficiency, improved sentiment and sustainable growth.

Strategic investments and metrics that supercharge big returns

Resolution #9: Prepare for optimistic CX budget growth

In 2025, the line between CX winners and losers will come down to dollars. Forrester found 40% of CX leaders forecasting budget increases beyond inflation, a strong indicator it’s time to prioritize transformative investments.

For the final CX 2025 Strategy Week webinar, Brian Mistretta, director of product marketing at NiCE, and Rich Saunders, Forrester senior analyst, led an insightful discussion on CX investment strategies that could make or break your business—starting with the critical first step of planning to allocate resources for maximum impact on CX quality.

“It’s good to know that CX programs in general think that their budgets will do pretty well even when we're seeing sort of equivocation in market, macro and micro economic signals,” Saunders said. “We think that's good news when it comes to sort of how these professionals think their budget will be split up, and technology is number one.”

• Actionable Steps: Focus on scalable technology solutions, emphasizing AI and automation over personnel hiring.
• Outcome: Strategic growth without runaway costs.

Resolution #10: Move beyond traditional survey metrics

Adopting a different mindset that moves the needle on gathering metrics is critical. Over 90% of CX programs rely on surveys, yet only 21% can demonstrate value through them, according to Forrester.

“There’s definitely an opportunity to look at both traditional qualitative methods and modern qualitative methods of generating customer experience insights. There are some very powerful AI-driven tools coming to market to help us understand our customers without having to email them so many surveys,” Saunders said. He added the shift is moving toward a more quantitative data-driven approach to CX.

Mistretta agreed having smarter analytics and a broader view of what's going on within the organization not only helps manage interactions, but also streamlines the workflows so the tasks and processes that span the entire organization are all connected.

• Actionable Steps: Combine survey data with AI-driven operational metrics for actionable insights.
• Outcome: Comprehensive understanding and data-backed decision-making.

Resolution #11: Drive results through AI implementation

AI is a prime driver of business results—and organizations need to coordinate its rollout.

Organizations where marketing and digital and CX and contact centers, when they work more closely together see better revenue, better agent retention, Saunders said.

“Driving iconic CX is a cultural shift,” Mistretta said.

“It’s intrinsically tied to the beliefs and the philosophy of your organization and what kind of investment you want to make, not just from a technology perspective, but in the alignment of your resources and ensuring that you have a clear, identifiable goals and targets for each year,” he added.

In fact, brands using NiCE CXone Mpower as an AI customer experience solution saw a 16% sentiment increase.

• Actionable Steps: Deploy AI solutions and embed customer-first thinking across your organization.
• Outcome: Tangible improvements in sentiment and loyalty.

Resolution #12: Link improved sentiment to robust business outcomes

Once you achieve improved customer sentiment, prepare to see your business success soar. A direct correlation exists between customer sentiment and financial performance with higher sentiment equaling higher ROI.

“There’s a high correlation between customer sentiment and stock gains—meaning that there’s a higher ROI for brands that invest in customer service,” Mistretta said.

As noted in the State of CX report, brands earning high customer sentiment outperform their peers by significant percentage points in stock returns over five years.

• Actionable Steps: Leverage AI to connect sentiment trends with KPIs, ensuring customer satisfaction aligns with business success.
• Outcome: Enhanced trust, improved performance and sustained growth.

A 2025 vision for CX excellence

The future of CX lies in innovation and bold leadership. By leveraging AI to streamline workflows, empower agents, and centralize knowledge, organizations can deliver transformative experiences. These resolutions aren’t just about improving processes—they’re about building a legacy of excellence.

As the New Year unfolds, seize the opportunity to make CX your differentiator and AI your catalyst for success. Watch the full webinar series for added insights.