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In this episode of Deep Learning with PolyAI, Nikola Mrkšić sits down with Nathan Pearson, GM, Financial Services at PolyAi, to trace the evolution of personalized banking. From branch tellers and ATMs to digital channels and AI-driven experiences, they explore how banks have historically balanced scale, efficiency, and trust, and why personalization has always been central to customer relationships.

The conversation looks at why personalization has always mattered in financial services, how each new channel changed customer expectations, and what today’s AI moment has in common with past shifts. While technology keeps changing, the core challenge for banks hasn’t: delivering personal, trusted service at scale.

Together, they discuss:

• How early branch banking set the original standard for personalized service
• How online and mobile banking reshaped customer expectations around convenience
• Why “self-service” has never meant “impersonal” for customers
• How each new technology promised efficiency, but introduced new tradeoffs
• What banks can learn from history as they deploy AI across customer journeys

The big takeaway: while tools keep changing, the goal hasn’t. Customers still want banking experiences that feel personal, reliable, and easy — even when they’re powered by automation.

If you’re thinking about how AI should support (not replace) personalization for your business, be sure to tune in.

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AI has become remarkably good at answering questions — but customer experience should go beyond answers. It’s about resolution. Too often, AI fails when customers can’t easily explain what they’re seeing on their screen.

In this episode of Deep Learning with PolyAI, Jenn Cunningham sits down with Zaccari Scalzi of Cobrowse.io to explore why visual context is becoming essential for effective customer service AI. Together, they discuss how combining conversational AI with real-time visual grounding helps agents — human and AI — understand complex, multi-step customer journeys.

They cover:

• Why traditional bots break down in real customer interactions
• How visual context enables faster, more accurate resolution
• The difference between containment and true problem-solving
• How AI-to-human handoffs improve when everyone sees the same thing
• Why governance, consent, and privacy matter when AI “sees” the screen

The takeaway is simple: AI works best when it has full context. And for many customer journeys, that context is visual.

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In this episode of Deep Learning with PolyAI, Michelle Schroeder sits down with Dom Nicastro, Editor-in-Chief at Simpler Media Group and longtime journalist covering CX, content, and enterprise tech.

Dom has spent years watching AI reshape newsrooms — and he sees striking parallels with what CX leaders are facing today. Journalists and CX teams share the same challenge: cutting through hype, spotting “AI slop,” and building trust through accuracy, governance, and human judgment.

They explore:

• Why journalism’s skepticism is exactly what CX needs right now
• How AI accelerates good work — and exposes weak processes
• Why bad AI (in news or CX) destroys trust instantly
• What Dom hears backstage at CX events that rarely makes it into press releases
• The role of governance, vetting, and human oversight in customer-facing AI
• How CMSWire built “Roberta,” their internal RAG system to support real reporting — not replace it

Dom’s take is clear: AI won’t replace humans, but it will reveal who’s doing the work well — and who isn’t.

👉 Listen to the full episode to learn what journalism can teach CX leaders about building trustworthy AI.

#AI #CustomerExperience #CX #Journalism #PolyAI #CMSWire #ConversationalAI

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Every customer expresses themselves differently, and their choice of language is no exception. So how can brands bridge the gap when customers come to them speaking different languages?

In this episode of Deep Learning with PolyAI, Jenn Cunningham sits down with Matt Henderson, VP of Research, and Viola Lin, Product Manager, to explore the evolution of multilingual voice AI and what it means for global customer experience.

They unpack what “multilingual” really means in practice — from accurate translation to cultural intelligence — taking PolyAI’s AI models and Agent Studio platform as a starting point to discuss helping enterprises deploy agents that sound natural, respectful, and consistent in over 45 languages.

They explore:

• Why multilingual CX should factor in much more than just translation, including cultural nuances
• How PolyAI handles dozens of languages in a single deployment
• Real-world challenges and what to do about them: from accents and formality to tone and gendered language
• The role of fine-tuning, voice selection, and design in making AI sound human
• How global brands use multilingual AI to deliver support that feels "local" everywhere

👉 Learn how multilingual AI is bringing accessibility and empathy to CX.

#AI #VoiceAI #CustomerExperience #PolyAI #MultilingualAI #ConversationalAI #CX

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At VOX 2025, one thing was clear: the best brands aren’t just adopting AI — they’re becoming fluent in it.

In this episode of Deep Learning with PolyAI, Michelle Schroeder, CMO of PolyAI, sits down with Christopher Osborne, PolyAI’s Chief Product Officer, to unpack what we learned from our annual conference about how the world's top enterprises are moving from early adoption to true fluency in AI for customer experience.

They reflect on key lessons from VOX 2025, where leaders across hospitality, banking, healthcare, and more shared how they’re using agentic AI to scale exceptional service without losing the factors that make them stand out to their customers.

They discuss:

• How Seminole Hard Rock, Boyd Gaming, and Fertitta Entertainment use AI to protect the guest experience, not replace it
• How Metro Bank is turning “a bank in every pocket” into a banker in every pocket
• How DOCS Dermatology, Simplyhealth, and SafeRide Health are expanding access to care through AI-driven patient engagement
• Why the next CX differentiator isn’t adoption — it’s fluency
• How PolyAI helps enterprises balance automation with humanity

👉 Watch the full episode to see what AI fluency really looks like inside the world’s most customer-obsessed brands, and watch the full VOX conference here.

#AI #CustomerExperience #PolyAI #VOX2025 #AgenticAI #VoiceAI #AICX

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The conversational AI market has exploded: ~650 companies, even more tools, and way too many promises. For business leaders, navigating all this can be paralyzing.

In this episode of Deep Learning with PolyAI, your host Nikola Mrkšić sits down with Dan Miller, founder of Opus Research and the analyst who coined the term "conversational commerce," to unpack why the AI ecosystem feels more crowded and confusing than ever.

Dan calls it the “Deer in Headlights” moment: a point where too many choices, too much hype, and too little clarity leave enterprises frozen on the road to AI adoption.

They discuss:

• Why the AI boom has created confusion instead of clarity
• The Botenfreude phenomenon — why people still enjoy watching bots fail
• How most AI “failures” come from poor design, not bad tech
• What it will take for AI vendors to cooperate instead of compete
• Why success now depends on defining clear goals and working together

Dan has been tracking and shaping this space for decades. Watch the full episode to learn how we can move past the “deer in headlights” moment and start driving real progress.

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Hello Sugar is one of the fastest-growing service brands in America, with more than 140 locations and counting. From the start, they built a text-first, digital experience that customers loved. But growth brought new insights: even in a digital-first world, voice calls were still critical to winning — and keeping — customers.

In this episode of Deep Learning with PolyAI, Nikola Mrkšić talks with Austin Towns, CTO of Hello Sugar, about how the brand rethought customer experience at scale. With voice AI agents, Hello Sugar turned a challenge into a growth advantage.

We discuss:
- Why even digital-first customers still pick up the phone
- How Hello Sugar blends automation with human touch
- The role of AI in scaling service without scaling costs
- Why voice remains a powerful channel for hyper-growth brands

👉 Listen to the full episode to learn how Hello Sugar is setting the standard for CX in high-growth service businesses.

#CustomerExperience #CX #AI #VoiceAI #PolyAI #HelloSugar #HyperGrowth

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Large language models are powerful tools — but why do they ramble on and on instead of just getting to the point?

In this episode of Deep Learning with PolyAI, Nikola Mrkšić sits down with Oliver Shoulson, one of PolyAI’s original dialogue designers, to unpack why LLMs talk the way they do, and what that means for building natural-sounding voice AI.

They dive into:

• Why LLMs are trained to over-explain, and how that breaks spoken dialogue
• The subtle design choices that can make conversations feel human — without trying to fool anyone
• The debate over anthropomorphism: should AI agents admit they’re AI, or lean into human-like traits?
• How in-house LLMs can be fine-tuned to sound less like overeager interns and more like trustworthy teammates

Voice AI doesn’t need to trick us into thinking it’s human, but it does need to feel usable. This episode explores the hidden details of dialogue design that decide whether AI earns customer trust, or just frustrates them with endless rambling.

👉 Watch the full conversation and learn more in Oliver's blog post about how to prevent your customer conversations from sounding like they're LLM slop: https://poly.ai/blog/how-not-to-talk-like-an-llm/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=agenticai&utm_content=podcast

#VoiceAI #LLM #Anthropomorphism #CustomerExperience #PolyAI

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Most companies measure CX through surveys, reviews, and dashboards. But there is real danger in “silent complaints”: the underwhelming experiences that customers never report, but quietly share with friends or that stop them from coming back.

In this episode of Deep Learning with PolyAI, your host Nikola Mrkšić sits down with Adrian Swinscoe — author, Forbes columnist, and host of Punk CX — to explore how AI is reshaping customer experience, and why technology alone won’t save you from these hidden risks.

They discuss:

• Why “silent complaints” are often more damaging than bad reviews
• How AI can surface insights from conversations that surveys and dashboards miss
• Why frontline employees still see problems before the data does
• How leaders can balance technology with humility, curiosity, and human insight
• What it really takes to deliver on the old promise of being “customer-obsessed”

AI is giving companies new tools to understand customers in real time, but unless it’s used to address the basics of service, it risks becoming just another layer of CX hype.

👉 Watch the full episode to learn how to spot silent and not-so-silent complaints before they destroy loyalty to your brand.

#CustomerExperience #CX #AI #VoiceAI #PolyAI #PunkCX

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Analytics has always been the hardest part of the contact center. Dashboards are slow, incomplete, and rarely used outside of specialist teams. But what if analytics could be as simple as asking a question?

In this episode of Deep Learning with PolyAI, your host Nikola Mrkšić brings back Damian Sasso to explore how agentic AI is transforming analysis itself. Instead of waiting weeks for trends to surface, leaders can now interact with their data in real time: surfacing insights, testing hypotheses, and finding the “needle in a haystack” moments that drive real business change. Capabilities like PolyAI's new Smart Analyst are making it all come to life, and Damian shares a demo to show exactly how it all works.

The conversation touches on:
- Why analytics has lagged behind in AI transformation
- How unstructured conversation data is finally becoming accessible
- The shift from static dashboards to dynamic dialogue with data
- What this means for the evolution of the contact center — from a cost center to a true command center

Watch this episode for a glimpse into how agentic AI teams will help leaders see, understand, and act on their customer conversations. And learn more about Smart Analyst at: https://poly.ai/blog/polyai-smart-analyst/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=agentstudio&utm_content=podcast

#AI #VoiceAI #CustomerExperience #ContactCenters #PolyAI

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