AI is already reshaping customer service, but Simon Thorpe, Director at Pegasystems, argues the biggest shift is not the technology itself. It is the rise in customer expectations and the pressure on CX teams to deliver consistent outcomes, fast. In this CX Today interview, Thorpe explains why many organisations are treating service as a strategic battleground, tied directly to retention, churn reduction, and trust.

Thorpe warns against the idea that AI is a silver bullet. If businesses layer automation on top of broken journeys and fragmented workflows, they will frustrate customers more quickly, not less. The focus, he says, should be on strong foundations: governance, transparency, auditability, and AI that is connected to real processes so leaders can explain what happened, when, and why. That matters even more in regulated enterprise environments where trust is non-negotiable.

Don’t miss the full interview for a practical take on building trustworthy, outcome-driven AI in CX.