The Modern Customer Podcast

Watching AI automate work that once required thousands of designers, marketers, and copywriters forced Sharon Gai to rethink one fundamental question: What creates value when AI can do more of the work? That's one of the biggest ideas from my latest conversation with Sharon Gai, former Alibaba executive and author of How to Do More With Less . This week on The Modern Customer Podcast , Sharon expl...

Why do some companies create products customers can't wait to buy while others struggle to gain traction—even with better technology and bigger budgets? According to entrepreneur, author, and Harvard Fellow Rob Snyder, the answer isn't a better product. It's customer demand. In this episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, Blake Morgan sits down with Rob to discuss the ideas behind his new book, Th...

This episode is sponsored by Salesforce . One of the most interesting conversations I had at Salesforce Connections was about digital workers. This week on The Modern Customer Podcast, Lauren Esposito, CMO of Asymbl, shares how organizations are beginning to approach AI agents as digital workers—with defined roles, KPIs, managers, and accountability to drive meaningful business outcomes. We explor...

This video is sponsored by Salesforce. This week on The Modern Customer Podcast: Amber Armstrong, CMO of Agentforce Applications at Salesforce, joins me for a conversation recorded live at Salesforce Connections. Everyone is talking about AI agents. But according to Amber, the biggest question customers are asking is surprisingly simple: "Where do I start?" We discuss what's separating companies s...

Airline customer satisfaction increased 3% year over year. That's one of the strongest gains across the travel sector, according to new research from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). This week on The Modern Customer Podcast , Forrest Morgeson, Director of Research Emeritus at ACSI, shares what's driving those gains and how airlines are improving across multiple customer touchpoints...

Companies are embracing AI faster than ever before, and many leaders are realizing that successful transformation depends just as much on people and culture as it does on technology. This week on The Modern Customer Podcast, Dr. Michael Housman, AI builder, founder of AI-ccelerator, and author of Future-Proof: Transform Your Business with AI or Get Left Behind , shares practical ways companies can...

Many organizations are moving faster on AI than they are on strategy, alignment, and operational execution—and customers feel the difference. This week on The Modern Customer Podcast, customer experience expert, author of the USA Today bestselling book Experience Is Everything , and Experience Investigators Founder Jeannie Walters explains why AI alone will not improve customer experience. Drawing...

American Express is using AI-powered personalization to help frontline teams deliver faster, more relevant support while preserving the human connection behind premium service. This week on The Modern Customer Podcast, Anthony Devane , EVP and Head of Global Support Enablement and Control, Global Servicing at American Express , shares how his team is scaling AI and GenAI across servicing, travel,...

Retail is moving toward more automation, and for customers, the experience is increasingly defined by how those systems perform. At Trader Joe's, the experience is shaped differently. It builds loyalty through in-store interaction and human connection. This week on The Modern Customer Podcast, Mark Gardiner, author of Build a Brand Like Trader Joe's, shares insights from his experience working ins...

In this episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, David Kinzelman, Chief Customer Officer at United Airlines—the world's largest airline, known for its extensive international network, operational scale, and continued investment in digital innovation and customer experience—shares how the company scales CX through operations. At United, CX isn't a layer on top of the business—it's built into how the...

At CVS Health, AI is helping teams better understand and engage consumers—through stronger data and analytics. In this episode of The Modern Customer Podcast , Josh Weiner, Senior Vice President of Consumer Engagement & Analytics at CVS Health, breaks down what it actually takes to make AI work in healthcare. From predicting customer intent in the contact center to enabling more personalized and c...

AI can handle millions of customer conversations—but only when the right data, workflows, and systems are in place. Most companies underestimate what it actually takes to make that work. In this episode, Nalin Gupta , Founder & CEO,  Cignara  breaks down why AI in customer support isn't plug-and-play—and what's required to make it accurate and reliable at scale. We get into the foundation behind i...

AI is often deployed to improve efficiency—but its impact depends on how work is structured and delivered. In this episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, Dean Kontul , EVP and CIO of Intelligent Automation, Contact Center, and Investment Operations at KeyBank , shares how one of the largest U.S. financial services companies is applying AI to improve customer experience. At KeyBank, AI sits alongs...

Customer experience is shifting from memorable interactions to driving customer outcomes. That's the shift behind the Transformation Economy, and it's changing how companies create value for customers. This week on The Modern Customer Podcast, Joseph Pine , co-author of The Experience Economy and author of the new book The Transformation Economy, explores the next evolution of customer value—from...

At Vanguard , every investment is centered on client needs—but delivering that consistently at scale takes more than intent. In this week's episode of The Modern Customer Podcast , Matt Brancato shares how alignment across teams, disciplined listening, and AI-supported frontline decisions come together to create a more unified client experience. Trust isn't built through strategy—it's built throug...

At Bimbo Bakeries USA , customer experience comes down to one goal: making products available where and when shoppers want them. That means keeping shelves stocked across thousands of stores—every day. This week on The Modern Customer, Jeffrey Hendrix , Chief Customer Officer at Bimbo Bakeries USA , shares how the company uses its 12,000 delivery routes to keep products available at scale. Instead...

Contact centers have long been built on fragmented systems — CRM for customer data, separate platforms for calls and messaging, and AI layered on top. But that model is starting to change. In this episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, in partnership with Salesforce, Blake Morgan speaks with Gautam Vasudev, SVP of Agentforce Contact Center at Salesforce, about the rise of the agentic contact cent...

Service economics have long depended on headcount. Scale meant higher cost, and capacity constrained performance. AI changes that. This week on The Modern Customer, Matt Price , Founder & CEO of Crescendo , explains how AI expands capacity and connects service directly to business outcomes. Instead of charging per seat or hour, Crescendo ties pricing to measurable results. When teams treat service...

New data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index reveals nearly a decade of stagnation, a narrowing gap between top and bottom performers, and rising loyalty. Together, these shifts point to one conclusion: customer experience is converging. In this week's episode of The Modern Customer , Forrest Morgeson, Director of Research at the American Customer Satisfaction Index, explains what this m...

Customer conversations generate value. Yet most organizations never connect that value to action. Context gets lost across channels, and next steps never connect to downstream systems. This week on The Modern Customer, Ali Tore , RingCentral's SVP & GM of Conversational AI, shares how agentic voice AI closes that gap. He outlines why organizations must move beyond isolated automation and build sys...

As restaurants scale, preserving hospitality becomes harder to sustain. This week on  The Modern Customer , Andrew Rebhun, Chief Experience Officer at CAVA , shares how the Mediterranean fast-casual brand keeps hospitality at the center while scaling to 400+ locations. The conversation breaks down how experience leadership actually works at scale—from loyalty and social listening to team training...

Great customer experience doesn't lose customers to competitors—it loses them to apathy. And it creates superfans when ownership of the experience is clear. In this episode of The Modern Customer, customer experience speaker and author Brittany Hodak explains what actually turns customers into superfans—and why tools, automation, and AI alone aren't enough. Drawing on her work with organizations l...

Customer experience leaders face a familiar tension: do we put employees first or customers first? As organizations scale and adopt AI, that question becomes operational. In this special takeover episode of The Modern Customer Podcast , Jacob Morgan shares insights from The 8 Laws of Employee Experience , based on research with more than 100 CHROs. He explains why CX and EX operate as one system—a...

This week on The Modern Customer Podcast, you'll hear why winning with AI doesn't start with an AI strategy. In this episode, Peter Czimback —former VP of Experience Innovation at Aramark —shares a business-first approach to transformation that begins with experience, outcomes, and human capability, with AI supporting execution underneath. The conversation explores how leaders can move beyond AI e...

As digital products become the primary customer interface, delays in bug diagnosis and resolution now directly affect the customer experience. In this episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, Matt Rubright, Chief Customer Officer at Jam, explains how Jam fits into the bug-reporting and support workflow by capturing technical context as issues are reported. That shared context helps support and engi...