{"id":24321,"date":"2026-04-19T21:28:58","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T15:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesofpowerandvoice.com\/?p=24321"},"modified":"2026-04-19T21:28:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T15:58:58","slug":"48-of-indian-customers-cite-lack-of-empathy-in-cx-but-only-19-of-leaders-address-it-with-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesofpowerandvoice.com\/?p=24321","title":{"rendered":"48% of Indian Customers Cite Lack of Empathy in CX, But Only 19% of Leaders Address It with AI"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pune (Voice news service):- India’s business leaders are backing AI with boardroom conviction, but their customers are not feeling it yet. That is the central finding of ServiceNow’s Customer Experience Report 2026, The CX Shift<\/a>, which captures perspectives from customers, service representatives, and leaders across India.\u00a0Business leaders are increasingly prioritizing AI in customer experience,\u00a0yet a striking gap has\u00a0emerged\u00a0between where organisations are investing and what customers\u00a0actually need\u00a0\u2014 presenting both a challenge and a defining opportunity for 2026<\/p>\n

The Ambition Is Real. The Execution Is Not.<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Indian leaders are backing their intent with investment;\u00a060% say their organisation will take a connected enterprise approach\u00a0to deliver\u00a0next-level\u00a0customer experiences\u00a0over the next three years,\u00a081%\u00a0will consolidate\u00a0customer data into a single view, and 69% plan to optimise unified omnichannel CRM engagement across sales and service.\u00a0Yet the research reveals a more nuanced picture, one where the direction of investment matters as much as the scale of it.<\/p>\n

“The ambition in Indian boardrooms is real \u2014 I see it in every conversation. Leaders want to move fast on AI, and the investment intent is there. But ambition without a connected foundation is just noise that customers eventually stop listening to. The organisations that will pull ahead are not the ones evaluating the most platforms. They are the ones that stopped evaluating and started building.”\u00a0said\u00a0Sumeet Mathur, Senior Vice\u00a0President\u00a0and Managing Director, ServiceNow India<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Leaders Are Solving the Wrong Problem<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

The\u00a0perception\u00a0gap between Indian business leaders and their customers is striking. While 53% of Indian customers cite unclear explanations about processes and policies as a top frustration, only 22% of business leaders recognise this as a significant challenge. Similarly, 48% of customers name a lack of empathy as a key pain point, yet only 19% of leaders view it as a priority concern.<\/p>\n

The misalignment extends to being transferred between departments, with 45% of customers frustrated by this experience, compared to just 23% of leaders who acknowledge it as a problem.\u00a0On the need to repeat information to agents, 37% of customers are frustrated versus 25% of leaders who agree.\u00a0These\u00a0perception\u00a0gaps are consequential. They cause organisations to build solutions for the wrong problems, leaving customers’ most significant pain points unaddressed.<\/p>\n

Siloed Systems Are Blocking AI’s True Potential<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

The structural root of the problem is\u00a0fragmentation\u00a0and it is showing up in the customer experience directly.\u00a0Customers are frustrated by being transferred between departments and having to repeat their information at every interaction.\u00a0These\u00a0reflects a deeper underlying\u00a0failure: organisations that have not yet connected their people, data, and processes into a coherent foundation for AI to work on.<\/p>\n

The numbers tell that story clearly. Only 38% of Indian organisations have integrated data into\u00a0a single source\u00a0of truth. Just 34% are breaking down barriers for seamless AI integration across departments. And only 31%\u00a0have optimised their CRM for\u00a0cross-functional collaboration that consistent service\u00a0actually requires.<\/p>\n

Sumeet Mathur<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0further adds<\/em>;\u00a0“Speed is the entry ticket, not the prize. Our research shows Indian customers will leave over slow service \u2014 but they will also leave over service that is fast and still feels like it\u00a0doesn’t\u00a0understand them. Leaders are building for the first problem. The second one is where the loyalty gap actually lives, and right now only 19% of organisations are making real progress there.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The Window is Narrowing<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

India\u2019s business leaders are not short of ambition when it comes to AI. What ServiceNow\u2019s research reveals is something more uncomfortable: the gap between intent and impact is widening \u2014 and customers are already feeling it.<\/p>\n

The challenge many organisations face today is not a lack of options. It is the opposite. A crowded landscape of AI platforms, each making compelling promises and each requiring meaningful commitment, has created a new kind of organisational risk \u2014 the risk of waiting for certainty that may never arrive, while customers quietly make their own decisions.<\/p>\n

The data makes the cost of inaction concrete. 44% of Indian customers say they will switch to a competitor over slow or inadequate service. 45% of business leaders themselves report high churn from poor experiences. And yet only 30% have made\u00a0significant progress\u00a0connecting the people, data, and processes that would allow AI to\u00a0actually deliver\u00a0on its promise.<\/p>\n

The organisations that will define the next chapter of customer experience in India are not necessarily those with the most advanced AI. They are the ones that recognise the window for building a connected, empathy-first foundation is open now \u2014 and that the longer fragmented systems\u00a0remain\u00a0in place, the harder and more expensive it becomes to close the gap that customers are already experiencing.<\/p>\n

The question for India\u2019s business leaders is not which AI to choose. It is whether the organisation is structured to make any AI work. That is a decision that cannot wait for the next product cycle.<\/p>\n

Research Methodology:\u00a0<\/strong>To examine how AI is reshaping customer experience, ServiceNow partnered with research firm\u00a0ThoughtLab\u00a0to conduct a comprehensive global study spanning\u00a018 countries and eight\u00a0<\/strong>industries. The India edition is based on insights from 5,000 Indian consumers,\u00a0425 customer service professionals\u00a0and\u00a0280 Business leaders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pune (Voice news service):- India’s business leaders are backing AI with boardroom conviction, but their customers are not feeling it yet. That is the central finding of ServiceNow’s Customer Experience Report 2026, The CX Shift, which captures perspectives from customers, service representatives, and leaders across India.\u00a0Business leaders are increasingly prioritizing AI in customer experience,\u00a0yet a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177,44,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","category-pune","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesofpowerandvoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesofpowerandvoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesofpowerandvoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesofpowerandvoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesofpowerandvoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24321"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timesofpowerandvoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24322,"href":"https:\/\/timesofpowerandvoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24321\/revisions\/24322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesofpowerandvoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesofpowerandvoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesofpowerandvoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}