Your Digital Teammates Just Got Emotional Intelligence
PLUS: Map Your Customer’s Hidden Emotional Journey
Today’s DCX AI Today Newsletter is brought to you by Qualtrics and the 2026 Consumer Experience Trends Report
Key Takeaways:
Nearly one in five consumers who have used AI for customer service saw no benefits from the experience. That’s a failure rate almost four times higher than for AI use in general
Misuse of personal data is now consumers’ top concern when companies use AI to automate interactions – 53% of consumers share this fear, up 8 points over the past year.
Half of consumers are concerned that companies’ AI use will prevent them from connecting with a human being, and 47% are worried about job losses.
Download the full 2026 Consumer Experience Trends report
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📅 October 7, 2025 | ⏱️ 4-min read
🎯 The big picture
The biggest change in AI this week wasn’t a new model—it was a change in relationship. AI stopped being a tool you command and started becoming a teammate that collaborates, understands context, and makes customers feel heard instead of processed.
📊 Today’s lineup
• OpenAI just turned ChatGPT into your personal app concierge (and it’s brilliant)
• The receipts are in: NICE customers prove AI’s real-world CX impact
• Oracle’s new AI agents are designed to feel like part of your team
• Be My Eyes proves AI accessibility isn’t just nice—it’s a competitive advantage
• This voice AI speaks 40+ languages and understands complex banking
1️⃣ OpenAI just turned ChatGPT into your personal app concierge (and it’s brilliant)
What’s happening:
• OpenAI launched its Apps SDK, letting developers build apps that work directly inside ChatGPT conversations.
• Launch partners like Spotify, Zillow, and Canva get instant reach into ChatGPT’s massive user base.
• Ask, “Find me a three-bedroom in Austin,” and ChatGPT can surface the Zillow app with full context from your conversation.
What’s so great about this: This solves the app-switching nightmare that kills customer momentum. Instead of a dead-end “let me open another app for you,” the AI orchestrates the entire experience in one place. It’s like having a personal assistant who knows exactly which expert to bring into the room at the right time.
What’s next: Standalone apps are about to feel lonely and disconnected. When customers can complete complex tasks through natural conversation, any service that forces them to switch contexts will feel clunky and outdated.
Go deeper: OpenAI
2️⃣ The receipts are in: NICE customers prove AI’s real-world CX impact
What’s happening:
• PayPal improved customer sentiment in just 10 weeks using AI-driven interaction scoring across 6,000 employees.
• Fairstone achieved a 65% response rate on digital outreach and converted 90% of those into appointments using proactive AI agents.
• Great Southern Bank cut customer attrition by 44% and slashed average speed of answer from 35 to 15 seconds.
What’s so interesting: These aren’t pilot programs—they’re production deployments with hard numbers. PayPal didn’t just “implement AI”; they measurably improved how customers feel. Fairstone turned AI into a revenue driver, not just a cost saver. This is proof, not a promise.
What’s next: The era of “we’re exploring AI” is officially over. When your competitors are reporting double-digit improvements in core CX metrics, sticking to exploration mode is a competitive liability.
Go deeper: NICE
3️⃣ Oracle’s new AI agents are designed to feel like part of your team
What’s happening:
• Oracle launched 15+ role-based AI agents embedded directly in its Fusion Cloud Applications for marketing, sales, and service.
• Examples include a “Deal Advisor” for sales, an “Account Product Fit Agent” for marketing, and a “Triage Agent” for service.
• The agents are prebuilt, natively integrated, and included at no extra cost, designed to work seamlessly within existing workflows.
What’s so great about this: This is AI that doesn’t disrupt your team’s flow—it enhances it. Instead of learning another new tool, your service team gets an AI teammate that already understands your customer history and can instantly triage incoming requests. It’s AI that fits how you already work.
What’s next: Standalone AI tools are about to feel like extra homework. When AI is embedded directly in your core work applications, using a separate platform will feel inefficient and disconnected from where work actually gets done.
Go deeper: Oracle
4️⃣ Be My Eyes proves AI accessibility isn’t just nice—it’s a competitive advantage
What’s happening:
• Be My Eyes launched Service AI as a standalone product, offering businesses 24/7 accessible support for blind and low-vision customers.
• The AI interprets images, chats in multiple languages, and provides instant access to a directory of 900,000+ engaged blind and low-vision users.
• It’s all delivered through the trusted Be My Eyes app, with seamless escalation to human agents when needed.
What’s so interesting: This reframes accessibility from a compliance chore to a business-growth strategy. Be My Eyes proves that serving a loyal, underserved community doesn’t just do good—it builds a passionate customer base that actively seeks out and advocates for brands that serve them well.
What’s next: Accessibility will become a key differentiator. When AI can make your service effortlessly available to communities that competitors ignore, you’re not just being inclusive; you’re building a powerful, differentiated brand.
Go deeper: Be My Eyes
5️⃣ This voice AI speaks 40+ languages and understands complex banking
What’s happening:
• Tata Communications launched a speech-to-speech Voice AI platform supporting 40+ languages with a sub-500ms latency that makes conversations feel natural.
• Built specifically for BFSI, it connects to customer APIs and fintech systems to handle complete journeys from initiation to resolution.
• The platform includes real-time transcription, call summaries, sentiment analysis, and intelligent human handoff.
What’s so great about this: This addresses the global challenge of providing high-quality financial services across language barriers. When a customer can discuss complex banking needs in their native language and get an immediate, accurate response, it transforms the experience from stressful to accessible.
What’s next: Language barriers are becoming a choice, not a limitation. When AI can conduct nuanced financial conversations in dozens of languages instantly, any global business still limited to English-only support will lose to competitors who fluently speak their customers’ language.
Go deeper: Tata Communications
⚡ Quick hits
• Quack AI raised $7M to build proactive AI agents that solve issues before they escalate → shifting support from a reactive cost center to a proactive growth driver.
• Cookiy AI secured $7M+ to pioneer Agentic Voice AI for consumer insights → conducting human-like research conversations at scale to uncover customer motivations.
• Light Finance raised €25M for its AI-native finance platform → proving that hyper-specialized, vertical AI solutions are attracting serious capital.
💡 CX Prompt Tip of the Day
Map Your Customer’s Hidden Emotional Journey
I want to understand the emotional highs and lows customers experience throughout their journey with us, including feelings they might not explicitly express.
Context: Our customer journey for [product/service] involves [describe key touchpoints]. We know customers sometimes drop off at [mention problem areas].
Your task:
1. For each touchpoint, identify the likely emotional state (e.g., excited, anxious, frustrated, confident).
2. Spot “emotional cliff edges” where positive feelings could quickly turn negative.
3. Find moments where customers might feel uncertain but don’t ask for help.
4. Design specific interventions to reinforce positive emotions and catch negative ones early.
5. Create emotional success metrics beyond just CSAT or NPS.
Format: Touchpoint → Likely Emotions → Emotional Risks → Hidden Uncertainties → Proactive Interventions → Emotional Success Metrics.
Quick win: Pick your highest-friction touchpoint this week and map what customers are likely feeling (not just thinking) at that moment. The biggest opportunities hide in emotional gaps, not just process gaps.
🤔 CX reflection
Question of the day: If AI is becoming a teammate that can work inside your tools and speak every language, what is the one uniquely human skill your CX team should be developing most urgently to stay valuable?
See you tomorrow!
Mark
💡 P.S.
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