CX Differentiation Will Be Easier Than Ever In 2025
It’s been a rough couple of years for customer experience (CX), to say the least, with 2024 seeing CX quality hit an all-time low according to Forrester’s Customer Experience Index (CX Index™). This begs the question: Why has such pervasive mediocrity become the norm?
A simple answer is that the “low-hanging fruit” of easy CX wins has been picked; eking out differentiation on the basis of CX will require significant, strategic investment. While any number of executives have (mistakenly) interpreted strong stock performance amid declining CX quality as a signal to maintain the status quo, they inadvertently clear the path for those committed to delivering good CX.
What’s the outlook—and opportunity—for CX in 2025? It looks like 2025 will be another year of CX mediocrity for most brands. Don’t lose hope! For the bold CX leaders who are ready to kick things into high gear, 2025 offers a silver lining.
The simple truth is that the “easy stuff” just doesn’t cut it anymore. As industries evolve, there is a natural leveling up of quality standards. The market has reached a consensus on what it considers acceptable quality, and failing to meet this new baseline is significantly more noticeable and less forgivable.
To pull away from the pack, you must be all in. It’s worth it: In a landscape marked by widespread complacency, a commitment to strategic CX differentiation offers a clearer path to stand out than ever before. Those who invest in understanding and exceeding their customers’ expectations will both set themselves apart and pave the way for sustained success. Over time, this dedication to excellence cultivates a loyal customer base and a brand reputation that can weather the challenges of an ever-evolving market.
Here are three of Forrester’s 2025 predictions that highlight the challenges (and opportunities) awaiting CX leaders:
Generative AI will displace 100,000 frontline agents from the top global outsourcers. The contact center outsourcing market is an unseen behemoth, quietly powering 62% of brands’ contact center operations. This market has historically thrived on a labor arbitrage model—yet this reliance on ever-cheaper labor is exactly what makes it ripe for generative AI disruption. As genAI successfully automates low-complexity issues, the demand for human agents will shrink. Many outsourcers will shrink headcount in response, which will hit the lowest-cost markets hardest. In this evolving landscape, the choice for CX leaders is clear: to partner with outsourcers that view emerging technologies as a pathway to evolution, not extinction. The strongest partners will adopt performance-based models that align directly with their clients’ success, marking a pivotal shift toward value over volume.
Half of accessibility efforts will have negligible CX impact. The spotlight on digital accessibility is intensifying as the June 2025 deadline for the European Accessibility Act approaches. Despite 59 percent of design pros reporting exec-backed commitment to digital accessibility, we’ve found that a significant divide remains between intention and action. Forrester’s prediction underscores this gap: Only half of these companies are expected to undertake meaningful efforts to enhance accessibility. The rest will resort to superficial measures—quick-fix products and find-and-fix programs that fall short of making digital spaces genuinely accessible. The key to bridging this divide: Embed accessibility principles into the design process from the outset, which will ensure that your efforts translate into tangible benefits for your customers, beyond mere compliance.
One in four CX teams will cut underused tools in favor of good-enough enterprise suites. On average, CX teams use four technologies and often only scratch the surface of their capabilities—capabilities often mirrored in the enterprise suites that their organizations already use. This overlap has caught the attention of IT departments eager to reduce software redundancies and expenses. Forward-thinking CX leaders will get one step ahead, choosing to cut the fat themselves by embracing function-first procurement strategies. This means getting crystal clear on the specific tech functions required to solve current business problems and seeking only these (versus large suites with superfluous capabilities). Leaders will content themselves with “good enough” enterprise solutions for commoditized but necessary functions like post-interaction surveys and conversation analytics. This action will free up resources to invest in tech to tackle their most pressing challenges: linking CX improvements directly to business outcomes and effectively acting on customer insights.
To dig deeper into these and other predictions for 2025, download Forrester’s 2025 Predictions guide.
Christina McAllister is senior analyst, Forrester Research, covering customer service and contact center technology, strategy, and operations.