Digital Trends constitute the main technological and market directions that influence the future of the business. They represent real strategic guidelines for business planning, elaborated from the observation of current dynamics.
For season#DigitalTrendsSS25, we have identified three main trends, and in this article we focus on the third trend.
The relationship between customers and companies is changing radically: the customer today no longer seeks traditional human contact but wants to interact directly with the company, through digital tools and channels, often avoiding the intermediation of people.
This push does not only come from the consumer side, the company is also maturing the interest (and advantage) of building a direct and centralized relationship with the customer. A new meeting point, also born from dynamics such as self-service, the diffusion of apps and “B2Cization”, which are rewriting relational expectations also in the B2B sector.
Be careful though: this transformation is not a passing fad to ride blindly. If the adoption of these tools occurs without a real understanding of the underlying need, the risk is to generate frustration, inefficiency or even rejection on the part of the client.
It is important to understand the starting point: today, the customer still talks to people in the company. Relationships are human, direct, and that's not necessarily a problem. But it is essential to understand when the human factor is a value and when, instead, it becomes an obstacle.
In many cases the business interlocutor does not add real value to the interaction, on the contrary, it can introduce inefficiencies, downtime or even bias.
Both customers and businesses are pushing for direct relationships. On the one hand, the consumer demands immediate responses, customization, access to services 24 hours a day. On the other hand, the company recognizes that human beings are not suited to perform all relational activities, especially repetitive and massive ones. This is where AI comes in, but be careful: AI is not the starting point, it is the enabler of something that had to be done long ago. It is an opportunity to put order, centralize, simplify. If today we talk about “no more human” at certain stages of the relationship, it is not to chase a buzzword, but because the right time has finally come to actually do it.
Of course, the objection may arise: are we taking jobs away from humans? But are these really roles that human beings played well or with pleasure? Or are we finally releasing time and energy for more strategic, more human activities in the true sense of the term?
We must not focus on what we take away, but on what we can give. The people in the company can finally focus on high value-added activities. Even customers with well-designed self-service tools can achieve more in less time.
Finally, beware of another risk: thinking that only the company owns “the machines”. Customers, with their devices, their apps, their digital capabilities, are also an active part of the relationship. It's a two-way connection, not a one-way transmission.
The enabling technology par excellence is today artificial intelligence, but more than a technical constraint it is a change of mentality. The real point is that there are relational activities that machines can handle better, and this is the right opportunity to let them do it.
Where to start? First of all, with a realistic analysis: what do competitors do? What happens in other sectors? Where can we introduce automatisms without damaging experience?
The second step is to start designing interfaces, such as an effective customer portal, which can offer direct and personalized access to services and information.
Another crucial aspect is to simplify the routing of problems: avoiding intermediate steps and making sure that the request reaches those who are able to solve it immediately, perhaps thanks to an organization “agentic”, where different skills collaborate on the same objective.
Finally, it is essential to equip yourself with a basic metric. Without data, it is not possible to understand whether the new approach is bringing improvements or not. Corporate tradition cannot be the only yardstick: knowing what “has always been done” is no longer enough.