GoKawiil
Tech News
Starbucks is investing $1 billion to reverse changes it made to speed up order fulfillment, including mobile ordering and store redesigns focused on pickup efficiency. The company says it aims to rebuild the in-store experience that drew customers to its cafés in the first place.
In an Entrepreneur contributor piece, the founder of ÉLITER Packaging Machinery argues that companies should expand their definition of a 'product' beyond the physical machine or software itself. He describes features like interface buttons, order-process improvements and internal conversion logs as products in their own right, since they shape the customer experience even when customers never directly see them.
An entrepreneur who trained as an architect describes applying lessons from building design to founding a real estate technology company. The founder says the core insight was noticing that apartment hunters in New York were frustrated by confusing listings and overly polished photos that misrepresented units. The piece outlines a framework of starting with user needs, prioritizing function before aesthetics, and using constraints to sharpen product decisions.
A contributed opinion piece in Entrepreneur argues that many website redesign projects jump straight to features like CMS platforms, navigation and personalization without first defining what customers should be able to do differently as a result. The author says teams often treat business goals like 'generate more leads' as if they were design problems, when they are really metrics that don't specify what needs to change for the customer. The piece recommends forming a clear hypothesis about the intended customer outcome before building, then testing usability and business results separately.
Sidharth Ramsinghaney, Twilio's director of strategy and operations, discussed how the company is applying AI to connect customer interactions across phone calls, text messages, and chatbots. He emphasized that maintaining a strong focus on customer needs remains central to Twilio's approach to building these AI-driven tools.
A commentary piece recounts a CVS checkout experience in which a cashier reportedly took a customer's phone number and enrolled them in a paid membership upgrade without asking permission, later confirmed by an automated welcome message. The author uses the anecdote to argue that such practices are pushing frustrated customers to air grievances publicly on social media rather than through traditional complaint channels.
A business consultant writing for Entrepreneur argues that companies often confine personalization to marketing efforts like birthday emails and loyalty tiers, while customer service reps remain blind to who they're speaking with. The author calls this approach 'Customer ME Experience' and recommends mapping customer journeys based on actual behavior rather than internal org charts, pointing to workarounds like screenshotted emails or shadow spreadsheets as signals of where systems fail customers and employees alike.
Online sellers say AI agents acting on behalf of shoppers are now inserting themselves into the buying process, creating friction between businesses and their customers. These agents can handle tasks like comparison shopping, negotiating, or completing purchases without direct human interaction with the merchant's own interface.
A PwC 2025 Customer Experience Survey found that 52% of consumers stopped buying from a brand following a poor product or service experience. Separately, an Idea Grove survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers found only 2% would purchase from an unfamiliar brand based solely on an AI recommendation without further research.
In an opinion piece for Entrepreneur, a dual-role executive — owner of ÉLITER Packaging Machinery and Head of Digital Marketing at ActionPower — argues that SEO and branding efforts often fail to convert into revenue because of internal organizational silos rather than marketing shortcomings. The author contends that inconsistent customer experience across departments, not weak digital tactics, is the real bottleneck to growth.
An Entrepreneur contributor argues that small businesses should treat every customer touchpoint, from storefront cleanliness to website usability, as part of a cumulative experience that builds loyalty. The piece recommends auditing the full customer journey to find hidden friction points rather than assuming where problems lie, and highlights culturally relevant campaigns and consistent service as ways to earn trust.
Fast Company introduced a new recognition initiative called Pacesetters, highlighting executives who are integrating AI and technology into customer experience design. A panel discussion moderated by Mansueto Ventures' Stephanie Mehta featured Amit Bajaj of Tata Consultancy Services, Fran Bell of The Home Depot, and Eugene Nikolavsky of Stellantis. The session, sponsored by TCS, addressed how companies can deploy AI to reduce friction while maintaining customer trust.