How CX Leaders Can Win With AI with Greg Melia

Speaker A: Welcome, um, to the Business Transformation Pitch. I am Greg the CX goalkeeper, bringing you conversations where transformation, leadership and customer experience meet to create real impact. Did you know 80% of regular listeners haven't subscribed yet? If you enjoy the show, support us by hitting the subscribe button. I promise we will keep raising the bar with the guests ideas and strategies that really matter to you. Because in business, just like in football, this conversation could be the game changer. I am Greg's AI based assistant. In this episode, Greg had a fascinating conversation with Greg Millia about the role of artificial intelligence in enhancing customer experience. They discussed how AI can be both a tool for improving customer interactions and a uh, challenge when not implemented thoughtfully. Greg shared insightful examples of AI being used effectively and the importance of keeping the customer's needs front and center. Enjoy the episode. This episode is brought to you in partnership with the Connect Expo series. Taking place in Atlanta on September 9th and 10th, 2026, the Connect Expo series brings together three co located Customer Connect, AI Connect and Cloud Connect Expo. Together the series explores the technologies and strategies shaping the future of customer experience, artificial intelligence and cloud innovation. Across the show floor and conference stages, attendees will discover the latest digital solutions and connect with the people, helping organizations transform how they work and serve the their customers. As a listener of the Business Transformation Pitch, you're entitled to a complimentary ticket by using the discount code CXGOAL100 at checkout link and details in the show notes. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Business Transformation Pitch with the CX Goalkeeper. Today I'm super thrilled because I am together with Greg Millia. Hi Greg, how are you? Hi.

Speaker B: Good Grant, great to meet you across the ocean.

Speaker A: Thank you, thank you very much. Uh, together today we are having a discussion for the Connect Expo series taking place in Atlanta on September 9th and 10th, 2026. You will find all the links in the show notes. But today it's really uh, a great honor to discuss with Greg about how CX leader can win with artificial intelligence. Before we deep dive in this really interesting topic, let's have a chat about you Greg. And if your career had one big goal moment, what would it be?

Speaker B: Uh, that's a great question. Uh, you know, so I'll answer that in two ways. You know, what is the big goal? And I would say that throughout everything that I've done, what's important to me is to help people connect and to try to advance understanding and ideas. So connecting people and ideas, uh, and what would I say is like the big goal that I Scored or something that happened in the past. And I think that that would absolutely be the publishing uh, of the CX Book of Knowledge, uh, which if you read the Book of Knowledge, you won't find my name in it. And that's where I like to be. I like to be behind the scenes getting people together and giving other people a voice to uh, help advance a causal profession.

Speaker A: Thank you very much. And um, what mission are you now playing for?

Speaker B: Yeah, so big uh, mission for CXPA and for me as well, which is by 2032, we want customer experience to be as recognized as a business discipline as hr, finance, sales, marketing and products. You know, all of the big six in the uh, uh, C suite. Uh, and we want customer experience to be a viable career choice for people like you and I that share our passion for this work. So uh, I'm very thrilled to uh, be part of the staff support for the community through cxpa.

Speaker A: I am super happy to hear that because I really like what you said. I am keen to support this part because I think it's extremely relevant if you want to have sustainable business growth. And I'm also really thankful Greg, to you and to the CXPA for what you are doing and what you did in the past. Really uplifting the skills, the knowledge that we have as uh, CX experts, as transformation experts in our field, giving us relevant frameworks, relevant ideas that we can bring back into the companies and as an employee or as an extended consulting. And also thank you, therefore thank you very much for all what you are doing. But before we um, should, we should stop complimenting ourselves and let's go to the topic that we, we, we wanted, we wanted to discuss how leader can win with AI. And now it's clear AI is everyone, everywhere AI. Everybody's speaking about AI and AI is changing our company's listen, respond and serve customer. What are the first key things leaders should think about before adding AI into the customer experience?

Speaker B: You know, I, um, think the challenge is that the first thing that individuals, uh, and companies should think about is not the first thing that companies and individuals are thinking about. What I'm consistently hearing from folks is that companies are adopting AI mandates and they are saying things like one in three of your programs have to incorporate AI or you need to improve efficiency by a third or uh, you need to spend this amount of money on AI and Telus. Um, I was talking with a leader the other day and they said that they have a reminder on their Outlook calendar to pop in and use the AI system because their company is monitoring whether people are using the AI system. The problem is, and we made this mistake at times in the customer experience, uh field is people are allowing the activity to become the metric and the metric to become the goal rather than really thinking about the outcome that, that they're hoping to drive. So what do I think that a uh, leader should keep in mind first when they're thinking about AI? How is this good for the customer, for the employee and for the organization's bottom line? That's the first thing that you need to think. And sometimes that means the answer is AI. Sometimes it may mean the answer isn't AI. So we need to move away from the AI mandate.

Speaker A: Uh, I think what you're saying totally makes sense. And it's not about implementing AI, but it's about solving problems. And often problems are linked to the customer experience or to the employee experience. However, as you said and as I'm seeing advising several companies, many teams, the C levels get really excited when they start speaking about technology, about AI. We should start, let's do that. Here is the budget and you can start. And often the customer uh, can be forgotten. We forget that. How can CX Professional make sure that customer needs stays at the center of AI design?

Speaker B: Yeah, I think that this is a spot where a program like um, the Connect, uh, conference will be really helpful because we need to do two things. One, we need to understand the landscape of AI, what the tools are, what the abilities, what the capabilities are. And we need to explore that in a way that is isn't a one on one sales pitch. We need to be able to have the conversations and explore the different alternatives. When you have a sense of the different platforms and the different features in the different areas, you need to start thinking about it. Just like you and I might think about our garage with our tools and our spaces that are in there and begin to think how do we incorporate the right tool in the right space. But if I were going to reduce it to one question, I think the question I would ask is, is the use of AI in this instance making it easier for the customer to interact with the organization? Uh, are we doing that whether it's through predictive advanced planning or it's through um, features that allow you to have interactive conversations. I had to call the dentist this morning and I spoke with their AI scheduler before I spoke with the human, but it was a seamless conversation so I was okay with that. Uh, and then lastly, how do we use AI to free up time for cx? Professionals. Every CX professional that I know has a list of things they'd like to do and the list of things they have time to do. So how can we use AI to expand that list and accomplish more of the things we'd like to do?

Speaker A: I will come back to the new role that CX Leader will have in a few seconds or as the next question. But now you are bringing me to one idea that pop up to my mind. Um, if I think about cx, we are struggling to bring these CX ideas into companies, to push it through and to make it understandable. But on the other side, if we think about, let's say the last 10 years, uh, agile and all these framework were really pushed and every company was working on them and now it's the AI run that everybody needs to do that as a customer experience, managers, leaders and so on. Do we have a bad marketing or what are we doing wrong?

Speaker B: You know, I think that part of the challenge is that we need to make sure that we're beginning to move at the speed of business. Uh, and that is something that is challenging because if you think about the history of cx, an awful lot of our methodology was waiting to hear what customers said and waiting to hear what their experience was and then having a gap where we analyze that data and then redesigned our processes. What we consistently heard at CX Leaders advance in Toronto is then that gap is not only closing, it's becoming synonymous. How can we use AI and digital tools to design fixes into a process so that you, uh, can not worry about is this activity, um, happening correctly, but instead am I helping this individual with what they need next, you know, and the spot that happens on that side. Uh, the second thing that I would have to say is that we need to do a better job of uh, having people recognize the full breadth of cx. CX starts with understanding and design and so we need to more often be catalyst and that go to other parts of the organization and say, have you considered the customer's perspective in this area and can we help you? Because most people want to see, particularly in publicly traded companies, want to see the stock value go up, the equity of the company go up, the value of the company up and the success of the organization to happen. And they love it when they can do that. At the same time customers are happy and employees are happy. So we need to get more serious about advancing all of those things together and really representing ourselves not as the voice of the customer in the room, as a, hey wait, you've Forgotten me, but instead, hey wait, I'm the person who's funding your business and I would like to help you be successful.

Speaker A: That's uh, really something relevant. And I think what I really like is how you phrase that. It's always about me. I, I need to do this, I need to do that. Because often when I'm speaking, uh, with CX experts advising them, coaching them, uh, I often see, I often hear uh, the C suite doesn't understand me, finance doesn't understand me, they don't understand me, I didn't got the budget. And that's always guilty are the honest. But you phrase that in a uh, really great way that we need to change. And by changing we need perhaps also a new skill set. Now going into this AI enabled world and you also shared the example, what are the new skills that six leaders need to use to leverage in order to be successful in business and making the business successful?

Speaker B: Yeah, so you know, we wrote a great, uh, I shouldn't say we wrote a great paper. I should say we had a couple members come together and write a great white paper. I wrote an introduction to it. The uh, big takeaway that I think is that um, there are actually kind of three different levels that you need to be thinking about and understanding with AI as a CX professional. And depending on where you sit on the team, your fit into these three levels is going to shift and change a little bit. The first thing that we need to understand is that the AI, uh, involvement is inevitable. You know, there was at first this conversation, is AI going to happen? Is gen AI going to happen or not? The reality is generative AI and AI is going to be involved in every business, in every part of our life to some degree. And so we need to begin to understand how we can fit that in and what its strengths and weaknesses are. But we should stop trying to say that we're going to sit on the sidelines and wait to see what's going to happen. The next thing that we need to do is we need to understand the basic underlying tools. So we need to understand how to write prompts, we need to understand what an agent is. Uh, we need to build some fundamental understanding that lasts across the different platforms. You wouldn't learn how to build a house by figuring out how to hire just one contractor. What you would learn is, is to understand the concepts of blueprints and understand the concepts of carpentry and of plumbing. And so we need to understand the concepts of AI rather than saying, oh, you know, Claude is great for this and Copilot is great for that and Chat GPT is great for that. What we need to understand is how do you interact and how do you uh, structure the logic, uh, to work with the different AI agents and the different AI tools. That also includes understanding the ethics that might be involved because AI is a often and we can come back to it a little bit later, but it's often a connection to trust. Uh, and for that reason there's a lot of complexity. But the third layer, and this is the layer that uh, even the most senior CX leaders need to understand, is that you have to think about the strategy and the strategy use. What does it mean for your company to decide that my mother is going to speak to a human or speak to an AI agent? Because I can guarantee you my mother is going to enjoy one of those experiences and not the other. But for me I was fine that my call was answered promptly by an AI agent this morning. So you need to think about your Personas, you need to think about your marketing positioning, you need to think about the confidentiality. What is the emotion of the person who's contacting you, what uh, is the appropriate space. And it's not just contacting, you know, when we talk about AI, it's also coming back to um, really complicated but amazing things. You know, if we can use AI systems and big data to get the right fresh foods to the right uh, grocery stores so that that food is used instead of wasted, that's a benefit to society, a benefit to the grocery store and a benefit to the consumer. So I'm excited about the possibilities of AI, but you have to have those different levels. It's inevitable. We need to understand the fundamentals of how it works and then you need to think about the strategy and how to integrate into the business and lead that change transformation.

Speaker A: I really like what you are saying and we can link that to two relevant things. One is I think you can learn and speak and discuss about these uh, uh, skills at the Connect Expo service in Atlanta on September 9th and 10th. But also on the other side and it's not you saying that, it's myself saying that I am, I think this is the 10th year that I'm um, CCXP and I uh, am part of the cxpa. The CXPA is helping me, is helping us CX professionals to grow into this new role and to learn the new required skills to be relevant on the market. Uh, it's the reality and therefore I'm super happy to, to share that I know that for you it's always difficult. But I would like to discuss that. Do you have a real example where you say there is a company where they mixed AI, uh, with customer experience in a great way?

Speaker B: Uh, what I love most about cxpa, uh, is the area that I get to sit in the middle and to hear all of the different spaces and all the different elements. And I want to just give a shout out to the presenters from CX Leaders advance from, uh, MTN Nigeria. Uh, and what was kind of interesting is when we received the proposal from MTN Nigeria, originally we thought it was simply a chatbot for a telecommunications organization. And we thought we don't want to just tell the story of a chatbot. What we didn't realize is that the chatbot was just one line in their presentation. The reality is that MTN Nigeria is using AI to help their um, customers and their employees deliver service in um, hundreds of languages to their customers. Um, they're using it to identify uh, talent gaps on their staff and to strengthen their skills. Uh, they're using it to build trust because there are certain things that are handled by the AI and there's certain things that are elevated uh, to individuals. But it's a comprehensive case study to talk about an organization that um, in their case came about tackling this issue because of um, the overwhelming size and scope of what needed to be done. And so, uh, a great example there, uh, another organization I was speaking with the CX leader at a major Car Auto, uh, Parts, um, online site. And what's fascinating is their team built an AI customer service platform within their organization. So it wasn't purchasing a huge platform, it was building the skills internally. But what was really neat about that is she said she never would have built that AI solution if she could have handled that on human calls. But 24 hours a day, seven days a week is a scale that can't be achieved in most cases. And so AI is a great solution in areas like that. So there's two case studies that really stick out to me.

Speaker A: Thank you very much. And now we always know that we also need to learn from failures, from issues. We never names the companies, but what are the lessons learned from the CX leader or from, yes, the Clin chair from Case that didn't work properly.

Speaker B: Yeah. And Akos Tolnaj in Toronto did a survey of CX, uh, leaders and then did a um, literature, uh, review. And some of the case studies that he brought forward are really great examples. Um, one was a uh, airline that um, had a Chatbot. And the chatbot, uh, invented a bereavement fare. So a customer said, sadly, my grandmother has died. Do you have a bereavement fare? And the chatbot answered back, yes, we have a bereavement fare. And uh, the person expected that the airline would stand behind that and the airline did not. So you have two problems on that. One, I don't think anybody who's in a state of bereavement really wants a decision to be made by a computer. And so something in that programming should have said, let's move this to somebody who can treat this with empathy and dignity because there's other things. And if the answer is supposed to be no, then that person can handle that in an empathetic way. If the AI gives an answer, a company should be prepared to stand behind it. And my um, guess is based on the example that was presented, this airline would have come out with a much better outcome if they had just eaten a few hundred dollars loss than to have this story told and retold time and time again. What Akos really brought forward is an outcome, is that you need to think through the uh, nature of the CX interaction. If you're in a highly regulated industry, the idea of friction is actually sometimes good. It helps reinforce security. If you are in a highly emotional industry or space, AI might be something that is better to position with the agent than to position with the customer. You know. And so um, these are all spaces where I think we've had uh, fails. But I'll tell you my favorite example, my favorite example. And you uh, guys can all run out and try this and see if it still happens. I was speaking with um, Alex Rios, uh, who leads CXPA Europe and he shared with me that he had gone to ChatGPT and he challenged ChatGPT. Ah, he said I live a five minute walk away from a car wash and I need to get my car washed. Wouldn't um, it be a good idea to walk to the car wash and ChatGPT, which tends to be a very positive reinforcing, uh, agent came uh, back to him and said yes, that's a great idea, you'll save gas, uh, and if it's a nice day out, you'll enjoy a walk. Of course, overlooking what Claude uh, said to the same prompt, which was basically no, you fool, you can't wash your car at a car wash unless you bring your car to the car wash. Uh, and then in between copilot, uh, actually said, well it's not a good idea to Walk to the car wash. But if you want to wash your car at home, you could hire a mobile detail service or you could wash the car yourself. And so I kind of think we're in this early exploration phase with AI where you can use AI to generate uh, ideas, you can use AI to uh, research information and to give you suggestions. But you always, always, always have to verify and you always have to think about whether it's the right thing to do.

Speaker A: Thank you very much, Greg. We are coming to an end of this game. But at the end I still have a few penalties for you. Quick round. Who is your role model in business?

Speaker B: You know today, um, a person who's on my mind is, ah, Tabitha Dunn, ccxp. And the reason Tabitha always comes back to my mind is Tabitha has such a brilliant way of presenting options to people and having them realize that a business needs to make a choice. As an organization, it's not what one individual wants to do, but tapping into the wisdom of the.

Speaker A: What's the toughest challenge you beat in business?

Speaker B: The toughest challenge that I beat in business, I think the part that's the hardest. I used to work with a, um, educational program that was hosted at seven different locations, ah, around the, around the country. And people were very, very uh, wedded to returning to the same roots and the same ground that they had participated in. But the business model was failing. Uh, and what we needed to do was to analyze and create a sustainable business model to be successful. So my greatest challenge is the same one that every CX leader has. How do you lead change when customers love what you were doing, but you need to build a sustainable model to the future.

Speaker A: That's so cool. What can listeners start doing from tomorrow?

Speaker B: Tomorrow I'm going to go back to that, uh, what I consider the holy trinity that every CX leader should think of. Stop asking is this good for customers? And replace that question with is this good for the customer, my employee, coworkers, and the organization's bottom line. If it isn't good for all three, it isn't good enough.

Speaker A: And what's your winning habit?

Speaker B: What's my winning habit? I think my winning habit is spending time with brilliant people like you Gregorio. So that's uh, you know, uh, whenever you get a chance to meet new people, to get new perspectives and uh, to grow your network, that is the best winning habit you can have.

Speaker A: Thank you very much. And now we are coming to the last question. It's Greg's golden nugget. It's something that we discussed or something new to leave to the audience with?

Speaker B: Yeah, uh, I think what I hope that I leave the audience with is that, uh, there are amazing people doing amazing work in customer experience. Reach out and get to know them, uh, reach out and look to have those conversations, listen with curiosity, uh, and uh, consider how everything you see in the world is a learning opportunity for you to advance yourself, you to advance your family, you to advance your organization and ultimately for all of us to advance the world.

Speaker A: Greg, thank you very much for your time. It was a great pleasure to have you on the podcast.

Speaker B: It is awesome to have joined you and I hope for those of you that are thinking of, uh, headed to, uh, the Connect Conference, uh, in Atlanta. I hope to see you there.

Speaker A: Thank you. And I'm quite sure that at the, uh, Connect Expo series taking place in Atlanta on September 9th and 10th, you will find a lot of brilliant people. Greg, please stay with me for the audience for today. It's everything. Thank you very much. See you next week.

Speaker B: Thank you everyone.

Speaker A: That's all for today. If you enjoyed this episode, please spread the word. It really helps. And remember, 80% of regular listeners haven't subscribed yet. If you enjoyed the show, the easiest way to support us is by hitting that subscribe button. I promise we will keep raising the bar with guests ideas and strategies that matter most to you. Until next time, never forget, we are not in B2B or B2C. We are in H2H. Human to human environment. Thank you.