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| August 5, 2025 |
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It seemed but yesterday that generative AI (GenAI) was added to customer experience tools. Yet, while GenAI does some things well, there are definitely limitations. That leads us to the next step: agentic AI. Learn why customer service leaders are looking with great interest at this next AI iteration. Then, supply chains are all about systems … except they’re also about people. We have answers to your supply chain struggles. And the first e-mail from space—but where’s E.T.?
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| Artificial Intelligence |
| Agentic AI and CX |
| CX and AI adoption. Customer service was one of the first departments to use AI tools to help human customer experience (CX) agents serve customers better and more quickly. That’s worked out, more or less, but there was always the missing link: AI that did the job independently of humans. Well, agentic AI is now available for CX and that’s exactly what it does. Agentic AI can carry out tasks autonomously, no humans required. But a word of caution: For agentic AI to be effective, data quality is of the utmost importance. |
| Agentic AI is autonomous, but humans will still need to be trained on how to use it, and it will also change how work happens. The steps a CX rep takes now to solve a client problem will be different. As with many new work technologies, adding the tech part might be the easier step—it’s the change management triggered introducing agentic AI tools that poses the bigger challenge. |
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Supervised and secure. Organizations using GenAI have already had to adapt how they approach security. Take that and multiply it: Security for agentic AI is even more critical. An agentic AI could interact with an outside AI and be redirected toward harmful actions, for example. Even though agentic AI is autonomous, that doesn’t mean it can be unsupervised. Humans with the right skills will still be needed to make sure it’s working as intended.
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| Read more: “Moving from GenAI to agentic AI in the customer experience.” |
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| Supply Chain |
| Supply chain: It’s people |
| A different route? As organizations continue to rethink their approach to supply chains, what was once a priority is perhaps no longer. To help out, we’ve put together a best practice guide that looks at the promises and challenges of reshoring and nearshoring, why modeling and planning are more important than ever, security measures, and how generative AI is being folded into supply chain tools. But an oft overlooked area of supply chains? People. |
| Human links. Every step of a supply chain requires experts. Nowadays, their required skills encompass everything from sales to analytics. If they need upskilling, who they gonna call? You, that’s who. Offering training programs will keep staff (and their skills) from jumping ship. |
| Get the full guide: “Key supply chain issues, explained.” |
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| Department of Timeliness: E-mails from anywhere |
| E-mails in spaaaaaace |
| The space of communication: On August 9, 1991, the good folks aboard the space shuttle Atlantis sent the first e-mail from space. This set off the e-mail space race of who can send the most e-mails from anywhere, like your boss e-mailing you from the golf links. And while e-mails can get lost in space, we can also run out of space for our e-mails when our inboxes fill up. |
| Get the message(s) out: Remote work maybe be out—and most of us won’t work as remotely as a space station—but what we are in the midst of is a digital distraction crisis. E-mails have been followed by, in no particular order, texting, social media, instant messaging, and very demanding emoji. Does the red notification of a new message fill you, too, with a sense of dread? Trigger a Pavlovian response? Communication has been gamified—but you can outgame the gamification. Turn off notifications, turn on privacy controls. Tell everyone you’re charging five bucks every time they send an unnecessary e-mail. Now, if we could just get those aliens to answer our messages. E.T.? Hello? E.T.? |
| Read a related story: “Addressing digital distractions to focus on work.” |
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| The big ideas your colleagues are reading |
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| Kick-start your week with the stories that are most popular with other digital business executives: |
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| Artificial Intelligence |
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How agentic AI is transforming IT: A CIO’s guide
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| Supply Chain |
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The art of balancing cost and resilience in the supply chain
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| Employee Experience |
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The quest to build remote digital collaboration
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| Three stories that haven’t hit your inbox |
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| Highlighting the best research about technology intersecting with the future of business, the future of work, and the future of innovation. |
| Flat charters. Customers appreciate a flat organizational structure because they liken non-hierarchical companies to equality. They spend more and are more brand loyal, for example, although this only holds true for those who think egalitarianism is important. (Journal of Consumer Research) |
| Eye of the beholder? Belligerent or buffoon? Whether you interpret hostile leaders as the former or the latter depends on your ideas about the world. Life is one big competition? That leader’s a genius. Cooperations run the world? The same person is a buffoon. But those leaders are more likely to be propped up by employees who condone their behavior. (American Psychological Association) |
| All that AI time … Productivity gains due to AI use—fact or fiction? Welllll … The results are a bit on the murky side at the moment. Nature hates a void, and so does technology—a moment of saved time tends to get filled up with other tasks. Now, using AI to help us slow down—that’s its real untapped superpower. (The Conversation) |
| Disclaimer: SAP is not affiliated with and is not endorsing any third party website or content and is not responsible for any of the content on the page or website. |
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Here’s the new frontier: The best interface may be no interface at all.
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| Lead the digital business conversation. |
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