#148 Rethinking AI Strategy in Customer Experience

Is your business rushing into AI without really understanding how it fits into your strategy—or worse, letting “FOMO” drive your next big tech investment?

On this episode of the Delighted Customers podcast, I challenge leaders to think beyond the hype and get real about the transformational (and sometimes risky) power of AI in delivering great customer experiences. With renowned customer experience innovator Bill Staikos as my guest, we dig into the strategic decisions today’s C-suite faces: not just adopting new technology, but making sure it’s purpose-built to enhance both customer and employee outcomes. Bill’s candid, practical approach exposes common missteps—like dropping AI tools into teams with no training or clarity—and offers an essential reset for anyone who wants lasting, measurable results.

Bill Staikos brings rare insight as a former Senior Vice President at Medallia and Bank of New York (the world’s largest custodian bank), and as founder of the boutique consultancy B Customer Led. Tune in to learn directly from someone who has led next-gen customer experience transformations at major financial institutions, built teams to scale, and now pushes the field forward with his own new show, The Multimodal Experience.

Here are three core questions Bill answers in our episode:

• What are the biggest mistakes companies make when incorporating AI into customer experience—and how can you avoid them?

• How should leaders think about the boundaries between automation and the human touch, especially in sensitive customer journeys?

• What’s changing about who your “customer” truly is in an age of agentic AI, and how does that reframe loyalty and relationship-building?

Don’t miss this episode if you want actionable, clear-eyed guidance on making AI work for the people who matter most—your customers and employees. Listen now and subscribe via Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or find us on all your favorite podcast platforms!

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Meet Bill Staikos

Bill Staikos is a visionary leader in customer experience, AI strategy, and organizational change, with a career spanning top roles at industry giants such as Medallia, Bank of New York, JPMorgan Chase, Credit Suisse, and American Express. He’s known for driving and scaling business outcomes in some of the most data-rich, complex environments in the world, particularly in financial services. As founder of B Customer Led, Bill helps organizations rethink how technology, data, and talent intersect to build customer-centric growth.

Bill’s approach is rooted in challenging the status quo—pushing companies to break old habits, design with both the “front-of-house” and “back-of-house” in mind, and always put human goals before shiny tech. He is also the creator and host of the new podcast, Multimodal Experience, where he explores how advanced technologies are fundamentally reshaping the way brands and people connect.

You can connect with Bill on LinkedIn: Bill Staikos LinkedIn

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References from the Show

• ADKAR Change Management Model

• Medallia

• Bank of New York Mellon

• Bill Stakos on LinkedIn

• B Customer Led

• Strawberry Agentic AI Browser (referenced as an example in the discussion)

• NPS Prism at Bain

• The Multimodal Experience Podcast