Today’s episode of the Punk CX podcast features two interviews. The first is with Scott Russell, CEO at NiCE, a provider of AI-driven customer service software that helps deliver automation & personalized experiences at scale. Scott and I talk about their recent Interactions events in Las Vegas and London, why many organisations are still uncertain about how to best leverage AI and innovation to transform customer experiences, why we should be creating a more human experience and not just automating for efficiency, their 2025 Global Happiness Index, a new report they have produced called The C-Suite Disconnect and, finally, their new campaign about creating a ‘NiCE world’.

Following my chat with Scott, I spoke to Alistair Hadfield, the COO of Staysure Group, the UK’s #1 Travel Insurer, about the digital transformation that they are going through, their journey with NiCE and why they chose them and what lessons they have learnt along the way.

This interview follows on from my recent interview – Five blind spots that get in the way of customer understanding and growth – Interview with Toni Keskinen of 180ops – and is number 549 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders who are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees.

Here are the highlights of my chat with Scott:

• The CX world is transforming with AI, creating opportunities to reimagine customer and agent experiences, not just for automation and efficiency but also for memorable human interactions.
• AI’s role is not just about automation, but about delivering incredible, human-like experiences that are both efficient and make people “feel great.”
• NiCE has developed an “agentic AI platform” called “Mpower Agent” that enables AI agents to perform tasks and seamlessly interact with human agents, leading to sub-second resolutions.
• A key challenge is overcoming “incrementality” and instead focusing on reimagining the entire customer experience from the ground up, rather than just incrementally improving existing processes.
• Sony’s example demonstrates that reimagining CX, even if it includes automating 40% of inquiries, can lead to high efficiency and record customer satisfaction when AI and human agents coexist effectively.
• Despite C-suite fears about consumer trust in AI, data from the 2025 Global Happiness Index and C-suite Disconnect report show that AI increases customer satisfaction and that 72% of consumers have experienced real benefits from CX AI and automation.
• Barriers to AI adoption include personal experiences with AI “hallucinations,” regulatory uncertainties, data quality concerns, and significant change management challenges within organizations.
• NiCE’s platform approach provides compounding value, allowing data and models used for one AI scenario (e.g., co-pilot) to be applied to others (e.g., autopilot, call summarization), overcoming frustration from siloed AI solutions.
• The future of customer experience is always built in the present.
• NiCE’s “creating a NiCE world” campaign reflects their belief in using CXAI to create incredible human experiences for both consumers and agents, leading to more smiles and a positive impact on employee community engagement and company values.

Here are the highlights of my chat with Alistair:

• Some of their past challenges included outdated technology, inconsistent organizational processes for customer interactions and performance management, and a heavy burden on agents to remember complex information for sensitive conversations.
• The company is undergoing a digital transformation using NiCE’s CX-One Mpower platform.
• They chose NiCE for its market-leading AI capabilities, particularly the co-pilot feature for agents.
• The NiCE co-pilot will surface contextual knowledge to agents in real-time, allowing supervisors to monitor and intervene, aiming to transform agent dynamics.
• For employees, the goal is to reduce repetition, simplify information access, shorten learning journeys, and shift QA from being just compliance-focused to being useful for developmental coaching and training.
• The NiCE platform’s rich data insights provide real-time customer and agent sentiment, allowing for heatmaps of performance, identifying risk areas, and feeding insights to their product and pricing teams.
• The company is building a dedicated AI team with C-suite accountability to responsibly leverage AI, especially given that Staysure is regulated by the FCA and the need for consistent customer outcomes.
• The vision for their customer experience is to improve online journeys, integrate seamlessly between digital and offline channels, and enable flexible, personalized interactions.
• Early benefits from their transformation and their use of the NiCE platform include improved agility, the ability to run proofs of concept with real-time monitoring, and rapid implementation of features like callback processes, which were previously impossible.

About Scott

NiCE’s CEO, Scott Russell, drives the company’s vision, strategy, growth, and innovation, leading a global team of 9,000 employees who serve 25,000 organizations across more than 150 countries.

Scott is a seasoned enterprise technology leader with over 30 years of experience driving innovation, operational excellence, and business growth. Throughout his career, Scott has been at the forefront of implementing transformative technologies and strategic processes that empower organizations to thrive in a competitive landscape.

Prior to joining NiCE in January 2025, as the Global Chief Revenue & Customer Officer at SAP, Scott led the sales, partner management, and customer engagement functions, achieving record-breaking growth while overseeing a diverse global team.

During his professional journey at SAP and as a senior executive at PwC and IBM beforehand, Scott’s leadership was instrumental in enhancing customer value and accelerating the adoption of cutting-edge solutions to help businesses become more intelligent, networked, and sustainable.

As CEO, Scott Russell is committed to accelerating NiCE’s growth and championing relentless innovation to strengthen its position as the global AI leader.

Scott is an active ambassador of global employee wellbeing, advocating for diversity and inclusion. He holds a postgraduate degree in business from Australia’s Deakin University.

Check out NiCE, say hi to them on X (Twitter) @NiCELtd, and feel free to follow and connect with Scott on LinkedIn here.

About Alistair

Alistair Hadfield is COO of Staysure Group. His experience in business transformation leveraging technology, data insight, process re-engineering and service automation is geared to revitalising customer experience and maximising efficiency and effectiveness. As the UK #1 Travel Insurer, Staysure Group is well set to deliver AI and integrated digital platforms to fuel international growth.

Check out Staysure and their products, say hi to them on X (Twitter) @staysure, and feel free to follow and connect with Alistair on LinkedIn here.

Credit: Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash